By this Author: alyin2000

Hola everybody!

After hectic finals and a fun last few nights with the Rome kids, it was time for a new adventure to begin. My best friend Stephanie from Notre Dame met up with me in Rome on Saturday morning before we set off to Spain for our month of research in Madrid and Barcelona. I can't believe we are finally here! We have been working on our grants and planning this trip for months! I waited for Steph at the arrivals gate and we had one of those movie-style reunions. It was so good to see her again! Even though she was jet-lagged, I dragged her all through Rome to show her what my life has been like for the past few months. We stopped at the market to pick up some fresh ciabatta bread, prosciutto, mozzarella and tomato to make ourselves some sandwiches for lunch. Then, I made her do the 2.1 mile walk to school...I'm kind of evil like that. On the way over we stopped for Old Bridge one last time to get some gelato. How sad! ...and then we stopped at the Vatican to get the classic photo in front of St. Peter's...

Then, we wandered around Trastevere for a while, and I showed her JCU. I finally took some photos, so you can get an idea of what my school was like:

The main hallway of the Guarini Campus

The Lemon Tree Courtyard, where we ate lunch, hung out between classes, etc...

The view over Trastevere from the Top Terrace of school

Then, we headed back to the apartment so Steph could take a quick nap and I could do some final packing. We went out to dinner with some of the Rome girls that decided to stay a couple extra nights as well. We went to Da Baffetto for dinner (which is one of the best pizza places in Rome) for some authentic Italian pizza. Later, we met up with my Italian friend Pier for one last night of fun in Rome! Pier is an oral surgeon I met while doing a language exchange a few weeks ago; I proofread an English article for him in exchange for a mini-cooper tour of the city. He picked us up in his brand new red mini-cooper and took us to some places we wouldn't have known about unless we were native Romans. We went to an Italian bar (which I don't think had ever served an American before) and had some fun walking around the neighborhood with all the embassies. Since we both were tired from a long day and had to get up really early the next morning to leave for Spain, we headed back early to try and jam more than 20kilos into each of our suitcases!

Buon giorno a tutti!

So yesterday, I decided to take an excursion that my hostel offered to Capri. I am told to wait downstairs in the lobby at 9:30am for the car to come pick me up and take me to the boat. Well, at 9:30, an Italian guy with a helmet under his arm comes walking into the lobby, and asks me if I’m taking to the tour to Capri. I say yes, he says, ok, ciao, I’m Agostino, I pick you up in scooter since you’re the only one from here today. (Sure enough, there was a little black Vespa waiting outside.) Are you ok with that? He asked. Little did he know he was fulfilling my Italian dreams of riding around Italy on a Vespa! I’m fine, I said, just let me wear the helmet. So I climbed onto the motorino held on to Agostino for dear life, and we were off, zooming down the coastline on the motorino. It was SO FUN! Why haven’t I ridden a motorino before???

Anyway, then we arrive at the port. Agostino leads me up the dock, and introduces me to all the old, weathered, ship captains. They kiss me on my two cheeks; it’s now like I’m a part of their big happy, Italian seafaring family. We keep going, and arrive at Agostino’s boat. It’s medium-sized, about big enough for 10-12 people aboard. Agostino gets the boat ready to depart while I relax and observe the port. It’s turning out to be a sunny day: a beautiful day for a boat ride.

Finally, the guests arrive from the other hotels. We were 10 in all. There were 2 middle-aged ladies from the UK with their elderly mother (every year they give their Mom a trip to somewhere exotic for Christmas, how nice?), a woman from Canada, and 5 kids my age from the Boston-area who were in Italy to visit their friend, who had just finished her study abroad program in Perugia. Agostino and Francesco were our boat captains for the day. All in all, we were an eclectic mix, but by the end of the day, it seemed like we had all been life-long friends.

Next, we started up the engines, and took off from the port in Piano di Sorrento, a little port outside of Sorrento. Agostino drove the boat piano, piano (slowly, slowly), as we navigated our way along the coastline to catch views of Sorrento from the water.

That's the park in Sorrento I was at the day before!

I took about a million photographs. Everything just seemed so beautiful and intriguing!

