Shyam's European Adventure 2009: A Long Weekend on the Amalfi Coast

Here’s a quick rundown on the rest of my trip:

6/27-Pompeii, Mt. Vesuvius, Paestum

6/28-Sorrento

6/29-Island of Capri

6/30-Rome

7/1-Rome (with the Parents!)

7/2-Vatican City (with the Parents!)

7/3-Florence (with the Parents!)

7/4 Assisi/Naples (with the Parents!)

7/5-Naples/Capri (with the Parents!)

7/6-Herculaneum, Sorrento (with the Parents!)

7/7-Rome/Fly to Athen

7/8-Athens!

7/9-Santorini

7/10-Athens

7/11-Fly to Paris

7/12-Paris/Versailles

7/13-Paris

7/14-Paris/Fly to Barcelona

7/15- Barcelona

7/16-Fly to Madrid

7/17-Madrid

7/18-Madrid

7/19-Madrid

7/20-Fly to Rome; Fly to Frankfurt

7/21-Fly home to DFW

School’s out for good this time—except secondary applications, but I promised myself I wouldn’t think about those until July 21^st (when I get back to Southlake). My travel around Europe starts with the picturesque Amalfi Coast. (Naples, Sorrento, Pompeii, Paestum, and Capri) We got up and after our goodbye to Vicki, we caught an early train to Naples with the company of the Vignacce kids. Naples is the interchange where Trenitalia trains become Circumvesuviana trains (the line that goes through the Coast). Our first stop on our long weekend adventure was the mountain or I should say, Volcano that gave the area its notoriety: Mt. Vesuvius. We got dropped off and we hiked up to the top of the crater. It was definitely a cool view but it was a bit weird to be standing on top of something so destructive. After Vesuvius, we made our way to the ruins of Pompeii. Pompeii was very cool and its ruins and restoration work is top notch. I could really imagine how things were back in the day. I even got an up close look at some of the frescoes I’ve studied in Art History. Even the preserved people were cool. One complaint: Pompeii, please do not run out of maps. Navigating around your vast complex really stinks without a map, especially when your exit signs point in two very different directions. It took us a good 15 minutes to find exactly where the exit was, even when were in the general vicinity of it. After finally finding our way out, we headed to Paestum, a small town about an hour outside of Pompeii. Paola and Lynda, some of the coordinators of our study abroad program, suggested this city and coordinated our stay at Paestum. We learned that ‘a 10 minute walk from the station’ is actually a 40-minute walk. It took us forever, but what a surprise! Our hotel overlooked the coast/beach. It was amazing and the owner of the hotel, Roberto, an architect and connoisseur of all things worldly, made us feel right at home. He put on Indian music for our meal and the first courses were each very different and very good. I cant say the same about the second course, although the stuffed eggplant was good. But we were really worried about the bill, but it turned out to be on the house! Roberto wants to go to the Khumba Mela in India, has vegan and vegetarian options in his restaurant, knows about Ayurvedic medicine, and can write a book on the history of Roman-Italian cuisine.

A View of Mt. Vesuvius from the Train

Inside the Crater!

Sitting at the edge of Vesuvius

The long hike up to the top

Pompeii

Sitting in the ruins of the Basillica

In the sanctuary of Isis--this one's for you Ashley

Preserved Bodies

Down a street of Pompeii

Sunset at Paestum--the view from our Hotel Balcony

The next day we got a late start that allowed us to explore Paestum before we had to catch the afternoon train to Sorrento. We got to go gallivanting around the 3 (yes, 3!) Greek temples (Yes, in Italy) that Paestum is renown for. They were epic and we had a fun photoshoot and we even snuck into the temples themselves (shhh….) After our temple exploits, we bought some burger buns, some ricotta, and together with our leftover pesto, we had a 1 per person lunch on our balcony. We followed that up with a melon eating session on the beach! We then arrived in a rainy Sorrento, made our way to our hotel, which again overlooked the water and then we ambled around the town. I had my favorite topping on pizza that night: sweet corn! It brought back memories of Singapore when I looked forward to ordering Dominos because they had corn on their pizza. (I was sorely disappointed with the USA’s lack of corn on veggie pizza, btw)

PAESTUM

Greek Temple #1

Greek Temple #2

Greek Temple #3

Temple Reflections in my Sunglasses

Column Thinkers??

Jumping Picture in front of the Temple of Poseidon

Beach at Paestum

Melons on the Beach

(sorry these next two pics are out of order--they should be at the very end!)

Our fave SPQR in ROME

Vigncce + Plan II in Rome in front of the Colosseum

With Roberto

Sorrento during the Day

Sorrento @ Nighttime

Brushing my teeth outside the window--look at that view!

The following day we embarked on our ferry to the famed isle of Capri. We took a boat tour around the island, went into the Blue Grotto (way overpriced), took a chair life to the top of the island, swam in the water, and laid on the beach. It was such a wonderfully relaxing day, minus Ishanee’s epic episodes of sea-sickness and her near fatal wipeout on algae covered rocks. Lesson to be learned: DON’T DO YOGA ON SLIPPERY SURFACES!!! On our boat tour we also saw the green and white grottoes, Giorgio Armani’s house, the Gerber (of the baby food) residence, and the house of the president of Iran (at least that’s what we think we heard)

The people in Sorrento are incredibly nice—the hotel concierge practically highlighted our entire map in an effort to show us how to get from place to place. Problems with Sorrento: our shower had no shower curtain and their desserts are terrible.

We made it back to Rome on Monday and were graciously housed by professor Galinsky (thanks!). We got our last minute travel adventure planning done, maet up for gelato with the Vignacce kids, and I awaited the arrival of my parents, who were coming the next morning.

Capri's Beach