(iPhone update disclaimer, so please forgive the difficulty in writing/spelling being a rough cut)
The Most Horrifying Thing I Have Ever Seen a Tourist Do:
So there have been a few things in my traveling experiences that have been quite terrible to witness. The woman from the south yelling about "y'all speak-o the English-o?" followed by "But how much is that in dollars?!?", the various hostel experiences coming across a whole variety of people...but by far the worst of thing I have ever witnessed was at St. Peter's Basilica.
By definition Vatican City is the center of the Catholic world. Even those who are not Catholic flock to see it and can find refuge/peace in it'sassive scale and innate religious center upon which it operates. St. Peter's therefore is something I believe even the most agnostic person can respect in terms of it's value of religious terms and historical value if nothing else. It is St. Peter's and I don't think I know any Christian who doesn't appreciate its importance.
As such, when they say there is a dress code it is quite ridiculous to see people try to get around it. It is nothing over the top, shoulders covered and knees covered (aka no short shorts and women should at least get a shawl). I find it ridiculous to see people be shocked by such, but such should be expected from tourists I suppose.
But then we saw someone else. Two someone else's to be exact actually. A couple who managed to fit the dress code, yet completely miss the point of their visit. As we were leaving they were entering...and usuing the Holy Water to clean/wash/cool their neck, face and hands.
Brendan, Karl and I were so shocked we didn't even get a chance to react. First of all, the Holy Water basin had been roped off so it wasnt easily accessible to the "average tourist" so they were already crossing lines. Guess they really went there to see some big buildings and religious artwork they will clearly get no deeper value out of.
Monday (20th): Yesterday was spent in Sorrento after having the best pizza in the world the night before. I could describe it myself, but Karl is a bit more articulate and I will allow his words to describe our overall feeling towards Sorrento and the location of the place we went to eat:
"We got there late in the evening, just as the sun disappeared behind clouds on it's way to the horizon. Everything was lit up in hues of azure and red, and you could hear the seagulls circling overhead as they came to roost. The waves crashed below as we stood on the clifftop, salty breeze pushing around you, watching as the sun finally set. And suddenly it was quiet, peaceful and serene."
The scenery was beautiful, the food: by far the best I've had so far. I got a Caprese pizza, fresh mozarella, tomatoe and basil. Oregano and drizzle olive oil. I hope one day to make pizza half as good!
The morning (yesterday) was spent doing a walking tour and exploring the town...with quite a bit of window shopping. Sorrento is a port so we spent a significant amount of time looming at sailing clothes and all sorts of yachting thing entirely out of our budget. Another hit was the family-owned leather shop. The neat thing was the small family crest that was present on all their products for sale. I was quite tempted by a purse, but decided to pass. Though Brendan did buy a belt and Karl seriously considered a wallet.
The afternoon was spent in Pompeii seeing the ruins. Karl and I had been hearing mixed reviews on the town as so we were both slightly apprehensive about spending 11 euro on something that may be very similar to Ostia Antica, the ruins we had seen near Rome. We were not disappointed in the least though, the city was very cool. Though we were unabl to crawl around the ruins to the same degree as we had been at Ostia Antica, we still saw a lot. Many more frescoes, mosaics and of course the famous plaster casts of humans caught in the volcanic fallout from Mt. Vesuvius. A fun thing about the ruins were the stray dogs that were present everywhere. By tradition, due to a mosaic found stating "Cave Canem" or "Beware of Dogs", all strays are welcome and taken care of in Pompeii. They were quite friendly, loved finding a good spot of shade and a belly rub. Karl was in heaven.
That evening we ventured to Naples, which was not our cup of tea. Naples was absolutely disgusting. We assumed people had been exaggerating, but there was trash completely saturating the city. The piles on the streets near dumpsters were easily as high as cars. Overall this did not give us a good impression of the city. This was followed by the recommendation of going to the "Best Pizza Place in the World" (as pizza was born in naples) and so we decided to go investigate. The most famous places was take-out only sp we went to number two. While very fresh, I would not say it nearly came close to Sorrento's pizza. We did not venture to the historic old town of Naples because the entire time we walking around we saw the creepiest people we've encountered on the trip so far. While if I had been alone I would claim I was paranoid, as the other two were just as nervous as I was made us decide to head out ASAP. Brendan left for Prague first thing in the morning while Karl and I got some breakfast and booked a train to Cinque Terre.
We were not able to get out of Naples until noon, but it gave us a chance to catch up on a little reading. We transferred in Rome and ended up sharing our room on the second train with three other Americans from Texas. Two slept the majority of the trip, but we chatted with the third for the majority of the trip. Upon getting to La Spezia (where we are using as a base for the hiking tomorrow) we dropped off our things and found a small restaurant to have dinner at. I got the gnocchi while Karl got the sea bass (which was very good-fresh being so close to the coast!). Afterwards was some ice cream sandwiches at a local mom & pop joint with lemon ice cream, which might sound odd was ver refreshing!
Tomorrow is a hike in Cinque Terre!
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