Montecastello di Vibio, or MCdV for short.
non posso parlare di tutti dei miei pensieri. Ci sono tante idee del mio viaggio in Italia. Ma, le più importante delle mie idee, le spiegherò qui.
It has been a while since I’ve posted or even had time to think about posting, but it must be done. This blog will live on!
There are very few days that pass by that I do not think of Italy. My time in Montecastello was nothing short of magical. It is hard to grasp the fact that a few months ago I was pretty much living the artistic dream of a lifetime. But not only that, it was also the cultural/heritage dream for a quarter-Italian. I consider myself a more worldly person, accepting of various cultures. One of the reasons is probably because I’m a huge mix myself. My mother comes from a Catholic, Italian, Irish and English background while my father comes from a Jewish, Russian, German and Polish background (or something like that – who knows where the boundaries were back in those days). But while some may see a disconnect to any heritage, my lack of single identity causes me to embrace all of them.
In MCdV I really connected with my Italian heritage – as I am reminded every time I crave the foods I had while in Italy. Being back in the States, however, hasn’t helped my Italian connections – the pesto that I get in my kitchen just can’t quite compare to what I had from the Conad (the Italian Shoprite) in Florence – and don’t get me started on how much I miss the fresh prosciutto and mozzarella…
And it is really sad to say, but I’m slowly losing the italian that I picked up while there. I’m not going to sit here telling you that I became fluent. I still had a limited vocabulary and would need to spend seconds formulating sentences before speaking, but I had the hang of it. Especially after a few drinks at the bar in MCdV – that’s when I was as close to fluent as I’d ever come to speaking another language. And no, I’m not just remembering it that way because I was drunk. Speaking with the locals – some of whom I now call friends – and being in that perfect setting, I was really able to let myself speak the language. No more taking forever to think of what I was saying before trying; I used the language like I use English, I just spoke. I’m sure my grammar wasn’t perfect, and I had to talk my way around words I didn’t know, but I was able to have full conversations (and translating for my non-Italian speaking friends). I’m not sure if I’ll ever reach that level of understanding of another language again, which is a little depressing. At home I have no need for it. [Insert disgruntled remark about my life in the US being less worldly than it was in Italy]
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So, now what? What is in store for the “beyond” part of blog?
The main reason that there haven’t been any posts isn’t because my life has become less exciting back at home. I’ve been swamped with work actually.
I decided to take an independent study in Figure Painting and, well, it decided to take over my life. Not to mention I’m also taking three other classes (including the dreaded Organic Chemistry).
Since all my other courses (Orgo, Vertebrate Physiology, and Intro to Mediterranean Archaeology) are all fairly straight forward classes, I’m just going to explain what my Figure Painting course entails in detail – because that might be the focus of a few posts to come.
I’m signed up for the Figure Drawing II class time mainly to use the model – I’ve already taken FD I and II so I’m registered for the graduate level (how cool is that?). The FD II class gets a model for longer poses – up to four days of the same pose. This is perfect for in class painting (which I did some of during FD II). But on top of my work in class, I’m expected to produce a certain amount of work outside of class. At the start of the semester I brought the director of the art department my course outline – listing that I would need to complete three major works outside of class. Her response? “Well, I was thinking more like six or eight…”
So, the final tally? I need to complete six major works (30″ x 40″ or bigger) and each piece must have at least 3 studies in oil paint to accompany it. Now… if you do the math.. that is what’s due every two weeks. Physically possible? Maybe if I didn’t have any other classes. To be honest, I’m struggling. Especially the first four weeks where, in class, we were only given short poses to work from – essentially I was trying to create paintings from 5 minute sketches with very little information in them.
This post is getting a little too long and I could write five more pages on what is happening in my class now - so, I will leave that for subsequent posts. I will also make sure images make it up as well!
arrivederci!
L’ultima settimana: le mie opere finale d’arte d’Italia
The last week: my final works of art in Italy.
Questo post sarebbe così breve come il post precedente. Solitamente le opere. La descrizione e le mie ultime parole verrano dopo.
