Saturday, April 6
Today some friends and I went to the Gelato Festival! Because gelato was invented in Florence, this festival makes the city one of the stops every year. There were about 19 different gelato-makers giving everyone mini cones of their unique flavor. Once you had tried them all (or as many as you could handle), you could vote for your favorite one. I had about 9 or 10 different ones before I couldn't handle any more. Orange seemed to be the theme since many different ones had it incorporated. My two favorites were the orange, mandarin, and mint sorbetto and the milk, honey, and mascarpone cheese. They had some interesting flavors like cocoa, orange zest, and jasmine essential oil (which was black and way too strong for me); saffron, orange, and pistachio; cocoa and bourbon; and the American consulate even showed up with a maple bacon flavor to celebrate 200 years in Florence. It was really fun and, being on Piazzale Michelangelo, we had a great view of the city while we feasted on delicious gelato. Afterwards I was so ready to fall into a sugar coma.
Wednesday, April 10
This morning I went to another LdM cooking class with a friend. We made pasta called cavatelli from scratch. The shape is made by rolling the dough into long, thin snakes, cutting them short, then pushing on the dough with two fingers toward you to create a sort of curl. It was really fun and making pasta was definitely on my Italy bucket list. We also made some tomato sauce and then topped it off with some fresh mozzarella. Pasta for breakfast? So delicious!
Tuesday, April 16
Today I walked over to the English Cemetery. It was the first Protestant cemetery in Florence and even though I am writing a paper on Italian cemeteries, I had wanted to come here anyway. It's surrounded by traffic, but once you get inside it's really peaceful. It seemed almost like a garden with all the irises, periwinkles, and roses in bloom. Two of the most famous graves here are those of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Beatrice Shakespeare. One of the strangest things about Florence to me is constantly being surrounded by past genius. One of my school buildings is across the street from where John Milton used to live. Herman Melville, Dostoyevsky, George Eliot, the Brownings and Shelleys, and so many more all made their homes in Florence. The Medicis lived on my street and Raphael's home was right across from mine. That's not to mention so many other artists who had roamed these streets too. You can't help but feel inspired here.
Today my friends and I also had a gelato activity where we saw them make crema gelato and got to eat it straight from the machine. It was so good! It's so much better fresh!
Wednesday, April 17
Today I had classes in the morning and then boarded a 7pm train with Anna to Salerno! We had only really started planning this trip on Monday. We had such a stressful time booking things since trains were limited and filling up quickly. We ended up having to alter our plans quite a few times in order to make it back to Florence by Saturday night. In the end, we finally got it figured out. The train ride was about four hours long and we got to the port town just before 11pm. We speed walked to the La Mela B&B since the check in cutoff time was indeed 11. After some searching, we finally found the entrance, but once inside we pushed the wrong bell a few times. Despite seeming annoyed at our late arrival, the woman who ran the place was very hospitable. She spoke only Italian, but luckily I understood most of what she was saying. It was a nice place, but definitely interesting. There was only one bathroom in the whole place so you couldn't use it if someone was showering or brushing their teeth. It worked out fine since we were leaving pretty earlier the next morning.
Thursday, April 18
We left the B&B at about 8:10am, got croissants at a little store just down the street, and headed to the docks. It was only about a ten minute walk to the ferry, which we boarded just in time to leave at 8:40. It was a freezing cold ride with the wind blowing off the water, but the views of the coast were incredible! We got into Amalfi at about 9:15 and dropped our bags off. We then did some exploring around the town. It was so pretty! We got calzone for lunch and ate them on the rocks by the sea. We had a little photoshoot and just sat and enjoyed the sun and the breeze. It warmed up quite a bit during the day, so I felt a little silly wearing a sweater on the beach. We checked into our AirBnB, which was really cute, then went out for an early dinner. Afterwards, I got lemon gelato and strawberry sorbetto. So good! We walked around a bit more, exploring the places we found interesting. At dusk we walks west and saw a lot of locals out with their kids and dogs just hanging out. It was really cool to see all the people outside. We found a pier and walked along it for beautiful views of the town.
