Naples: Day 1

This neglect has been preposterous. I should just start writing stuff down.

So, Ayla was already planning to take a trip to Naples and Capri, and since I wanted to go as well we went together- this had the added benefit of me not actually having to plan anything. We hopped on the train early Friday morning and got into Naples with plenty of time, we planned, to check into our hostel, see the Naples art museum, and visit a few castles and the like.

This, of course, never actually worked (and we quickly learned that planning is for people who expect and require everything to go perfectly) For starters, the street we had for the hostel's address appeared to not exist, off of the street it should have been. We asked a few Tabacchi (it means Tabaccho Shop, but they carry all kinds of things) if they knew, but since they had no idea, we tried asking a Farmacia (Pharmacy, that one's easy), thinking maybe they'd live in the area, as they tend to be family-run. The Farmacia actually ended up calling the hostel for us, which we were very grateful for (though we had to take the phone because the guy on the other end didn't speak Italian!) Turned out the road we were given was a side street off a side street, thus our difficulty in finding it off the main road.

Finally, we dumped off our backpacks and got back out to the city. We trekked to the art museum...at the top of a hill...which was fun. But we did not factor into the time we allowed for the musuem that we're two art majors. We spent the rest of the day in the museum. When we finally gave up finding that last painting we knew was there, we trekked down the cliff a bit, found a bus, and got back down to the main city. We wandered around for a bit, found somewhere to get some real Neopolitan Pizza, and then went back to the hostel and crashed.

Verdict on Naples: dirty, loud, not-Rome, but still enjoyable. Very lively.

Day 8

On Friday some of us went to Tivoli, because it was cheap and historic and we do things like that.

One bus and two trains later we were there! Well, that was what it took to get to Tivoli, the town. To get to Hadrian's Villa, we needed another bus, then a bit of a trek. We and some older French couples kinda followed each other around for that bit, trying to make sure someone knew which bus, and which stop, etc.

It was a cloudy, kinda dreary day. But the ruins were incredible. And after it rained they got all glossy and the sun came out and it was even better. Of course, the rainstorm prevented a ill-timed watercolor (would have been a tad too watery), but thankfully a lot of the buildings still had roofs. And i got an ink sketch in, which is always nice. I attempted, during the sunny lull, to watercolor of what is apparently called the Canopus, which is basically a large oval pool with lots of columns and statues. This ended up being mostly abandoned by both time restraints and the continuous throng of tours, all of whom, it seemed, required individual pictures with the ass of the statue I was painting. I was not amused. I scowled at the Drunken Classmates (who had just arrived) the most, though, telling them they annoyed me even when they weren't trying to. Such is life.

We made it back to the train before it poured the second time, unlike the other group (who were too lazy to wake up early and sleep on the train over, nyah nyah) so we had enough time to get back home and have a nice sit-down dinner. (of course the other group ended up finding quicker transit home, but bah) Day 9 would be reserved for a marathon of reading, both catch-up and assigned, in order that Day 10 be a wholely devoted Sketch Day.