School trip gone wacko

Day one: drove from Viterbo to Paestum, which I think is south of Naples. Very long trip. Everyone died on the bus. Paestum was cool, though.

Day two: Baia and the nearby museum. Baia was the Las Vegas of Roman times, the place to be with an amazing ocean view on the Bay of Naples. I brough my camera, and having just that morning remembered to recharge the battery, left it plugged into the wall of the hotel. Hence, no pictures of Baia or of the castle which is the museum. Peccato. Mi sentivo un po' stupida. However, back in Pozzuoli (where our hotel is), an amazing pastry shop was discovered. By amazing, I mean it has every type of gelato and every type of pastry, and hot chocolates made in the different Lindt flavors. Beautiful, that is.

Day three: We got to Herculaneum at 9:00, only to discover that there was a strike going on. At about 11:00, the teachers decided we weren't going to get in, and we went back to the bus, where we sat till 12:45, at which point we went to Capua. I feel I should point out that the workers at Hercolaneum had said that it might - just might! - open at 1:00. I'm just saying, is all. But it's okay, we just missed one of the most important archaeological sites in the world, which some even say is better than Pompeii. No biggie. Capua was worth visiting, though, with its amphitheater and a Museo dei Gladiatori (fancy name for a museum with one exhibit, that is large plaster gladiators with real metal helmets); those of us sitting in the front of the top level of the bus made the most of the trip by waving at everyone we passed. Small town people really enjoy getting waved at!! Some of them were so excited they'd break out in a giant grin and start waving emphatically with both arms. Much friendlier than people in Naples, for instance, who don't even look up. I suppose they're much more used to seeing giant tour buses with over-caffeinated teenagers crammed inside for hours on end than people in Capua.

After Capua we awayed with us to Reggia di Caserta, a grandiose palace with over a thousand rooms and a mile-long series of lakes/GIANT CRAYFISH PONDS that come from a waterfall just visible in the distance from the palace. We walked up the length of this river/lake/GIANT CRAYFISH POND, though did not make it to the waterfall due to time constraints. And then the rest of the class was a half hour late anyway, so we totally could've made it. But bitterness at life's unfairness aside, Reggia di Caserta was amazing. In addition to all the gorgeous water, and the romantic sunset atmosphere, and the group of Italian boys who offered to kiss us (safely from the other side of the river/lake/GIANT CRAYFISH POND, so they were funny instead of scary), it was marvelously relaxing after a long day. Day three (Wednesday), was definitely the lowest point in the trip, though, just for the sheer disorganization of it all. However, it would soon be redeemed by....

Day four: Pompeii! We started off the morning with our guide of the previous day, Aldo (who NEVER STOPPED TALKING, even when we were on the bus after he'd promised 8 or 10 times that this would be the last thing he'd mention, really, he meant it this time), and headed over to Oplontis, that house with the peacock frescoes. Gorgeous, and certainly exciting to see all the frescoes we knew from our (evil) art history text books, and really from any book ever written that even mentions Vesuvius' eruption of 79. It's that famous, and rightly so, because it's that gorgeous. But once we'd made our way through the villa, it was time to get on the bus again and head to Pompeii, where I'd been 4 years before. It was almost eery walking in the streets there, because here and there something would be so familiar that I couldn't tell if it was because I'd seen a picture in a textbook or because I'd been there before. I distinctly remembered the ovens, which I remember my mom was nuts over last time.

Then, given free time, we headed over to the amphitheater, and quite last minute, my ancient history partner Deborah and I were inspired to change our project, which was to be presented in an hour's time (we hadn't put a great deal of work into it anyway, so it didn't matter much). Our project was based on a primary source from Tacitus' Annales (book 8, if you care to know), which recounts a fight that broke out in the audience of a gladiator game. Standing in the center of the amphitheater, we suddenly decided that our presentation would be far more inspired if we were the gladiators themselves, watching all the silly people in the audience trying to kill each other. It went more or less like this: "Morituri te salutamus" "Arr, to the death!" "To the death!" *fight* *Deborah does a flip, because she's cool like that* "Hey look, a three headed monkey!" No, just kidding: "Woah, look at the stands!" "They're all fighting! That's so- so wrong." "Hey, that guy just hit that other guy with a rock!" "You know, as a pacifist I find that highly offensive." "I know what you mean. Let's not fight any more, man." *hug* *leave*

Well, not inspired, per se, but far less memorization than our previous presentation, which had involved two speeches. Che boring.

Back at the hotel: wine at dinner, and then.... dancing! A heavily pregnant woman, an amazing singer, a man who could both sing and dance, and an accordian player all came to give us a complete lesson on dancing in the Neapolitan style. First thing, the pregnant woman and the singing/dancing man danced to the music of the singer and the accordian-er. Let me say now, that that was one dexterous woman for 8 months. I was duly humbled, because I am not that dexterous, though younger and not pregnant. And the singer? Her voice was to die for. It was a wild sort of croon which would waver for a second so you couldn't decide if the note was pretty or note, and then she would just drop to another note or leap an octave and you would forget that you had doubted her for a second.

And the dancing? Best workout I've had in ages, I'm embarrassed to say. Clacking the castanets and dancing for 30 or 40 minutes at a time was so intense! But in a really good way. My muscles were burning by the end, but it was worth it. Especially just to listen to that music!

One blemish to the night: we went to the super pasticceria, only to find a sign that said "chiuso per lutto." Worried perhaps that Lutto meant Lent, and that they were punishing us for having ignored Lent these past few days, we asked a passerby why it was closed. "Lutto died," she told us, and hurried on. Awkwardly we stood there for a moment longer, rather like insensitive doorstops, wishing we could do something for the pastry shop owners in their time of loss, and feeling guilty that we still wanted something from the shop, despite the death of Lutto. After a moment the passerby returned and said "there's another pastry shop up the road, if you like," which served to make us feel even more insensitive. We still went, though. It wasn't nearly as good as Lutto's pasticceria.

Day 5: Dawned bright and early, as we bid adieu to our hotel of 4 nights and headed off to Naples. As a caring gift to the hotel workers, I decided to leave my beloved earrings on the night stand, in the hopes that they would be taken and never returned to me. I'm generous like that. Once in Napoli, we were given time to explore the museum, overflowing with amazing artifacts from Pompeii which interest me once again in archaeology, something I became completely disinterested in during this year, ironically. Fascinating! Not to mention the endless amazing mosaics, including the one of Alexander and Darius (Xerxes?) himself. Some Persian king, anyway... It's always something to see such famous items in person. I sort of forgot that it was in the museum till I stumbled upon it, though, so I didn't have any expectations, which made it amazing, not a disappointment at all. Though I can think of only a few things which have truly been a disappointment, only perhaps a little different than I expected. But that's what getting out is all about. Too many expectations, and it won't be enjoyable.

I'm proud to say that I only had one unfulfilled expectation, and that was that I would be able to see Herculaneum. The disorganization of the trip was certainly a disappointment, but beyond that, the sites exceeded all expectation.