Walking back along the restaurants lining the beach, we found a spot along a ledge overlooking the beach and sat down. We people watched for a while and noticed a guy below throwing rocks into the sea for a dog to chase. It was so adorable, until the guy caught us staring and waved. He eventually disappeared from our view, but the dog was still on the beach. We got concerned that it wasn't his dog and went down to see if it had tags. When we got there the dog was gone, but we soon noticed it and one more in one of the restaurants. The same guy was there too. He came out and brought his dogs, explaining how he'd throw rocks for them everyday after working at the restaurant. They were so cute but not keen on meeting strangers so we said goodbye and went back up to the ledge. We sat a bit more and then retreated to our AirBnB. We had even more planning to do. Unsure of what to do tomorrow and the next day, we finally booked our last hotel and made tentative plans going forward.
Friday, April 19
Our plans failed. We were planning on getting up super early for sunrise, but we just didn't have it in us to get up that early. I tried reasoning that it probably wouldn't have been very good anyway because we'd be facing south with mountains on all sides. We packed up in time for check out at 10am and hung around Amalfi for the afternoon. We had been thinking about going to Positano or Sorrento for a few hours, but decided we just didn't have enough time and didn't want to be rushing around. We got sandwiches and calamari for lunch and I got lemon sorbetto. So good! The Amalfi coast is known for its lemons, and we saw some really huge ones there!
We just chilled until 12:45 when the ferry left for Salerno again. Now for the stressful part. The ferry got in just after 1:20 so we speed walked to the train station to catch our 1:38 train. We made it and settled in for 45 minute ride to Pompeii. The views from the train were pretty cool and soon we were pulling into the station. It was about a 20 minute walk to our hotel (which we got a little lost finding). For some reason the actual modern city of Pompeii seemed kind of like Southwestern America or Latin America to me. Maybe it was the cacti or the sandy colors of buildings. It didn't seem to be the nicest of places, at least the part we were walking through. The walk was exhausting, so we freshened up and rested for a little before heading back out. It was another 20 minute minute walk to Piazza Anfiteatro where we would catch the bus up to Mt. Vesuvius at 3:30. It was an hour bus ride full of stunning views and scary turns. The road up was very narrow and full of hairpin turns. One wrong move and this full-size bus would be no more. The bus dropped us off near the top, but we still had a good twenty minute walk uphill. It was actually pretty strenuous with the steep incline and the loose rocks slipping out from under your shoes. By the time we reached the top, my calves were killing me. The crater was huge! It was crazy to be standing on top of an active volcano that was so destructive so many years ago. Thankfully we didn't see any smoke coming from it... Looking out over the Bay of Naples was incredible. We could see the whole city and even the island of Capri in the distance. It was even better in the evening light.
We couldn't stay for long since the last bus would be leaving in 30 minutes. I finished eating my sandwich from earlier on the hike down and tried not to slip. Thankfully we made it in time, but the bus was so full that we decided to plop down in the middle of the floor. It was dirty and not very comfortable being jostled about on the floor, but hey at least we got on. We made it back down at about 6:40 and sat down at an American western themed restaurant. It was so weird seeing a Florida license plate all the way in Pompei, Italy. I wasn't that hungry so I only got French fries. On the way back to our hotel we stumbled across them most amazing sunset. With the Pompeii ruins in the foreground, the sky all orange and blue, and Vesuvio silhouetted in the distance, it made for a beautiful sight.