After reaching the tip of the peninsula, the boat took off high speed toward the island of Capri. Agostino let one of the UK ladies, Allison drive the boat. Has she ever driven a boat before, no? But it’s no problem, not hard to drive boat, says Agostino. That’s the laid-back, Italian mindset here. Luckily we didn’t die. Haha.

Reaching the harbor, we docked and disembarked. We had 3.5 hours to go explore Capri, and meet the boat back where it left us. I immediately ran to catch the bus to Anacapri. All of my friends had been to Capri already, and told me Anacapri was lest touristy. The bus ride was a bit nerve-wracking; the streets are carved into the sides of the cliff, so sometimes, it seems as if the bus is jutting out right over the ocean, and all you can see under you is blue see, hundreds of meters down, but as always, we made it to Capri just fine. All my friends also had handmade Caprese sandals from Anacapri. So I had the man’s name written down on a little piece of paper, and was determined to find him. First I got lost, and accidentally ended up at a villa/museum. It was Axel Munthe’s villa. Apparently he was a Scandanavian guy who was a big deal here…I should really wikipedia him. But anyway, he had great views of the island from his villa!

The Cliff-side Roads...

I backtracked to the main square, and tried another off-shoot street. Anacapri’s TINY, so I knew I’d find this guy eventually. Sure enough, two stores down: L’arte del sandalo di Antonio Viva. (The art of the sandal, by Antonio Viva) I walk up to this old-guy, just chilling outside and making sandals. I say in Italian, all my friends told me to come here to get your sandals. He replies, Your friends tell you right! So he shows me all his different sandal styles. He picks up one green sandal, and says, this is the kind I make for Giada when she come, you American girl, you know Giada? I say yes, of course I know the chef Giada Di Laurentis, from her show Everyday Italian on the Food Network. I love that show! I guess she brought her show to Capri once, and filmed him making sandals for her. Antonio has his young helper guy bring me into his shop, where I try on sample sandals in different styles. Then I get to choose the colors of leather I want and everything! I sit down, and watch Antonio make my sandals, while the young guy runs next door and gets us espresso. I asked him how much the espresso was, so I could reimburse him, but he says, no, on me. This is part of our services, you know, sandals and espresso (yeah, right…). Anyway, I talk to Antonio as he’s making my sandals, and find out he’s being doing this since he was 8 or 9 years old, when he helped his dad. Now, he’s been making sandals for over 50 years, and a lot of famous people have come to his shop, you can see them in the photographs pasted all over the windows. In 10 minutes flat, I had a brand new pair of sandals. I try them on, they left me extra room since I have high arches, but there is a little too much room. No problem, Antonio takes them back and adjusts them until they're perfect. So at the end of the day, I have a pair of handmade leather sandals, custom-fitted for my feet. Can’t beat that!

Then I decided to call and check in with Mom. They like to hear that I haven’t gotten hit by a car or anything…(not actually funny though, because my friend did get hit by a car when she was visiting Greece). Anyway, as I’m recounting my latest adventures to Mom, I accidentally get lost among the twisty, turny alleyways. She’ll tell you, I kept saying to her, “yeah, so I don’t really know where I am right now, but I am just going to keep walking…” Eventually, I saw a sign for the blue grotto, so I know I had gotten waaay off course. But I did rather easily find my way back to Anacapri, I’m getting so good at getting un-lost in foreign countries now! I caught the bus, got off at Capri and walked around for about 10 minutes, and then took the funicular back down to the marina. Right on schedule, the boat comes floating into the harbor.

We all jump back in, and then the boat takes off, this time, touring around the coast of the island. Agostino and Francesco first stop at the White Grotto, where we jumped off the boat and walked up some perilous stairs carved into the cliff, up to the cave, where Francesco had to lead us through the dark abyss, everyone holding hands, until we reached the light again. The inside of the grotto was so cool! You could tell from up there how brilliantly blue the water was.

