jaunts-through-europe: 3 cities and an island... in just 4 days

hey all.
so this past weekend we went on a field trip with a short vacation tacked on the end. it's pretty crazy to be able to say that we weekended in sorrento and capri. let me start at the beginning though. so, through school we go on two field trips: the north field trip and the south field trip. this past weekend we went on our south field trip. we started by heading to naples, dubbed "nasty naples" by one of my professors. we didn't really explore the city much. we basically jumped on the metro, went to a museum, ate lunch at a pizzeria across the street from the museum, and then we were on our way again. even though this was such a short stay in naples, among the 60 of us that went, there was a story about someone getting pick-pocketed on the metro, another story about seeing an attempted mugging, and a story about someone getting extremely harrassed by a person on the metro. needless to say, i feel like i spent enough time in "nasty naples." next on the itinerary was sorrento. sorrento is a beautiful italian coastal town. it is full of cute little shops and lemons and lemon products are absolutely everywhere. for dinner that night we went to a restaurant called The Lemon Tree. and by we, i mean almost all 60 of us plus our 4 professors. it was an absolutely amazing meal. i can't even describe how amazing it was. this is a tradition that occurs every year during the south field trip and it was an experience i will never forget. we had a four course meal that was absolutely delicious and the staff was very friendly and fun. just remembering the lemon dessert we were given makes my mouth water. after such an amazing meal, it was naturally time to dance. one of our professors got one of the local discotecas to open just for us and a group of us proceeded to head over and show off our dance skills.
we awakened the next morning to rain, which proceeded to cause our trip to pompeii to be canceled for the day. we were released by our professors to go and enjoy the rest of weekend. since we had decided to stay in sorrento for the remainder of the weekend, we decided to make the trek to our hostel. now, a few words about our hostel. it is considered a camping hostel that came highly recommended by my lovely roommate. and it did not disappoint. ying, paula, and i were given our own little cabin. though the term cabin probably isn't the best word to describe our housing arrangement for the next two nights. it was more of a green box that had three beds and a bathroom. it was definitely cozy. really. only one person could move about the cabin at a time. i loved it though. it was the closest thing to camping i have done in months. what was also awesome was that there were many of our classmates who also stayed at the same hostel. every night we met up and drank wine and just hung out... though we went to their cabin, which was slightly bigger than ours...
on saturday we took the ferry over to wonderful island of capri. it was breathtaking and well, it was an island, so really, you can't go wrong. the original plan was to go cliff diving, but the water was too high, so the tour was canceled for the day. instead we decided to take a chairlift to the top of the island. yes, you read correctly. we took a CHAIRLIFT to the top of the island. okay, i realize that i've been on chairlifts many a time before for downhill skiing, but this was still absolutely thrilling to me. the chairlift consisted of single chairs that went up to the top of the island and overlooked everything. once at the top, you could see for miles. the ocean was so blue and extended forever. the view was so beautiful i don't think i can put into words just how amazing it was. we took the chairlift back down and then, after some wandering, made our way to the beach where we relaxed and swam and soaked up some rays.
sunday was our trip to pompeii. pompeii fascinates me. the city was covered by lava when mt. vesuvius erupted almost 2000 years ago. the site was accidently discovered and has been getting excavated ever since. walking through and just trying to imagine how these people lived was unbelievable. one of the saddest parts was when we found this little vineyard and garden. it was planted exactly as it had been 2000 years ago. mt. vesuvius was visible in the distance, not blocked by any modern buildings. the sad part was that, tucked back in the corner, there was a glass case that contained 13 bodies of people who lived in pompeii. they were men and women and children. some of them were curled up on the ground. others had draped their bodies over some of the children in an attempt to protect them. others were propped up, looking as if they were trying to get just one more breath of air. it definitely made a huge impression.
after we finished our explorations of the rediscovered city, we hopped on a train and made our way back to roma. here are some pictures of the weekend. thanks for reading.
ciao ciao.