Saturday, April 20
We didn't get up very early today and made it to the ruins' gates at around 10am. We waited in line for a bit and then walked the path to the old Roman city of Pompeii. It surprised me how big it was! This wasn't just a collection of ruins but an actual maze of crumbling streets and homes and shops. We saw amphitheaters, bakeries, mills, brothels, houses, temples, and more. Covering this whole area in a day seemed unlikely. It was so cool wandering through an actual city from around 600 B.C., like walking through history. In the cobblestone streets were deep grooves from years and years of chariots being pulled down them. The main square, the forum, was large and filled with ruins of many important buildings. It was chilling to be standing there surrounded by lots of other tourists (pretending they were ancient Pompeiians going about their daily life) and seeing Vesuvius rising ominously in the distance. Of the 20,000 citizens, about 2,000 didn't make it to safety, the ashy molds of their bodies displayed near the exit of the ruins.
We had to get back eventually, but we did see a few more key places on our way back. One of which was a guy's house, with a portrait of a very well endowed man on the front entrance. These Pompeiians sure were interesting. Some of the graffiti here doesn't leave much to the imagination. And by graffiti I mean centuries old carvings in the stones. There are many insults, lewd comments, and even graphic paintings in brothels. Though this one I will share with you is quite wholesome: "We two dear men, friends forever, were here. If you want to know our names, they are Gaius and Aulus." Another one I found quite interesting: "On April 19th, I made bread." If only we had come yesterday instead of today then we could've celebrated that anniversary. Anyway, three hours definitely didn't seem like enough to see everything, but we didn't feel like rushing to catch our train. We got gnocchi for lunch and then walked the 20 minutes back to our hotel, packed up, sat down for a good half hour/45 minutes, then walked the 20 minutes to the train station. We got there early for once and had a smooth half hour ride into Naples. We had just under an hour in Naples, so what else would you do in the land of pizza but eat? Carrying our bags, we trekked to the nearest pizza place only to find it closed. Just my luck. To be fair, 5pm is definitely not dinner time in Italy. It's not even pre-dinner time. Nothing else was open so we got some snacks and boarded our train. Disappointing, but we were both pretty exhausted at that point and ready for the four hour ride home.
Sunday, April 21
Happy Easter! Today I woke up early and headed straight for Piazza del Duomo. Easter means Scoppio del Carro in Florence, or the Explosion of the Cart. This 350-year-old tradition is still in full swing and draws huge crowds to Florence's main square. I managed to get there just as the parade did, with the giant two-story cart, or brindellone, being pulled in by white oxen. I walked around to find huge lines to get up close, so I waited to pass through security to get in. There were tons of people there already and still an hour until the "explosion." At 11am, the bells of Giotto's Campanile tolled, marking the start of the event. A rocket disguised as a white dove, the colombina, shot down a wire from the altar of the cathedral through the door to light the cart, starting the firework display. It lasted about 20 minutes, interrupted only by confetti raining down and olive branches being thrown into the crowd. A pretty cool show, it ended with the colombina zipping back inside to the altar, a sign of good luck for the year. It was a really interesting event, something that doesn't really seem like you'd do on Easter, but it was really cool seeing something so distinctly Florentine. After church later, I facetimed my mom at her annual Easter gathering, getting to quickly see everyone there. Since I couldn't be there this year, it was really cool to see everyone regardless of where I was.
Monday, April 22
We didn't have class on Easter Monday, but I got up early anyway for some reason. I left home at about 8:45am and walked across the river. It was so nice being out this early, before the hordes of tourists crowd the city. I strayed off the beaten path in the Oltrarno and came across the most peaceful streets in Florence. They were so narrow and quiet and even had some greenery. They were some of my favorites of the city. It took me a little over a half hour to get to the Bardini Gardens because of my detouring, but it was so worth it. At 9:30am, the gardens still weren't crowded at all and I even met a kitty at the front entrance. I strolled the gardens for a while just soaking in the peacefulness. Soon enough I came to the main draw of the gardens: the wisteria tunnel. Draped in pink and purple flowers, the tunnel was a sight straight out of a fairytale. #wisteriahysteria The wind blowing through them doubled their magical feel and the view of Florence through the petals was also breathtaking. I didn't ever want to leave. Florence's city center is so devoid of green spaces that being surrounded by nature was very calming.
As always, here's the video!
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