Headin' South

Well hello there, it's been a while since I've been on here. There is so much to write about. We had a five day trip to the south of Italy. We spent two nights in Salerno and two nights in Rome, so I have lots to catch you up on! But I'll start with our first day...

Friday we got up bright and early to meet our bus at 7am! It was a five hour trip on the smallest, most uncomfortable bus I've ever ridden on. There was no leg room or body room. No way to get comfortable to sleep. But somehow I did sleep for the majority of the ride. It was a five hour journey to our first stop of the day at an AutoGrill for lunch. For some reason, one of the Coke add campaigns in Italy is to name all of their bottles. Steph found a Coke named Stefano so it was fitting for her to buy it. 

Our next stop was Ercolano (Herculaneum) a city similar to Pompey. It was covered by the volcano eruption (Mt. Vesuvius) in AD 79. Only about one third of the city has been excavated. Villas, streets, shops and bath houses remained remarkably preserved. At the time of the eruption, Ercolano was a vacation destination spot for the wealthy upper class of the Roman empire. 

The ocean used to come right up to the wall pictured below, now it has receded. It can still be seen from this site, but is much further away.

This was a sort of Roman fast food stop where the city folk would come to be served soup, grains, or stews. 

One of the most interesting things we saw at Ercolano were the baths. Men and women would gather in this courtyard area to do exercises before they entered the baths. It was almost what we could compare to a modern day YMCA or gym. First they would exercise, then hit the locker room, then the sauna, then the actual pool/bath. There were facilities for both men and women. 

One of the other most interesting things that we saw in Ercolano were the remains of ancient Roman villas. Many of frescos on the walls were in amazing condition so we could see how it was decorated along with intricate mosaic floors. 

The Big Macs: Jessie, April, Steph and I

After about an hour and a half of Ercolano we were all incredibly hot and thirsty. It was time to visit the MAV Virtual Museum. This was probably one of the coolest museums I've ever been to. They used technology to show how Pompey, Ercolano and other sites once looked during the Roman period. It was really neat to see pictures of what we just saw at the site along side what it would have most likely looked like in it's heyday. After that we climbed back on the bus for another hour or so to Salerno. The drive was beautiful down the coast, along the winding roads, with tree covered mountains to the left and the majestic blue Mediterranean to our right. I tried to take some pictures along the way, but it was difficult to get anything worth sharing. After arriving in Salerno we checked into our hotel and had a mini-tour with a guide around town before eating dinner at a local pizzeria. Delicious. Seriously I don't think I've had a bad meal yet.

That's only the first day of our trip, but for now I'll leave you with that. I still have lots of catching up to do, but I'll get around to it eventually I promise. Unfortunately for you though it will be a couple more days til  I'm on here again. Tomorrow Steph, Jessie, April, Mike and I leave for a three day trip to Verona and Venice!

Until next time, Ciao!