Napoli and Pompeii

Friday, November 23rd, was a wonderful day.  David had to go to work, but Nick, Mattea, and I went to Pompeii.

One Year Ago Today I was so blessed by my sweet Sarah Mason who carried a computer around the Children's Program so that I could see everyone because I had been crying about being alone for Thanksgiving!! http://dreaminginitalianthistime.blogspot.it/2011/11/facts-of-life.html

Okay, so Friday started with Nick waking us up 1 minute before our alarm...not cool Nick, not cool!  We (Nick, Mattea, and myself) got dressed, they took showers (I am a night showerer).  Nick showed us a funny video his brother sent him, and thus the name Jacquelyn will never be the same. We got our stuff together and headed out with David's directions to Pompeii in hand.  We stopped in a cafe that David suggested and grabbed coffee and breakfast.  Well, they had coffee and I had a too sweet cornetto.  We bought our tickets for the subway and we were off on our adventure.

Subway(metro) station

While waiting on the trains, it was eerily similar to witing on a New York City subway, but not quite as cool. We took a few touristy subway pictures, as you might in NYC.

It was so good to be with Nick and Mattea and just laugh so much; even at the most random things.  We had to take two trains to get to the actual train station where we would take a separate train that heads to Pompeii and eventually Sorrento.  We got a little confused and turned around a few times, but we asked directions once and then we were on our way.  The trains themselves are similar to NYC subways, but again, nothing can compare to my favorite city in the world!  No, not even Italy some days!!  When we finally arrived at the train station, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that our regular subway tickets were valid for this separate trains system.  After a little more confusion, asking a few times, and a few kind Italians, we were waiting for the correct train to Pompeii.

Waiting for this train proved to be interesting.  We saw this one lady who was walking around with what looked like an almost 2 year old strapped to her chest in one of those baby carrier things (cannot think of the name), and the child's feet were hanging down to her knees almost, AND to make it even stranger, she was breastfeeding, begging for money, and we could all see her boob.  It was even more bizarre when she came up to us and was in our faces.  Our train came not too long after this.  The train ride itself seemed to take forever, but perhaps it was because I was tired.  We met some other Americans who were traveling.  The one we talked to the most has a brother living in Ireland, so they just came to Italy for a few days.  Then there was a family talking, and this sweet little boy was doing math problems on a worksheet.  Turned out that the dad went to Virginia's law school, where Nick is going in the fall.  This sweet little boy was wanting to get off the train, and was feeling restless, and poor thing was having to do math problems.  Our traveling American friends asked where we were from, and said that I looked like I was from the South because I was darker than Nick and Mattea (who are from Seattle and upstate New York).  This statement was a little confusing for me, but umm...okay.

It was eventually time for all of us to get off the train.  We had to stop at the ticket office, which is when I discovered that I had forgotten my museum pass at the apartment, which meant I had to pay 11 euros and I was so annoyed.  Of course Mattea and I stopped at the bathroom, and it is strange, but it is nice to be with someone who understands tiny bladder.  So, we started a climb into the city of Pompeii.  It is amazing that this was a city...like a fully functioning city with streets, homes, churches, bakers, theatres, drama, gossip, scandal...life.  It was really neat to look at, and sad all at the same time.  We were so tired, but we saw quite a bit.  The people that are preserved in the ash stuff was really sad.  One looks like he is in despair with his head between his hands and knees.

That was really sad.  The people of Pompeii were REALLY short too!!  It was fascinating to see this place now, and to remember the life that was once there.  They had these steps on the roads that Mattea said were for the people to use to cross the streets.  They kept them from stepping on the filthy road (Mattea has been twice before).  We decided to take an "Abbey Road" picture with these stones.  We started out by using the tripod I have and self-timer, but this Italian saw us struggling and finally said, "faccio io" (I do it).  Thank goodness he did, because it turned out much better than our attempts.

attempt #1

attempt #2

Attempt #3

Faccio io...perfection...love this picture

It was getting really hot and we were so tired.  We were making our way through the streets and were looking for the theatre because I really wanted to see it.  We got turned around quite a few times, but it was cool to see a good bit of the city.  When we finally found the theatre, I was so glad that we did.  It was really cool and pretty big! I totally broke the rules and got Mattea to take a picture of me "on stage" in Pompeii...once a dancer on stange, always a dancer on stage??? 

Mattea touching old things...AND an achilles

Theatre...which has new numbers, so they MUST use this for something..so cool

"On Stage"

 

View from the top

Center Stage

 After this, we had a jumping picture incident...let's just say that dresses like the one I was wearing were NOT meant to be worn for jumping pictures!!  This dad that was near said, "I bet you aren't thinking about your knees anymore!" This was in response to my comment just prior to jumping regarding how I hoped it did not hurt my knees.  Well, now I have embarassing moment story...however, it was more funny than embarassing!  After this, we made our way out of Pompeii.  We were tired, getting hungry, and were quite satisfied with all that we had seen.

I suggested we walk towards the Sancturary (what Pompeii calls their Duomo), and that we have lunch near there so that we could also get the pastry that Virginia had me try because it is unique to this area of Italy.  So, we asked to make sure we were walking in the correct direction and we started walking.  We went inside the Sanctuary for a bit and looked around.  It really is a beautiful church.  Nick said he would be distracted by everything if he were trying to worship; I think the same is true for me, but I guess you get used to it??