(This post will be short like the last one. Only the works. The description and my final words will come later.)
Dipinti:
This next one is a personal one I did on my spare time from a figure drawing. I used a palate knife (much like some of the previous paintings) and wanted to see how the technique would translate to the figure – obviously it was just a sketch and didn’t get finished.
The next one is the completed figure painting that I did in the class.
Disegni:
And thus concludes my notable artwork done it Montecastello di Vibio, Italy.
There will be some reflections to come, I just wanted to make sure I got my art images out there before I put it off again.
La seconda settimana: più dipinti, più disegni, e alcune sculture
(The second and week: more paintings, more drawings and a few sculptures.)
Mi dispiace, ma quando sono ritornato, non pensavo mai di questo blog. Tutti dei miei dipinti, disegni, e sculture seguiranno.
(I’m sorry, but when I returned, i never thought of this blog. All of my paintings, drawings and sculptures will follow.)
Dipiniti
Disegni
Sculture:
La terza settimana arriverà presto… spero.
La Prima Settimana: il ritmo
Week 1: the rhythm
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Preface: I’m sorry if the images aren’t perfect. I’m uploading them in a roundabout way. The internet at the school is pretty shoddy and won’t load full images directly… I’ll probably edit it when I get home.
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Weekend: prep.
One of the best reasons this program works so well is the location. And I’m not just talking scenic, I’m talking you will do artwork all day every day because well… what else are you going to do? So, we got to work preparing some surfaces to work on and doing a few sketches from our studio.
Mark and I share a room… more because he uses his space for storage, not cause we were put in the same room. It’s on the top floor of one of the two (if you don’t count the school) studio buildings called Morelli. I did a collage of it; check it out:
Monday: breakfast, figure sculpture, lunch, figure drawing, dinner.
Figure sculpture was fun as always, but unfortunately it wouldn’t be easy enough to save my work, so… I’m not taking it anymore. Going to focus on drawing and painting. Luckily, I get enough focus on the figure with drawing and painting classes. Here’s the one I did worth taking pictures of. I really enjoyed the pose.
Figure drawing is always great. It is the same teacher as figure sculpture and he’s a really nice guy (they all are), but I’m glad that he teaches two classes so I didn’t have to feel bad for dropping one of his. He wanted us to use pencil for all of our drawings… I put up with that for a day and then, after two glasses of wine and a long discussion at the bar with him about figure drawing and mediums etc., I decided to change back to working in charcoal. I don’t know. It just feels better. I would put up my pencil sketches even though I don’t think they are that great, but the internet won’t let me. SO, maybe later.
Tuesday: breakfast, landscape painting, lunch, figure painting, dinner.
The landscape-painting teacher is awesome. He is very honest and direct and will be able to just pinpoint your issues and tell you straight out. Which is great. You gotta be able to take the criticism even if it’s harsh. Like my first painting I started… I think his words were along the lines of “that’s all wrong.” Now, I’m going to take a step back to reiterate something – I’ve never really done landscape painting before. Weird? Yeah. So I never really “got it.” I always just thought, “Eh, whatever it’s not difficult or particularly satisfying. Well that’s why my painting was wrong. I didn’t actually think while working. So he said this about two thirds of the way through class, but after he pointed it out, I couldn’t look at it without being (not disgusted cause that’s a little harsh) bothered by it. So, I pulled out my trusty paper towel and rubbed it all out. I wish I had taken a picture first (why would I want to remember that?) Well, I want to compare it to what became of it afterwards. This first image is right after class (the second will come on Wednesday when I worked on it more).
Figure painting is interesting. This teacher (another really nice guy, but a bit too… flowery/intense/confusing in his descriptions – read fascinations – of space) wanted us to work big. So we gessoed paper about 4 feet high (I don’t think we measured…) and taped it to a wall in the classroom. The model rotated between two poses and we put both of them on the same page. We used a method where we build up the figures slowly. Start with one color ground, move to a second ground, work in temperature, and then color etc. It is going to take all three weeks and will have a very limited palate. Here is the result of day one:
Wednesday: see Monday (minus figure sculpture since I stopped going).