We got back on the boat, and they dropped anchor nearby the grotto. So we stopped for a while to eat some lunch they packed for us, and to go swimming. I was being a scaredy-cat, afraid of the cold water, but Agostino kept saying, it’s only cold for 20 seconds, then you’re fine. The Canadian woman told me she’d jump if I jumped, so on the count of three, we jumped into the water together. I actually have some videos of this event, because I asked Allison to take photos, and she accidentally took video. I'll post them when I get back to Rome and can actually upload them.

After swimming, I ate a delicious Caprese sandwich, and the best orange I’ll probably ever eat in my whole life. I’m going to miss Italian produce! Then, we took off again, and continued our tour of the island. We passed by some rocks, which are supposed to mark the place where, according to legend, Ulysses encountered the Cyclops on his odyssey home.

Then we passed into the Emerald Grotto. Agostino kept saying, the green bay, the green bay, and I was thought it was hilarious. So I took a bunch of pictures for the Packer fans back home.

Eventually, after passing the northern point of the island, with the lighthouse, we cruised up to the Blue Grotto. The Blue Grotto is probably one of the sights Capri is most famous for. Usually, you have to catch a bus there, walk down stairs, where you are required to pay 10€ to get in a little dinghy which takes you in for about a minute before the next dinghy comes. It’s literally a little hole in the rock. You can’t even get in with a dinghy on a day when the waters are choppy. Well, after 4:30, the dinghy guys leave. So the Canadian woman and I jumped off the boat and swam into the grotto ourselves. I was definitely scared, because they kept saying, it’ll be dark, but just keep swimming…yeah, ok. But we did as told, and sure enough, we keep swimming into the darkness, asking each other, are we there yet? I turn around to keep an eye on Canadian lady, and I suddenly realize, the water is glowing blue. I tell her, just turn around, we’re already here! So I guess it’s kind of an optical illusion, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s the best one ever. After swimming around in awe for like two minutes, we high-tailed it out of there, because there were big, dark, scary caverns all around us, creeping us out. We got back on board, and zoomed away.

This is what the little hole in the rock looks like, and that's one of the dinghy's they use to get in there...but there weren't any when I was there...

This is what the Blue Grotto looks like from inside.

This time, we left Capri, and Agostino drove the boat as fast as he could back to Sorrento because there were some very, very ominous clouds in the distance. He kept saying, “Tempesta, Cazzo!”, basically, “Shit, what a storm!”. But we managed to get back to port before the rain hit.

Overall, it was probably one of the best days of my life. What an amazing boat tour!

Ciao, ciao for now. Alyssa.

Ciao belli!

Guess what? I’m baaack!!! Sorry about the hiatus, I have been swamped with final papers, presentations, and tests. But I’m here now to tell you all about my current adventures!

So since last week was so crazy, I actually had a pretty light finals schedule. That meant, that while everyone is now studying frantically for finals, I have no exams. Therefore, I decided I couldn’t leave Italy without seeing some kind of coast, whether the Amalfi or the Cinque Terre. So after hearing from everyone how great Sorrento was, I decided to check it out. Everyone’s already been, so I couldn’t find a travel buddy, but I now feel confident enough to go it alone. (well, maybe confident's not the word...but I knew I could do it!) It’s kind of lonely sometimes, but on the other hand, I get to do whatever I want! It’s fun!

First, I took the train down from Rome to Naples. I got to Termini Station early, and bumped into this interesting artwork:

After a two-hour train ride, I arrived in Napoli (Naples), and switched to the Circumvesuviana train. *Circumvesuviana means “around Vesuvius”

Another hour later, I arrived in a small town outside Sorrento called Sant’Agnello, where my hostel was located. As I walked to the hostel, I passed by several groves of lemon trees, where the lemons are used to make limoncello, yum! As you can imagine, it was a beautiful, warm, sunny day, and the air was fragrant with the smell of citrus. Heavenly!

Then I arrived at my accommodation. Seven Hostel. The hostel is located in a renovated building that is attached to the church. But as I discovered, this wasn’t really a hostel in the sense I’m used to. The Seven is more like a resort with the word “hostel” tacked onto its name. Seriously, this place is immaculate compared to most of the places I’ve been to; and, it had a sundeck with amazing views!