So, at this point we were very hungry and tired.  We wanted to just sit and enjoy food and each other's company.   Mattea and I ordered the same pizza, the Quattro Stagione.  It was four different kinds of pizza, but I asked for mine without garlic.  When we went inside to the bathroom we saw this guy eating this fried potatoe thing, so we decided to order one.

It was really good!

It was so nice to sit and eat with two people who know how to make me laugh.  We had the best time taking silly pictures and just talking.  The pizza was delicious, but I could not eat very much of it.  I mutulated it, and I knew the Italians would be ashamed of my eating skills...so, after Nick finished his pasta, he helped me finish my pizza!

Once we finished lunch, and had rested for a bit, we wanted to start our journey back to Naples because we knew Lindsay would be arriving soon.  We stopped in the pastry place that Virginia took me to and bought a small dessert and a sfogliatella (the pastry I had with Virginia last week).

We started walking back to the Pompeii train station and saw so many dogs.  Italy has so many stray dogs and cats and it BREAKS my heart!  I just want to adopt them all and love on them!  We were a little confused about where we were exactly because this was a different place than where we went in to Pompeii.  This taxi driver offered to take us to the train station because it was "a far walk"...umm sir, after you pointed us in the direction of the station, it took us less than 5 minutes to walk up the hill.  He of course offered to take us all the way back to Naples.  Are you kidding right now sir??  So, we bought our tickets, Mattea got some coffee, we paid 50 cents to use the bathroom, and then we waited.

While we waited we talked about the states we have visited, going back to school, how Mattea is not a real person because she was born in 1990 (just a joke), and I had fun just hanging out with them.  I love when it is just comfortable to be with people.  The train was late, but I was okay because I was having fun.  I say that both of my new loves are youngins!  They are 22 and 24...and I am old...okay, not really, but it is funny to think about.  I feel like undergrad graduation was so long ago, and at this point grad school graduation was almost a year ago.  When the train finally came it was so crowded that we had to stand.  It was okay though, we still had fun!  Mattea and Nick decided to try and freak me out by touching each other's chins...FREAKS ME OUT!!

It's okay though because we told Mattea that when your achilles snaps it shoots up your leg and wraps around your throat.  That was revenge enough for this picture.   We laughed about the Jacqualyn video from the morning and agreed to call Lindsay this when we saw her, even though we knew she would not understand, but it provided for a good laugh!  

It was 5 pm when we got back to Naples/the apartment.  It had been a 9-5 day and we were exhausted.  The three of us were just laying on the bed playing on our phones for a while and then Lindsay and David arrived.  We greeted Lindsay with a loud, "JACQUALYN"....she just laughed and said, "I dont get it...okay...moving on!"  So, despite Lindsay's aversion to excessive touch (NOT her love language), we all gave her hugs.  We just sat around and talked for a while.  We just wanted to catch up and relax.  We laughed  A LOT!! I love laughing a lot...it is so healthy for the heart, mind, body, soul...and abs.  

David wanted to take us to this popular restaurant for dinner and one of his Naples friends (a French guy who also speaks Italian).  So, we got a late start for dinner, but that was okay because we had eaten quite a bit earlier.  We walked for a while, but it was nice and when we arrived there was a HUGE crowd waiting.  David put us on the list and we started waiting.  ONLY IN ITALY COULD A 1 HOUR + WAIT BE SO MUCH FUN!!  There were tables outside and we were basically waiting in this alley area with a bunch of others and the restaurant staff looked like they were having SO much fun at work.  They were messing with the customers, who were probably regulars.  It was fun to watch the Italians share all of their food, and having fun!  They brought them fruit in what looked like a plastic bidet, and that was interesting.  At one point David's friend came out of the restaurant with a bottle of house red wine and some plastic cups (the same thing they actually use inside of the restaurant).  So, we poured wine all around and enjoyed our wait. 

Mattea and I had super serious bonding conversation while the others discussed Italy, politics, etc.  It really never felt like we waited for a long time.  So, when it was our turn to go in, the inside was louder than outside, but we went to an "upstairs" table.  The wait staff was so much fun and so sweet.  We ordered the appetizer plate which looked like this:

I ate the mozzarella, eggplant, most of the prosciutto, the two things that were basically cheese sticks, and gave the rest away.  I did not take a picture of my other food, but the girls ordered this pasta with potatoe stuff...it was basically all kinds of pasta in a thick potato based sauce.  It was really good, but really heavy and I did not eat much of it; well, I ate about half.  We had not started dinner until 10 pm ish and I was tired and full.  The waiters were having so much fun...dancing...joking around...etc.  It was weird though, you just paid cash outside to the guy waiting outside.  There was no like official anything.  The waiter just told them that we had appetizers, another bottle of wine, and first courses.  It was so funny...and an only in Italy moment!!

We started our walk home and our French friend parted ways.  Exhausted, happy, full, and just full of joy, we showered, got ready for bed, and went to sleep!  The down comforter on mine and Mattea's bed was rocking my world by the way!!