Worked on landscape (see middle of Tuesday). Still isn’t finished to date, but I think that’s okay.
Then back to figure drawing!
Thursday: see Tuesday.
Started another landscape. Learned that I got close to getting the temperature and that I do trees better than buildings. I need “resistance” to excel in my work (aka I need to observe rather than fall into representations).
More work on two-pose painting. Added a warmer ground to help define temperature.
Friday: day trip to Roma.
5 am breakfast for a 6 am departure! YAY (not)! Although they did play Gladiator during the ride – it’s amazing how tired you can be but still want to watch that movie.
Went (back) to see Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Theresa – still amazing. Walked to Piazza del Popolo (past a cool fountain – thanks Mark – and past the Piazza di Spagna). Turns out that the one church I went to last time to see a Bernini sculpture that was covered also had some famous Caravaggio paintings – if only I had known then too! Then Mark, Becky and I climbed Castel Sant’Angelo. It had a pretty sweet view.
Then we met back up with some others for our long trek to the Borghese museum. So we started our trek based on the map we had. Little did it tell us that we were walking on what would eventually become a highway and that sidewalk that we were walking on? Yeah, that would end abruptly well into our walk. Thanks. So what did we do? Turn back? No way. We obviously decided to cross the street, jump over the median, cross the other side, and jump over the barrier before a truck flattened us. We all made it safely (a little dirty but in one piece) and then we had to walk through the gardens… or should I say desert… in the hot sun… no shade hopping here. We did make it to the museum on time and also was able to skip the ticket line since we ordered ahead and there was a little kiosk to punch in our codes.
Let me just say that I LOVE BERNINI. I was blown away by all of his sculptures – his David? Such concentration on that face! Sigh. Some people are just too good.
Also got to see some amazing Caravaggio paintings (including his Judith Beheading Holofernes – couldn’t go into the room, but saw it from a distance).
Oh and there was a da Vinci painting. Like… you turn the corner and all of the sudden it was there? Thanks for the warning!? It was pretty amazing to see. Though, he does need work on his snails (see bottom right – it’s kind of cut off in this picture though, but that swirl is supposed to be a snail).
After, we went to great lunch at a random restaurant and made our way to Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Giolitti (GREAT GELATO – originally got the suggestion 2 years ago from Nikki), Piazza Navona, and the art store (Poggi – pretty awesome place). Then it was back on the bus with a stop for a VERY large meal just outside of Monte Castello.
Weekend:
Did a little painting, did a little preparing, and did a little sketching. You know, the life of an artist in the middle of rural Italy.
Oh, I also got destroyed by mosquitoes one night. I stopped counting after about a hundred bites. And now they just itch like crazy. Great. If I could find anything to complain about it’s the mosquitoes (zanzare) and the lack of air conditioning. I am going to sleep like a baby when I get home (rather than here when I wake up 1-4 times throughout the night due to heat or being bitten). Sigh, but can I really complain? No, no I cant. Because it really doesn’t matter compared to the time I’m having here.
Also, check out this Corot painting. See that hill in the background? Not the mountain, the hill way back there. Yeah, that is Todi. See that even smaller hill just to the left of it? THAT is where I am. Cool, huh? I think so too.
UPDATE! (cause it is much needed)
This one will be short, sweet, and chalk full of information.
After Venice it was back to classes till the weekend. The last weekend in Firenze, I decided to stay there. I wanted to savor my time there and do some of the touristy things. I’ll have another post dedicated to my endeavors soon (hopefully). Also, it was the 4th of July! Yay America – we went to the one diner in Florence worth anything (owned by a famous restaurant Aqua al 2). It was great (shared pancakes, burger and fruit smoothie).
The last week was sad… kinda. It was filled with a lot of work actually. I had a final, an oral skit to preform and packing/getting ready for my move to Monte Castello di Vibio. Well, it’s safe to say I made it through it. I’m going to miss Firenze and the Penn-in-Florence crew, but I couldn’t really ignore my enthusiasm to move on to my next program.
