From the Ghetto to the Slums

Last you read, we were sulking out of the Roma ghetto. In retrospect, Roma was a little piece of heaven compared to our next destination: Naples. My favorite part of Naples you ask? It's a 3-way tie between the trash covering ever part of every street, the parakeet calls from homeless men, and it's where I caught my annual horrendous cough (which I STILL have). I actually can't be too brutal about Naples because we didn't actually see any of it. As soon as we arrived at our hostel, we locked our backpacks up with more security features than the White House, loaded our guns, and headed outside into what I can only describe as a market filled with ex-convicts staring at two pieces of fresh meat. We got on a train to Pompeii because the idea of standing on a volcano that could erupt at any moment seemed safer than staying in our hostel (to the mothers reading this, we actually stayed in a castle and sat in a hot tub while servants brought us ice cream sundays and had a big guard standing at our door watching over us). Seeing the old village of Pompeii was actually pretty amazing. Kimmy and I have wasted our money in the past paying for the guided audio tours, so we decided to skip it and just walk around on our own. Of COURSE that was the one time that we actually needed them. Since there were no signs on the inside telling you what each room was, we decided to play a game and make up what we thought the purpose of room was (for example, one room was where they kept sheep, and another was where they sacrificed virgins). In the middle of our extremely educational experience, a man came up to us and asked us if we knew where we were. I replied "aren't we in Spain?" He gave us a nervous laugh, and then introduced himself as a tour guide and said that we should stick by him for the rest of the afternoon because our game was starting to give him chest pains. We had no objections.

This is where our trip gets interesting. We decided to run as fast as we could out of the Napoli slums, down to the Amalfi Coast. I should first mention that this would be our second time going there, as we got on the wrong train leaving Pompeii and ended up at the very bottom tip of Italy before either of us woke up to realize we had been going in the complete opposite direction for 2 hours. Yay! We got on the train and decided that since we had already been to the Amalfi train stop the night before, we would know when to get off again. However, this is Kimmy and Joanna you are dealing with, so of course we didn't end up in Amalfi. We got off at a random train stop with our backpacks, looked around at the empty world around us, and started laughing hysterically because we suddenly realized we had no plan for what to do next. We weren't even sure if we were in Amalfi. We just started walking. And walking. And walking.... And walking. Back spasms and empty stomachs combined with a cold and a cough made the two of us very pleasant people. We stumbled into a restaurant to get something to eat and basically collapsed at a table about 3 hours after we got off the train. There were no hostels in sight, and the one hotel we went into cost 100 euro a night (NOT HAPPENING!!). Over lunch we decided that seeing the coast was fun, and beautiful, but the severe lack of civilization and cheap beds was about to force us out of the south of Italy and into florence a day early. Just as we were bundling up to leave lunch, our waiter asked us if we had a place to say. When we looked up at him with our sad pathetic faces, I can swear that I saw a halo appear above his head as he handed us the address of a hostel for 10 euro a night. When we got to our room (which we realized was in Salerno, not Amalfi.. that's right, we WALKED from Amalfi to Salerno with our backpacks because that's obviously what the cool kids are doing these days) we were greeted by our roommate we was walking around completely naked and then decided to do crunches on the ground... completely naked. I chalked the situation up to culture shock, but when I was forced to step around her while trying to leave the room, that just crossed the line. Since I have preached the amazing benefits from wandering and getting lost, something good had to happen from accidently ending up in this town called Salerno; it did. We went for a long walk (as if we didn't walk enough that day) down to the coast and sat by the water for a long time watching some of the most spectacular waves I have ever seen, had the best gnocchi ever made, and found this amazing street filled with cute shops lit by only Christmas lights. Something is to be said about my getting lost philosophy because each time I do, I find something I would have never picked out on a map.

After the Roma ghetto, the Napoli slums and the naked girl hostel, we arrived in paradise; Firenze. I'm going to wait until my mother can catch her breath before I blog about Florence, but I can assure you, it has been nothing but a Utopia (which should make my next blog post very boring).

