Gun Shots!

As my time here is coming to an end I keep finding things I am going to miss. Here are a few:
1. Here I walk to the fruit vender and get fresh fruit whenever I want.
2. There are amazing artists everywhere here. I think they all know my face because I am constantly watching them paint and now they just smile and shake their heads.
3. THE FOOD! I am going to miss the food. A lot.
4. My italian family! I have had the greatest experience with my family here! It has been a great experience.
5. The immense amount of history and art surrounding me here is crazy. There is always some kind of historical significance of every building I pass.
There is plenty more I am going to miss but I am still here for now!

Our lovely view from our hotel

This weekend a group of six of us went to Napoli! We were very excited for our trip and couldn't wait for the weekend. When we got off the train and walked outside we were a little less excited and a little more scared for our safety.  A boy on the trip made the famous comment of the weekend, "If you hear fireworks its not actually fireworks; its gunshots." When we finally made the 10 flights of stairs up to our hotel room we felt a little safer because we knew that no one would work that hard to get to our things.  That night we ordered pizza because Napoli is where pizza was born! Emma and I had a pizza with french fries and hotdogs on it! It was surprisingly very good!

French Fry Pizza!

After dinner and a night of playing italian cards we went to bed in our room with an "air-conditioner" (it was not the best functioning air-conditioner I have ever used...)
The next morning we headed to Pompeii! We climbed Mount Vesuvius (an active volcano) and walked  around the mouth of Vesuvius for a few hours. Then we went into the city of Pompeii and saw the town. It was very interesting yet very sad.. the ash preserved some of the bodies so you can still see the real bodies and the positions they were in when they were covered.. it was hard to believe that that was a real person.
And from the town of Pompeii there is a clear view of the volcano that completely devastated the town. It is an erie sight.

One of the bodies found.

A view of Vesuvius from Pompeii 

Our view from Vesuvius 

After a long day of walking in the heat we finally made it back to our lovely hotel! We were all ready for bed and looking forward to a day of relaxing on the beach! That next morning we headed out a little too late and ended up run/walking to the station. We had a very eventful day with our travel; we had a bit of trouble understanding the people of Napoli because they have a different dialect than the people of Florence. But we finally made it to Sorrento! It was a beautiful city!

We decided to get on a bus and head to the Almafi Coast! We took a bus that drove along the edge of a mountain the entire time.. we were a little terrified and a little sick by the time we reached Positano but the view once we got there was worth it! Positano is probably the most beautiful city I have ever seen. It is built into a mountain and has a beautiful beach with the clearest water. It was gorgeous! We swam and hung out of the beach for a couple hours before heading back to catch our last train home. (to Florence) When we got back to the train station we quickly went back to our hotel to get our luggage and found out that Jason's luggage was not there. We had very little time before our train was leaving and we were all frantic! We were looking everywhere but a few of us had to go to the train station to make sure that it wasn't leaving early. About two minutes later they came running up to us and said that Jason found his luggage in the dumpster! We all ran to the train station and jumped on the train just minutes before it left! We got back to Florence around ten o'clock that night and we were ready for bed.
So there is the condensed version of my lovely weekend in Napoli! What an experience!

The Gang! (minus a couple boys)