"Veni, Vidi, Vici": Paestum, Sorrento and Pompeii!

At Paestum!

It was the weekend before finals and we had another excursion planned. Sweet! (It was a good excuse to keep putting studying off) It was so well worth it though, even despite all the cramming at the end. The whole bus ride you'd hear everyone "Botecelli's 'Spring,' 1480, Uffizi, Florence..." in preparation for the Art History final that we were all dreading. After our lunch break, Dr. K, the CEA archeological professor gave us a tour of Paestum, which is another ancient Roman city, much smaller than Pompeii, but still spectacular. We also toured the musem as well

I apologize that this is probably the most side tracked comment, but as I am writing this, I am enjoying an Oreo--something I've been craving for a long while...too exciting! :)

Cough medicine cake

Anyways, Sorrento was next on the map. Such a beautiful city! I wouldn't mind living there one day. It sits right on the coast line and out hotel room had quite the view of the coast, all from the balcony. We just couldn't get enough of it! I always look forward to hotel meals, because they are usually fantastic. This one was certianly no different: Tortellini with ragout sauce, bread, chicken and roasted veggies! It was fantastic all up until dessert. This pains me so much to say that dessert was rather not very tasty. It was a homemade strawberry cake. Sounds good, right? Think again. Imagine it tasting like cough medicine...yea.

It was too nice of an evening to just hang out at the hotel. Christian and I decided to wander around the streets of Sorrento. We stopped at another balcony area that overlooked the sea and watched a random fireworks show. Not sure what is was for exactly. However, low and behold, the balcony was actually the terrace of another hotel. Definitely didn't realize that. And there was a gate and we bascially got locked in. Oops! No worries, we just had to ask and we were on our way. Note to self: make sure it is not another hotel before walking to their terrace. haha

Sorrento at sunrise

Being a crazy person, Jacquie, Sam and I all woke up at about 6am in hoped of watching the sunrise over the sea. Well we walked down to the ports, but realized the sun rose in the opposite direction, from behind the mountains, conveniently. Oh well, it was a gorgeous morning and we all able to watch everything light up and the day begin in Sorrento.

Mt Vesuvius!

We couldn't exactly go back to sleep after we got back, we had Pompeii to see! You walk into this ancient city, literally frozen in time and you can picture the bustling streets of this huge place. It's rather hard to take it all in actually. It was a very advanced city at the time. Everything is preserved so well after Mt. Vesuvius erupted in the year 79. You see bodies in permanent positions from the time of the eruption. Mt. Vesuvius is still an active volcanoe and is actually expected to erupt again soon, supposedly. Luckily it didn't happen when we were there! But before we left, we had to salute Mt. Vesuvius for life and prosperity. I like to leave on a good note :)