When in Rome… Don’t Look American

Saying goodbye to Barcelona was especially difficult because of how amazing it was there. We were completely spoiled by our experience there, and we both agreed that if we hadn’t already booked a flight to Rome, we would have stayed there a bit longer (if not the rest of the month!). Before we flew out, we had to go and see one more Gaudi building. We woke up at the crack of dawn to pack up and check out of Kabul hostel, and took our backpacks with us to Casa Mila (or La Pedrera which means stone quarry). We had seen it before from the outside, and had not been inside any of the houses yet, so we figured it was then or never. The inside of these buildings are just as impressive, if not more, as the outside. Casa Mila’s inspiration was either waves and kelp, or a sandy desert, however you wanted to interpret it (I swear I’m going to give you visual learners some pictures as soon as I am able to access internet for more than 15 minutes a day. In the meantime, look it up, okay? Thanks!). We said goodbye to Gaudi and Barcelona, and had a pretty uneventful Ryan Air flight to Roma (yes, I said uneventful, and I actually mean it for once!).

We arrived in Rome at around 5:30 and took a bus to our hostel, or should I say, to the ghetto. Kimmy and I were both silent as we walked through a dark alley way with greasy Italian men staring at us and actually meowing at us. Yes, meowing. Clearly we look like cats so when a man gave us a cat call from across the street we were ready to run over and go home with them. If only I didn’t have that bloody heavy backpack Daddy could have a new son-in-law. We dropped our bags off, and quickly decided to meet up with some friends we made in Spain who happened to be in Rome as well. I was starting to feel a bit sick and my throat was so scratchy I could barely swallow, but as they say, “when in Rome, do as the Roman’s do”, so I went with Kimmy and our friends on a pub crawl. I think everyone in the first pub could tell how cranky and miserable I was so they offered to give me a discount so I would shut my mouth and just walk around with all of them. I painted on my million dollar smile and imagined swallowing whole ice cubes to appear as if I were having a good time. Despite the fact that I felt awful, it was a fun way to see Rome on our first night. We walked all over the city and even though the other 49 people on the pub crawl won’t remember this, I saw some awesome sites late at night which was pretty spectacular. I took the next morning off because I woke up feeling awful. Rome was not getting off to a good start for me. However, I wasn’t about to let this fantastic city go to waste just because of a little sore throat. We went to the Colosseo for the afternoon and after walking inside, I forgot why I was so miserable. After that we took out a map and decided to see everything that we could possibly see before our legs collapsed. And so the check list begins:

- Area Sacrata
- Piazza Navona (had my 6 euro coffee for you Dad, Merry Christmas)
- Ara Pacis
- Trinita dei Monti (where I went to mass at the top of the steps like a good little Catholic)
- Fontana di Trevi (I threw in my 3 coins, made my wish, and will have to have a word with the fountain operators if I don’t marry Prince William)

We saw so much more, but the day quickly turned into a whirlwind blur of cough drops and ancient architecture. I got a good night’s sleep and woke up very early to make up for lost time the day before. First stop was the Vatican. My handy-dandy RDubs student ID card got me into the museum for 5 euro (if I hear one wise crack about graduating and being old I’m staying in Europe and not coming home. That is a serious threat so DON’T do it). We wandered around inside for a few hours and ended up in the Sistine Chapel where we were strictly forbidden to take pictures. Man, you won’t believe some of the amazing photos I took of the ceiling! Taking some advice from friends at home who have been to Roma before, I decided that taking a trip up to the top of the Basilica San Pietro was something I wanted to do. We stood in line for maybe a full 2 and a half minutes (contrary to what every tour guide on the street was telling us in hopes that we would pay them 50 euro so we could skip the line. H-A-H, two dumb American tourists? Try two street savy international beauties. – well, the New Yorker might be, but I can’t say the same for my small town Massachusetts friend who has been known to stop and chat with anyone who says Ciao Bella!). We decided to skip the elevator to the top, and took the stairs. As we took our first steps, we were wished good luck by a group of middle-aged women who really wanted us know they were too old to climb a few hundred stairs. I dropped a few pounds (weight, not currency) and got to the top to see the most incredible view of all of Roma. Honestly, I was speechless, and still am. There is nothing I can say about that view, and none of the 75 pictures I took from the top will allow you to see what I saw. After spending the day at the Vatican, we slowly wandered home and stopped at the Fontana di Trevi again because I decided I needed to make a more realistic wish (Prince William, I’m sorry, but I think I’m just too good for you).
Early tomorrow morning we are leaving to take a train down to Naples for a night or two. Everyone we have talked to about Naples so far says that we are going to be mugged and robbed and smacked around by big scary men, so I’m looking forward to it! Mom and Mrs. Spencer… WE ARE GOING TO BE FINE! *crosses fingers and sulks out of the Roma ghetto….*