Blogs from Campania, Italy, Europe - page 90

Today was the best day of the trip... we set off in the morning on a 3 1/2 hour hike on Sentiero degli Dei (Path of the Gods). Luckily, it was much cooler today than on previous days or it could have been a seriously uncomfortable 3 1/2 hours! Antonio had been telling us all week that everyone always says this is their favorite part of the trip, and I can see why. The views were simply amazing! The hike was not hard, but it was on the very edge of a cliff and I can see why they insist on hiking shoes and poles. Our local guide for the hike was Maurizio de Rosa... he was a pretty cool guy, he even climbed a tree to pick cherries for us, and they were the best ... read more

Hello all! So far I’ve been in Italy 11 days and I’ve been soaking up every minute of it. The pre-planning has actually paid off. I am overjoyed when I know exactly where I’m going to be putting down my bags. It is a bit heavier than I intended, and when you add about 15 more pounds of camera equipment over my shoulder, it’s not quite that easy to move around. But, we’re still movingggggggg. We started in Milan, arriving in the morning and spending the afternoon viewing the Last Supper and the famous gothic style Duomo. We climbed to the top and the city views were great. We found a park on the other side of a large castle, which reminded me of Golden Gate Park, with people playing sports and a drum circle ... read more

AMALFI COAST, ITALY: POSITANO Ah, how gorgeous the town...how far away we were from it. haha...actually, we planned on staying in Sorrento, which is where our hostel said it was....well, the name of it was Youth Hostel Sorrento...but actually, it was in the town before sorrento (sant agnello), which was fine....except for the mile long hike...uphill...to get to it. At midnight (because it took us 15 hours to get there from switzerland) with a 40 pound pack on your back.....does not make for fun times. But anyways, the 2 days we were there, Lisa and I headed to Positano, a beautiful town along the amalfi coastline. Both days we escaped the heat, and headed for the beach. Now, considering how beautiful positano was, the beach was not the same. The sand...well the rocks...were black. So, ... read more

This weekend was pretty darn fun. On Friday morning, we left and piled into a bus and drove to Pompeii to take a tour of the ruins. As you know, I was really looking forward to this because I had studied a lot about Pompeii in high school because the Latin courses we take are based on characters who live in Pompeii. Anyways, we decided to take a tour through Naples first, which we were advised was going to be interesting. To quote Rick Steves (a well-known tour guide publisher), "with Sardena an hour away from Naples, I don't know why you'd ever spend the night there, but, if for some reason you have to, here's a list of hotels." Another thing he suggests is to "watch the traffic cops try to enforce traffic laws. ... read more

Today we did a walk through Naples with a local guide. We saw the Galleria Umberto I, built in the late 1800s as part of an urban renewal project. The marble floor contains mosaics of each of the zodiac signs, it's a very impressive building. We walked over to the Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace), construction began on this in 1600 and it was finished in 1843. It was so beautiful on the inside, everything was gilded and marbled, and it had the most amazingly intricate tapestries. Then we went on to the the Museo Archiologico Nazionale (National Archeological Museum) to see the ancient artifacts that were unearthed at Pompeii, a Roman town that was buried in ash by a volcanic eruption in 79 AD. There are still some things remaining at Pompeii, which we would see ... read more