Saturday the 10th I got up early to catch an 8am train to Perugia. Got to Perugia at 10:20 and met up with Daniele and his girlfriend Chiara (hopefully I remembered that correctly) – Daniele is a friend of my Aunt Joan’s cousin Angela. Angela lives in Perugia as well, but unfortunately had to go back to the States that weekend. Getting from Perugia to Monte Castello was a beautiful drive and both of them were very nice and happy to help. I got to the school a few hours before everyone was supposed to arrive from Rome, so Daniele, Chiara and I went to the biggest (or should I say smallest) attraction in the town other than the scenery – The worlds smallest theater! It was actually real cool inside.
After they left, I sat around until everyone arrived – you know, called miei genitori (parents) and let them know I was still alive.
One week of classes has already gone by. UN-FRIGGEN-BELIEVEABLE. There really isn’t much to do in this town with its two bars (one of which is open at night) and, well, nothing else really. Since we are so isolated there really is only one thing to focus on – our art. Which is really cool. The four classes being taught are: Monday/Wednesday morning – figure sculpture, and afternoon – figure drawing; Tuesday/Thursday morning – landscape painting, and afternoon – figure painting. At first I couldn’t decide what to do. I tried taking all of them, but that was a ton. I think I’m just going to be taking all except figure sculpture (unless I need a reprieve from the 2 dimensional world) since I can’t take anything back from that class.
I’ve grown to have a better appreciation for landscape painting – thinking back I realized I’d never really done one before, how odd? But I’m still loving figurative work as well. Photos of works in progress and finished works and works that were started but won’t ever be finished will come shortly as well.
There are about 250 people that actually live in the town and then a whole bunch on the farms around it. So I guess after three weeks I might make a few friends. Last night while at the bar I met the workers there as we sat with them ate and drank. I let out that I spoke Italian and then the conversation switched to contain both languages (some other people were lost on our conversation). I was actually fairly impressed with myself if I do say so. OH! also, the first class (figure sculpture) on Monday, we found out the model only really spoke Italian and the teacher did not. Guess who got to be the designated translator?? Yeah, thats right (also for the figure drawing session later that day with the same teacher). I’m very happy that I learned enough to do that and hold conversations with Italians – even able to hold my own when talking about vulgarities! Ha! Thanks to Elton the 21 year old worker at the hotel in Florence.
That’s it for now. Images will come soon! Internet is temperamental and there’s no hot water in my sink (my beard is gettin’ pretty grizzly), but I’m loving every day here.
Venezia, Venezia, affonderai?
Venice, Venice, will you sink? (3 weeks late)
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CLASS TRIP! kinda. It was an option trip that we had already paid for some of ?? Can you say “furbo” (sly). Tricking us into doing a trip to Venice and then following around the WORST tour guide ever (details to come). Now, since this is so late, from the beginning!
The last weekend in June we went to Venezia. Almost all of us. So 40 some odd people got on a bus at about 830am in Firenze Santa Maria Novella stazione and 4 (ish) hours later, we got on a boat to the island where streets are, well, not paved at all.
I’ve been to Venice once before during my post-high school euro-trip, but I guess I wouldn’t every get sick of being amazed by its simultaneous appearance of unrest and charm. Luckily, our hotel this trip was situated on the exact opposite side of the island as my last hotel. I was able to get an entirely different perspective (ha). Though the hotel this time was located closer to San Marco square, I think I preferred the other location better. It was a very touristy area we were in this time – and by touristy, I mean groups of people walking around staying at the sky while someone whispers (you’ll get this reference later) in their ear about the “important” dates that they will never remember.