After dropping off my stuff, I decided to walk into Sorrento. It was a nice day, and only a 25-minute walk. As I wound my way through the narrow streets back toward the train station, I encountered an old-man on his porch, singing as he watered his flowers. As I was about to turn the corner, I caught his eye, and he cried out “Hello! Hello!” I said a big “Ciao!” back to him, and kept walking with a smile on my face. I love running into pleasant people! I decided to take the main road, because there were supposed to be cute little shops, etc…, but the traffic-noise was just a bit overwhelming. I diverted from the main road, and ran into a lemon grove, where they were offering free tastes of their homemade limoncello. They serve it ICE COLD. I never realized this was the proper way to serve it, but it tastes much better this way, less burning as it goes down! Finally, I reached Sorrento, which is a quaint little sea-port town, with a LOT of tourist traps! Too many high-priced limoncello and souvenir shops for me, but it was definitely clean and pretty with all the flower boxes everywhere. I accidentally stumbled into a public park, and found a stairway down the cliff-side and to the water. The water is so BLUE! I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s so iridescent and beautiful.

It was getting pretty near sunset then, so I hiked back up the cliff and decided to take a quieter way home on the back streets by the hotels. This route was also way more picturesque, and I caught these great seaside views.

When I got back to my hostel, I met my roommates for the night: Loisa, a teacher from Melbourne, Australia, Lauren from Toronto, Canada, who’s studying in Denmark, and another Lauren from New Jersey, USA, who’s studying in Perugia. We lounged in our room for a while and got to know each other, and then headed down to the hostel’s bar to have dinner together. I was so glad to make fast friends! It’s very reassuring when you’re traveling by yourself!

Now, I’m sitting out in the courtyard with the stars twinkling above me writing this post to you guys. Ahhh, la vita è veramente bella!

A domani!

Hey everyone,

So by now, I am sure that some of you have heard about the devastating earthquake that hit central Italy this morning. I just want to let you all know that I am thankfully safe and unharmed.

Ciao,
Alyssa

Hey everyone!

This is finally my last post on Dublin, thanks for sticking through and reading all my prolific posts!

So, Sunday morning we woke up relatively early to check out the fishing village of Howth. After eating some Irish oatmeal and drinking some Irish breakfast tea (did I mention I love Irish food?), we caught the yellow double-decker bus once again. I am still fascinated by those buses. I loved sitting on the front right corner of the upper deck, it was like an amusement ride! I don’t know how those bus drivers get these huge buses into and out of such tight spaces, but they really drive like champions! Even though we could have taken the local Dublin bus service all the way there, we caught the Dublin Dart commuter train to maximize our time out on the coast.

Howth was cold and windy, but great! You walked out of the train station to see a small seaport filled with fishing boats.

Howth has a special Sunday market, so first we checked out the food! We picked up a rhubarb pie for only 3 €, and then got some seafood chowder at a stand next to the fishing boat that had brought the fish in that morning. I don’t even like seafood, but this chowder was fabulous. It was the perfect remedy for a cold blustery day.

The port also had seals! They were so cute just hanging out in the water waiting to get their snapshots taken!

After our impromptu lunch, we decided to explore the rest of what Howth had to offer. We walked up the hill and found some great views, and some very soft green grass where we ate our dessert and then took a nap!

Next, we stumbled onto the cliffs path, which was INCREDIBLE. The Irish coast is gorgeous! It's a shame, because no pictures I took could ever capture its beauty.

We ended up circling one half of the peninsula on this scenic walk. I knew Ireland was beautiful, but you really can’t appreciate it until you go there and experience it for yourself. Everyone should try to get there someday. I can’t wait to go back and explore more of Ireland someday in the far distant future...when I finally pay off all those school loans... :-/

The end of the cliffs trail took us back into town, where we jumped back on the Dart, and headed home. Before we went all the way back to the apartment though, we stopped at the Asian food market. We picked up ingredients to make Pad Thai. I hadn’t had any Asian food since I left America, so this really was another treat! I wonder if I can find an Asian market in Italy somewhere… We called it an early night so I could pack and get some rest before my flight on Monday morning. I was so sad to leave Ireland, but I was certainly excited to get back to the warm, sunny weather in Rome. Overall, it was definitely a most memorable Spring Break!