I went to Orvieto on Friday. It was fun (just like everything else). It is another of those medieval hill top towns, but this one was much bigger. I wasn’t as crazy about this place as I was about Tarquinia and Assisi. It took us three hours to get there and when we got there we were quickly shuffled up the hill and into a cave. The caves were really cool. The first set of caves we went into had been a quarry a long, long time ago and when they were digging they came across a deep well which had been dug out by the Etruscans a long time before they had begun to dig. The walls of the well seemed perfectly strait and they had hand and footholds all the way down. It was really deep and looked like it would have been terrifying to climb down. The next level of caves that we entered was once used for making olive oil. However, before that it was a place of worship for the Etruscans. The third layer we went to was a labyrinth of rooms with holes completely covering the walls and windows in every room. The holes had been once used as nests for pigeons. The owner of the house above the cave would carve out these holes in the walls and this way he would be able to sell and eat the meat from the pigeons and because there was a window the pigeons wouldn’t need to be fed. There were remains stairs in each of the rooms which went up into the roof of the caves we were in. They used to go all the way up into the houses. One of the rooms we were in had been converted into a hospital during World War II as a precaution, but it was never actually used.
After our tour of the caves we returned up to the surface and were immediately struck with intense heat and an incredible view of the valley below. They then gave us some free time. They had not, however planned it well because they gave us free time at the exact time when everything in all of Italy closed except food. So, we wandered around for a few minutes to see if anything was open, but disappointed, we went to get some lunch. This was the best food I had so far. I had some pasta with carbonara sauce and pork cheek. The pork cheek was incredible. My roommate (who I spent the entire day with) kept laughing at me because of how satisfied I looked all meal. My mouth still waters when I think about it. Stuffed and hot, we continued to wander around and went into any shop which was open. Basically the only things still open were the tourist shops, so I didn’t end up getting anything. We did get some gelato twice during the day, though. Right as we were leaving the stores began to open. We would have gone into the cathedral there, but it cost a lot more than any of us were willing to pay and it was only open for about an hour of our free time. Oh well.
When we got back to the ship we went up to the dining room to eat since we were all too tired to go out to eat. After food I went swimming in the pool on the ship for the first time. The pool is small and boring, but it felt so good to get into the pool. I wasn’t in there long before I got bored, so I ended up getting out and taking a shower before going to watch The Office with another group of people (I do a lot of group-hopping). A bunch of us also went up to the top deck to watch the sun set over Civitavecchia one last time. We watched the people who were late to the ship run (if we’re late getting back to the ship we get “dock time” meaning we have to stay on the ship while we’re in port). After a few minutes the person who does the filming of people and events on the ship approached me and asked if she could interview me. Since everyone else disagreed, I gave in. It was possibly the most awkward interview ever. My friends said my hands were going everywhere. I sort of hope she doesn’t use it in the video “year book.”
When I fell asleep that night I was in Civitavecchia still, when I woke up the next morning we were docked in Naples. It was an odd experience.
Just as I had remembered, Naples is not a pretty city. It’s not particularly safe and it is just grungy. I had a city orientation tour in the morning during which our tour guide, Mario showed us around the city in the bus. It was a nice change from walking everywhere. I didn’t realize how much I missed bus tours. He gave us some free time to shop, but all there was in the area was clothing shops. I found a shirt I really liked, but the line to buy things was too long, but we decided we wanted to go out shopping later anyways in search of some grocery store, so we left. We came back to the ship, ate lunch, had a nap, read a little, then headed back out to around the same place we had been. Shopping was fun. I hadn’t spent much time with my roommate until Orvieto, so it was nice to spend a lot of time with her. We get along really well and her friends are cool too. We shopped for a really long time and never found a grocery store or anything like it. I did end up buying that shirt. It confuses the hell out of me, but I really like it. We headed back rather early since I was supposed to meet up with people at 7:30 to go to dinner.
When I got back to the ship, it turned out that they had been waiting for me and that there was a large group of people that they had been wanting to go with. So, I didn’t get to clean up or even go to my room before we left again. Stephanie had read about the oldest pizzeria in Italy, so that is where we were headed. After searching for about 30 minutes to an hour we finally found it and it was definitely worth it. It was off on a side road and the waiters were incredibly hilarious. Whenever someone pulled out a camera and asked him to take a picture he would grab them by the arm and pull them into the restaurant (we were sitting outside) where he would hand them a dead fish and take their picture with the chef. Sometimes he would give them a flower vase instead. I never got grabbed, sadly, but it was a lot of fun to watch this all go on to all of the other SASers in the restaurant (we took up about half of the tables). The pizza was incredible. He came out and gave us each our own pizza and it was so good that I couldn’t leave any on the plate. It was mozzarella, basil leaves and tomato sauce. Before we left we all got a picture with our waiter and he gave us each a kiss on the cheek. As we wandered down the streets of Naples, there was now only six of us in the group which had started out with about 20. The streets were really sketchy, so we had to choose our roads intelligently. We found our way back to the ship fine and after I read for about an hour I passed out. Currently I am reading a book called Honor Killing: Stories of Men Who Killed by Ayse Onal. If anyone is interested in learning more about honor killings and why they happen, I recommend reading this. It is very sad, but it’s really interesting hearing these stories from the male’s perspective.
Today I woke up early and went to Erculano (Herculaneum in English). Herculaneum was destroyed in the same explosion as Pompeii, but since Herculaneum was so much closer to Mount Vesuvius it was covered in pyroplastic flow (unsure of spelling). The people here were killed instantly by burning, rather than suffocating like they did in Pompeii. The houses are much more intact here too. Some of the buildings you can see multiple floors. One building was once four stories high and the only story which we cannot see any of is the fourth. Also, the frescos and mosaics were much better preserved. We saw one mosaic which looked like it hadn’t been touched. It was absolutely incredible. Most of the old city of Herculaneum is covered by New Herculaneum, so they cannot excavate it, but what has been uncovered is incredible. In one area they found a really neat statue of a tree with a snake wrapped around it.
When we got back to the ship I ate lunch then decided to go swimming a bit and do some work out on the deck since I have tons of work to do by Croatia (which is only two days away). I was planning on going out to find a grocery store at 3:30 with one girl, but she backed out on me, so I didn’t end up going. Sadly my goal to get some tea from each country and some artwork from each country has already failed. I got some of both in Spain, but Italy I didn’t get either. Every piece of artwork I saw was ridiculously expensive and I never found a grocery store. Oh well…it’s only one country. I still have all the rest. I’m going to go now and possibly get some laundry done before I go to dinner.
Oh, I think I should tell you how laundry works on the ship. You can pay $6 to have them wash a very small bag of clothes (it’s about the size of a small grocery bag), however that only happens every few weeks and can only happen when we’re at sea, so I have yet to do it. I wash a few articles at a time in the sink and since we’re in a room without much air circulation it takes a long time for things to dry. However, someone recently told me that since the ceilings and walls are all magnetic we should just use our magnets to hold clothes up on the ceiling right next to the vent. Most of the clothes I was are underwear, so a lot of the time there is a bunch of underwear hanging from the ceiling around our vent. Currently my bathing suit is the only thing up there, but soon there will be more.
Have a great evening. I’ll be at sea tomorrow (which means classes) and then I’ll be in Dubrovnik, Croatia on Tuesday. I’ll post tomorrow sometime to let you all know what I am doing in Dubrovnik!
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