The worst part of the trip I will explain first… because we’ll, we didn’t get much time before it was upon us. Our tour guide was a short lady who took her job way too seriously. The normally 15-minute walk from our hotel to San Marco took an hour. for-FRIGGEN-ever. And, mind you, there’s nothing really important between the two. Yeah. Also, she had a very annoying voice that droned on about things I didn’t really care about (useless info, not just that I didn’t care). And the worst (and I guess eventually best) part was it was right in my ear. We got to walk around like those tourists I dislike. We got this battery/receptor thing around our neck and a one-ear earphone on. These devices (fairly clever) are for tour guides to speak into a microphone rather than shout throughout a church. Our company calls them “Whispers” (hence the earlier reference – if you forgot it, it was the last line in the first paragraph, which, I now notice, is practically a half-paragraph rant. So we are half-blindly following a little gnome lady at a snail’s pace and she says “this” and “that” to us repeatedly without really pointing (or if she did no one could see). But, why are these things so great? For one you can turn them off. Or just unplug them. Or if you don’t care if she knows you’re not listening, take it off completely. Apparently towards the end of the tour she was trying to ask questions? (I had given up by that time). But not even her questions were justified (second-hand source), but rather questions that none of us would have known the answers to anyway… hmm… Anyway, here’s the happy tour group!
That night we broke up and wandered the passeggiate (paths) of Venezia. My group ended up walking pretty much the entire island (cause we felt like it) and only got somewhat lost trying to get back in time for dinner with others. We did find where they park their ambulance boats… it was a pretty cool find.
The second day we got up early to tour the surrounding islands – Murano, Torcello, and Buran.
Muran was cool. We got to see a glass blowing demo and then tour their collection of stuff. Someone broke a vase while we were there – Helen almost died in horror – but it wasn’t one of us, so it was alright. There was a really cool duck I wanted to get… but it was very large and therefore ridiculously expensive. But, I did take an illegal picture of it:
Anyways, then we got like 10 minutes on Murano and didn’t have time to look at the cheaper glass. Oh and did I mention we had the same tour guide? YEAH. Oh well. On to Torcello… … … … now that was a waste of time. There was a church (wasn’t even that great). I think it was the first settlement in the lagoon or something. Not worth it. Wait! that’s not true. I tried chicken and lemon chips – they were amazing. It was like I had an entire meal! Burano was awesome though. If you’ve never been there, I highly suggest you make the long boat ride from Venice.
Afterwards we went back to the hotel and then walked around. Did some waltzing in San Marco square (because there were musicians playing and why the heck not?).
The next day we were all supposed to do a boat tour of the city up the Canal Grande, but a few of us decided to skip out on that and go see some galleries and the (original) Guggenheim museum – it’s her house! Everyone said the boat tour was much better than the other things since everyone was split onto smaller boats and so everyone that wasn’t on the boat with the tour guide (most people) couldn’t even get her signal on the Whisper due to low transmitting range (nice planning). Still, I’m really glad I got to finally see the Guggenheim, there were works by Pollock, Morandi, Boccioni, Picasso, Ernst, you name it. It was a great collection. Plus, I saw the Rialto on my own walk.
One fun fact is that we found out that some galleries in Venice actually had their own Picasso’s or Ernst’s. Pretty steep prices too – yeah we asked. We also saw a show on a contemporary guy named Safet Zec – check out the current artist on the right. He is awesome. And we were allowed to take pictures so I pretty much just took a picture of each work. Almost.
Then it was back on the bus, back to Firenze.
Quando a Roma…
We left for Roma on Friday the 18th at about noon. We took the frecciarossa (red arrow) which was a faster train and only took about an hour and a half (non-stop) to get to Roma. After a really long struggle and almost an hour at the train station, we figured out that our hotel was not in fact nearby the main train station but a local one on the other side of the city. We got our “Roma passes” and hopped on the H-line bus, found our really nice hotel (well… considering the price), dropped off our bags, and made our way to some sights.
We hit the big ones in the middle of the city – starting with the Pantheon so we got there before it closed. Then we worked our way over to the Fontana Trevi and then back over to Piazza Navona.
Day & Night
At least there were well marked signs walking around…
But seriously, the maps of Rome really aren’t to scale. Some areas that seem like they should hours to get to took like 25 minutes, but others that looked like half an hour would’ve been at least an hour had we not taken a bus. Weird.
