November 18, 2016

Buongiorno from Italy!

So far Italy has been wonderful and the end of my time in France was so very bittersweet… 

Open studio had a less than overwhelming turnout but I managed to sell a couple of my prints anyways… after packing up and saying goodbye to all of my Lacoste pals, the fam and I headed to Marseille to fly to Rome… We made it to Rome, took the train into the city and hauled our bags to the hotel… despite exhaustion we found our way to one of the infinite Italian restaurants for some wonderfully fulfilling pizza and pasta (I can’t recall if it tasted so good because it was so late, I was so hungry, it was the first authentic Italian food we tried, or it was really just that good) 

Tuesday we woke up and headed over to the Vatican City for our three hour tour… our tour guide had a pretty thick Italian accent but the sights were amazing nonetheless… after that we headed over to the Angry Pig for some sandwiches more sightseeing and then Fridgidarium for gelato. We wandered around the city some more before finding our way to a restaurant Megan recommended for some more delicious Italian food at a wonderful outside table with very friendly waitresses. After a long walk back to the hotel we passed out for the night. 

Wednesday started with cannolis for breakfast and a walk to the colosseum (to be harassed by a bunch of solicitors) and head inside. Between the colosseum and the surrounding forum there was a ton of history and ruins to see before eventually getting hungry and stopping to eat sandwiches on the steps across the street from the Altare Della Patria. We decided to check out the views from the top and enjoy all of the roman sights from above. Next stop was the Spanish steps and a beautiful view of the sunset from the church at the top. From there we spotted a terrace wine bar and decided to stop and rest our feet with some drinks. After the sun set we walked back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner, where we sat next to a large group of Italian men who showed us how a real Italian dinner is done. I ate some of the most delicious homemade pasta and tiramisu and with full bellies we headed back to the hotel. 

Thursday we rented a car and headed to Naples - we made a pit stop at Herculaneum before driving to Vesuvius to hike up to the crater. It was a little cloudy but it was still an amazing sight. We hiked back down and made the treacherous drive through downtown Naples…. I wouldn’t recommend any sort of transportation here besides walking, and even that is quite frightening because of all of the motorcycles, cars, and whatever else can zoom around the tiny streets that have complete disregard for their surroundings.
After making it to the airbnb we were spending the night in, we were all quite hungry and went out to find dinner despite it only being 5:30… without a plan and no real idea of where we were going we struggled to find anything that would be open before 7:00… we then walked back to the airbnb, sat around researching pizzerias until finally settling on one, getting directions, and hoping for the best.
We made it there with few complications, ate some delicious authentic Naples pizzas, found a place nearby to get dessert (like we need any at this point) and had some wonderful gelato before heading back to go to bed. 

Friday was another slow morning, my dad went out to find some Naples breakfast snacks and we ate those in our airbnb before packing up and getting ready to go. We walked out to visit castle dell’ovo and stopped to get more pizza before getting back in the car to head to Pompeii. We spent about two and a half hours walking around the ruins of Pompeii until it started to get dark and the alarm sounded to tell us it was time to go… after an hour drive (to go 15 miles) in the rain we made it to the hotel in Sorrento, walked around around a bit, grabbed some dinner and headed back to go to bed…

We still have another week here and I think I’ve eaten enough bread/cheese/pizza/etc for a lifetime, but it’s not over yet…!
The Europe adventures continue….