Our first week of school felt much more subdued compared to last week, at least until classes ended for the week.
Personally, my classes all went well, I am in a voice class (despite my inability to sing) because my friends convinced me to join it, as well as a Baroque art class that visits sites throughout the city, a religion and gender class, a European masterpieces literary class, and Italian 101– Italian is required for all students here, which makes sense.
Most of the highlights for me came at the end of the week, which I’ll show below!
A street in the Ponte neighborhood of Rome, in between the Tiber River and Piazza Navona. It had rained earlier in the day so everything was washed new and smelled fresh– the cigarette smell was even gone for a while too which was awesome!
We visited a café called Ex Circus run by a nice woman who is originally from New Zealand but grew up in Rome. They had a lot of drink options that aren’t typically seen in Italian cafés, featuring Malena working.
This drink was my first interaction with ice this whole trip! Europeans seem to have something against ice in drinks, everything is either hot or room temperature. I got an iced latte and a bagel it they were both delicious
On Thursday evening, as you can see above, my friends Claudia, Emma, Malena, and I ventured downtown to pick up some of our books for class, then found an adorable coffee shop that I’ve already returned to.
We finished out the night by watching the movie Luca, which, if you have not already seen it, I highly recommend. It’s set in Italy so of course, we had to watch it, and later this semester my friends and I are hoping to visit the town that it is based in! It’s a part of the 5 towns that make up Cinque Terre, which is a collection of seaside towns that you can hike between.
On Friday we had a second day trip to a town called Orvietto, a small town raised up on a hill. The cliff sides that it is on make it look like it’s on top of a natural fortress, and that is exactly how the citizens used the hills over 700 years ago, as natural protection against invaders!
The medieval-era church in the town center– the style of architecture is so different than the buildings in the rest of the town, the contrast is really interesting to see. The detail of the carvings and paintings on the church was beautiful.
A street in Orvieto with a vendor selling flowers and other plants. We were right outside of the town hall.
A bakery that our tour guide pointed out– the bread in Orvieto is made without salt, and you can definitely taste the difference.
Another cute street that we first walked up when we started our tour of the town.
Cosette, Cladia, and I at the old fortress at the edge of Orvieto.
One of the most chaotic parts of this week was planning our weekend trip. Since we only had 2 days, we decided to stay close and visit Naples and Pompeii. Naples most definitely grew on me the longer we were there, and I wish that we would have known some of the history of the city so that we could have better planned our days, but it was still a great first trip! Pompeii was also really wonderful to learn about, and I highly recommend paying for a tour guide if you ever plan to visit.
Naples
A little piazza we saw while walking around for over 10 miles exploring Naples!
Malena, Claudia and I posing in our AirB&B.
Naples felt much more lived-in than Rome did, and these small streets with peoples’ laundry was just one of the aspects that contributed to this feeling.
The harbor and view across towards Vesuvius at sunset. It was breathtaking and we spent a long time here just looking out at the horizon and watching the colors of the sky and water change as the sun went down.
They weren’t lying about the pizza in Naples. We visited Sorbillos, and it was by far my most favorite pizza I’ve ever had
Pompeii
We saw the plaster casts of some people who died in Pompeii, including this child. Pompeii was further away from Mount Vesuvius, so the cause of death and destruction was debris from the volcano, as opposed to some closer towns which were impacted by lava and gases, leaving all organic matter carbonized.
Cosette, Claudia and I in the middle of one of the main roads in Pompeii. It was on this road that our tour guide pointed out some symbols on the streets that helped lead travelers that did not speak Latin to the famous brothel.
Some of the ruins of a main building in Pompeii, where judges and other officials worked.
A view of Pompeii and the mountains and greenery in the background that we saw as we were leaving our tour.
Well, that was my second week! Maybe from the pictures, you might not believe it felt less chaotic than the week before, but settling into a routine with school helped. I’ve met such cool people and am continuing and meet more, and I’m excited for the coming weeks!