Our hotel was in the Trastevere area (south west side of the city) which was a very “happening place” (if I’m allowed to digress a few decades and use that phrase).
Also, there was a really cool strip of bars, carnival games, and stores along the southwest side of the Tiber River which was very cool:
So after a nice stroll along the Tiber, we went to bed for our long day Saturday.
We woke up for our 9:30 breakfast (brought to our rooms – what service!) and then started for the Colosseo.
We had a quick lunch, and then took the subway to the Vaticano for our 3pm reservation with the Pope…’s palace.
We got there early, but they didn’t care. So we waltzed right in (after being scanned and put through various security check points).
The modern art piece in the middle of the courtyard is very cool. It’s this spinning orb with cut out pieces — can you see the reflection of me in this one?
Then we walked through the Vantican museum. Twice actually. There was an exhibit on Egyptian art that Patty and I decided to see… turns out the exhibit loops back around to the beginning of the museum and you’re not allowed to go backward through the exhibit? Nice going Vatican. We had to go back through a really crowded area and it took forever even trying to get back to where we were. Sigh. Such a difficult life.
Also, who knew there was a modern art collection there? Pretty cool stuff too. Anyways, we finally made it to the Sistine Chapel. It was as stunning as I remembered; although this time I knew what to expect, so I was able to absorb a lot more of it which was awesome.
We then snuck out to St. Peter’s through the tour group exit (I think the other way we would’ve had to stand in a line? or something. I’m not sure… one of my friend’s parents suggested we take that route.
Spent a good deal of time gawking alla chiesa. Unfortunately though, a lot of it was blocked off. Apparently the Pope was ordaining some people the next day and so we were able to see everything. But his chair was out… so I guess that’s pretty cool. Got a pretty good snap shot of Michelangelo’s Pietà:
Then… one of the highlights of the trip. A few of us were casually waiting outside St. Peter’s for everyone to come out, when the security guard (not a Swiss Guard) started chatting and making jokes with us. He was a really nice guy from Poland originally (I think?). And he asked us if we had been to the Sistine Chapel and the top of the Basilica (fun fact – basilica in Italian is basilica, but if you change the gender to basilico it means basil). We told him we hadn’t wanted to wait in the long line and pay to go to the top of the Basilica. As it turned out, he was getting off shift at 5pm (it was 4:45pm) and he told us that he would sneak us in. SNEAK US IN. It was, as he put it, “our secret.”
The sad part is that there was a mix up (language barriers.. arghh) and only half of us were able to make it up to the top. We were brought back into the church, past some of the barrier ropes, and into a side room. This room emptied into the back of the elevator that those who were waiting in line would eventually enter. The elevator had two doors and four of us walked in one end while everyone else walked in the other side. We were able to see the church from the inside of the dome and then proceeded to walk up scary, claustrophobic, winding staircases to the top. It was a great view. As you can see…
I then hung around St. Peter’s Square for a bit to take some photos…
Some went back to the hotel at this point, but myself and a few others decided to walk over to the Ponte Sant’Angelo.
It was really cool. Unfortunately the sun was behind half of the angels, so pictures of them were very difficult to take (rawr).
It was a fairly long walk back to the hotel, but it was through some pretty nice streets, so I didn’t mind. And then it was back out into the city – we wanted to see some of the sites at night rather than during the day, so we stopped over by the Pantheon and Fontana di Trevi, and then walked all the way up to the the Spanish Steps. It was pretty interesting seeing the city at night, and even cooler imagining what it would be like to be at these places back before the street lights were everywhere. (I bet the Trevi Fountain was scary).
On Sunday it threatened to rain… We decided to leave earlier than we originally had intended, but first Zack and I wanted to visit the last two churches from the Da Vinci Code. So we hopped on the subway and made or way to Piazza del Popolo. Got to see the arm of one angel (ironically the same statue is under construction in the movie – so we felt it apropos that we weren’t able to see all of it). And then hopped back on the subway to see the last – the Ecstasy of St. Teresa. IT WAS AMAZING. Very much worth the riding around in the subway – which is actually pretty nice (on the northern line – the southern is a lot worse).
