Heading South
Heading South
Early on Friday morning all of us at John Felice willingly arose at the crack of dawn to spend a weekend away from campus. After a week of orientation activities and the beginning of classes it was very nice to be able to spend a weekend all of us together. Most of our sleeping happened on the bus, and every other minute we spent wandering about towns, getting to know new friends, and eating a lot of good food.
Driving down the coast our first stop was Caserta. We saw La Reggia di Caserta, a Neapolitan castle which was quite the sight. Although it rained most of the day, we had a great time. We had lunch at a very regally decorated place and then headed down to Salerno, where we would spend the next two nights. We kicked off our evening with inspiring speeches by the faculty here at the Rome center. They spoke about how special of a place this is, and how we will think about this experience every day for the rest of our lives. All of us are truly so lucky to have a staff that is so passionate about the students here and about Italy. Later in the evening we saw Salerno’s nightlife, and also enjoyed mixing in with the Italians at local places.
Saturday was a very busy day. We started off our morning at an organic buffalo mozzarella farm. We toured the grounds and saw that these buffalo have it pretty good. With sweeping mountain views, and personal massagers it is evident that happy cows make delicious cheese. Next we visited visited Paestum. This ancient Greek town contains some of the most well preserved ruins of ancient temples around. Who needs Greece when you can come here? Not to mention the weather was almost perfect this day. Our lunch in Agropoli was a blast. Definitely the best pizza in Italy I have had so far. We had a truly authentic experience including a musical performance by local Neapolitans with music and dancing. After dinner we ventured through the town of Agropoli. The Italians here were very friendly and accepting which isn’t always the case. We watched the sunset at a beautiful costal overlook and were able to unwind for a bit.
We finished off our weekend with a day in Sorrento. What a day, southern Italy is just one of the most beautiful places in the world. It is incredibly lush and green, even in January. After breakfast together at the hotel we heading north and then drove down the narrow, steep, winding coast in our very large coach bus, luckily no one got sick. To fully experience what this land has to offer we went to an Agurturismo, or a sort of lemon farm. We tasted some limoncello and had deserts completely drenched in limoncello, I think we were all feeling a bit of a lunch buzz. After a quick walk about town we were homeward bound to Rome. After a weekend away we all realized how coming back to the JFRC is comforting, and no matter where you travel on the weekends we will all come back together here and feel honored to live in such a warm community.
Ciao!