We had about twenty minutes to kill and wanted to get lunch… so I decided to try to find a pizzeria that I went to two years ago in that area… turns out my directional memory persists through two years – I found it!
To be honest, it wasn’t as good as the one we found by our hotel (sorry Frank) – but the preparation was the same in both places: cutting square pizza in half and folding it into a sandwich. Sono benissmi.
Oh… and remember that impending rain? As soon as Zack and I were leaving the pizzeria it DOWN-POURED. Like… like… this. Zack had an umbrella… I, did not. Needless to say, by the time we RAN (cause it was pouring and we were going to miss our train – we had less than five minutes to spare when we got there) to the train station a few blocks away, I was drenched. And I was still pretty stingy, the guys that sell umbrellas outside passed me, I asked how much (yay for speaking Italian), but said no after he told me it would cost me € 3.
Oh, and the rain stopped when we got to the train station. Great. I sat down on my frecciarossa, dripping wet, and enjoyed my Pizza Rustica.
Roma, Venezia, Artist. Ma, sono occupato
translation: Ma sono occupato = But, I am busy.
The weekend of the 18th I sono andato a Roma…. Yeah…
Then last weekend I was in Venice.
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There’s a new “artist of interest” up. Safet Zec. You should check his website out… there aren’t many pictures but I will fix that later. Saw his work al Museo Correr a Venezia. check him out. I was allowed to take pictures so I went nuts with my camera. When I finally am able to post about Roma e Venezia it will be great and it will be a ton of info and you will enjoy it (a lot more than you are enjoying this post – I promise).
The not-so-Amalfi Coast
Firenze-Napoli: 3 ore (on the fast train). Napoli-Sorrento: 1 ora (on the express local train). Sorrento stazione-Hotel Villa Margherita: 10 minuti (by cab).
We originally booked our stay at a hostel in Sorrento, but as it turned out their Internet (why is it grammatically correct to capitalize that?) service was incorrect and they didn’t have room for all of us. As a result, 8 of our 11 were put up at a hotel just down the street for the same rate (omission of details of selection process- not enough information known to make a non-biased statement). I never made it to the hostel, but it seemed like it was pretty nice from the sound of it.
The express train from Firenze to Napoli was very nice (comfy seats, electrical outlets, etc.), but every freaking mountain we tunneled into forced a pressure change in my ears. Going in and coming back out. Facing backwards for half of the trip, I could predict when we were leaving a tunnel due to my ears popping a few seconds before we exited (uncomfortable Spidey-senses?).
Anyways, we got to Sorrento, walked a block down the street for a late lunch (at 3pm we were lucky something was open) at a pretty good restaurant on the edge of the world. No really, this whole place was pretty much cliffs into water. After which, we met up with the other three ragazzi (boys/girl) and went down the winding stairs/tunnels in the cliff to get to the “beach.” Turned out the public part was a cement dock – but we dealt with that after jumping in (towels still aren’t much of cushions).
Dinner was pretty eventful. Waiters in Italy (like most of Europe) get paid much higher wages than they do in the US, and therefore you rarely have to tip (and if you do, it isn’t much). That being said (or rather because of that), most of the waiters here wouldn’t get a tip from me. No incentive for good service. I want to preface this anecdote with the knowledge that this restaurant had a cover charge like most, but also claimed to not have a service charge. When this emphatic waiter started chatting us up, I was able to guess he would ask for a tip by the end of the meal (this had happened in Prague two years ago when a waiter attempted to convince us that Czechs tip just like Americans. Luckily Jess Russo Scherr (then Miss Perry – Miss Lips) was with us and was able to tell us otherwise. I think we missed the courtesy of American waiters, since when he finally did mention, “service charge is not included” most of us didn’t mind chipping in a few extra Euros. (Yeah, I did enjoy the “How did you know” comments). But I was peeved that he charged me for the extra glass of wine that he seemingly graciously gave me to finish off the bottle (we were there late).
Now, the waiter wasn’t the only excitement to our meal. During our dinner there was a little bit of rain that randomly started up. We were eating outside, but it was a good thing most of us were covered by umbrellas (Beth got stuck in the seat between two umbrellas and got a little mid-dinner shower). After most of us had finished our food and we were just talking, however, the part of town we were in went into black-out for a good amount of time, come out for a bit, and drop back into darkness for a second time. Luckily our phones have flashlights on them? What? But one of the best liners of the trip so far came out of the dinner:
“Water is not a substitute for wine…”
“Yes it is, just ask Jesus.”
After the very long dinner we met up with another group of students from the Penn-In-Florence (now Penn-In-Sorrento) program and went out to a pretty strange club.
Saturday, we woke up early (seems like that’s all we ever do other than walk up and down hills/mountains). We booked some spots on a boat to take us around the island Capri (pronounced KA-pree not ku-pree). We expected a traghetto (more of a service boat, made for tours and transport etc.), but we got a full out barca. This sixty-foot (can you say yacht? I can..) yacht was beautiful. It was so nice that they were reluctant to have kids on it (though, we behave ourselves as they found out). The interior was very nice and there was seating in the back, the front and the top.
We headed out of Sorrento to Capri at high speeds, enjoying the morning sun. We were taken first the Grotta Azzurra (Blue Grotto – ever heard of it?). It was a little extra, but I think worth it for me, to enter the Blue Grotto and see the phenomenon of the glowing waters. Imagine small rowboats (lots of them) in line to enter a tiny hole in the cliff. We legit had to lie down in the boat to get through. Our guide yanked on a metal chain and lied down over us as we slipped through. After a loop around the inside listening to some Italian man singing, we ducked (QUACK) back down and out. Our boat then continued around the coast to the Green Grotto (much larger) and then we docked for a bit out in the middle of the ocean a few hundred meters from the island. Here we swam in the beautiful clear dark blue water. Era perfetto. It was slightly cold (rejuvenates the bones), extra salty (good for buoyancy), and clean and clear enough to see your feet. After spending a while jumping off the back of the boat (and once from the top – that was scary), we had our included caprese panini lunch (oh, and there was an “open bar” aka beer and water), and then we set off for our three hours on the actual island.
Capri, the town, is not worth it. That’s really all I have to say. It’s a strip of gift shops by the docks, and a small town of more average stores at the top of a hill (yeah. I know. Another trek up.) If you are going to Capri, you better do it right (stay on a boat). We were very ready to get back on land after we had been on the boat for so long, but after three hours, the island had not enchanted us and we were eager to get the motor going again.
That night was rather uneventful, consisting of dinner and some limoncello (a specialty of the area – there were lemon trees everywhere). Prior to dinner, however, Matt and I hung out on our balcony while most everyone else napped. The scene: lemon trees, water visible between houses, and Mt. Vesuvius off in the distance. Now, that would have been nice enough as we talked and sipped on some Heineken (“Ever Notice how all portions in Italy are smaller except for their beer?”… “That’s because in America we buy six packs”), but Sorrento had another nice surprise for us. The hotel whose backyard was up against ours, was hosting a wedding reception – with an Italian wedding singer! (Aka we got serenaded in our balcony – could this day have been more amazing? I’m not sure).
Sunday we woke up early again because we don’t like letting ourselves sleep in like normal college students. A few of us went to Positano (because we felt we had to at least get to the coast close to Amalfi if we say we went to the “Amalfi Coast”)
Yes! Positano WAS on a GIANT HILL! and the friggen 1 hour bus ride it took to get there and back practically made me sick. (I had to just sleep on the way back to not loose it.) We got about an hour or so of beach time and some sight-seeing (read: wandering through the thin shop infested hills – er.. i mean streets).
Positano-Sorrento: 1 ora by public bus. Sorrento-Napoli: 1 ora public train. Napoli-Firenze: 3 ore. Home back in Firenze: finally.
