Italia

I've been in Italy for three days now - a wonderful country. From Patra I had a 16 hour ferry ride, which I slept for most of. I arrived in Bari and took the train to Naples, where I stayed the night and all the next day. Visited Pompei, and then took the train to Rome where I slept last night. Toured the city today, and will likely stay until late afternoon Wednesday - try to hit Firenze (Florence) in time to find a hostel.

Impressions:

at first the landscape looks pretty boring... between Bari and the stop in Taranto the landscape was very flat, and although pretty it was dull to look at. The train was down past Taranto so we all got on a bus for Naples. There were about 12 of us who took the same trip from Athens to Naples, so we had some fun with that. Still, 31 travel hours wasn't fun. Forunately on the bus ride the terrain got more interesting, with mountains everywhere. The Italians and the Greeks take opposite approaches - Greeks love to build in valleys, while the Italians appear to love building hours in the most inaccessable spots imaginable. I've seen houses build into cliff walls that I wouldn't want to climb, much less live at. Entire villages are found on the tops of large hills. They also delight in their bridges and tunnels - all are named, with their length and important information prominently displayed.

Naples I didn't like too much - it would be a great spot to get away from everything, but there isn't much in the way of sightseeing. A pretty, romantic town, it was also nosiy, crowded and running down in places. Still, I saw a horse show, walked along the coastal plaza and spent 5 hours trying to find my hostel - that place was impossible to find. It's also a dangerous city, as pickpockets are everywhere. Even the dogs are always stealing from each other...

Next day I walked back to the train station, and went to Pompei. No idea the ruins would be so big, and I enjoyed it. Saddest part was definitely the people buried alive - some rolling in agony, others curled up crying. Tried to get lunch in the city center, but everything was closed down due to the Genoa-Naples football match. Fortunately I stopped to watch the game at one of the local places, and the owner said he'd call his wife over to cook for me. Naples won - everyone was in a very, very good mood. Watching the game with the crowd was the most intense I've seen sports fans, and from me that's something.

Rome has been good so far. Amazing how much there is to see... I've hit the main sites outside of the Vatican, which I'll go to tomorrow, and the university museums, which I'll do Wednesday. Most interesting so far was the Time Elevator, a new place that takes you on an hour tour of the history of the city. You sit in motion similators, have a curved screen in front of you and sit back and enjoy the ride. Very immersive, to the point that you fly over an ancient sailing ship in a storm and the sprinklers turn on and fans start blowing really hard. Great time, and fairly cheap, too. Definitely go if you have time. I expected it to be a little childish, but it wasn't at all. Almost scary at times, such as the wolves with Romus and Remus or the death of Caeser.

on a fun note, in the ancient temple of Vestius a group has established a cat sanctuary where they take stray cats and give them food. It's in a small piazza, and there must have been at least 50 cats lying around sleeping, playing and looking up expectantly at people for food. completely unexpected, but a lot of fun.

now it's quite hot, and I decided to break from walking to type this all up. supposed to be hot for several more hours and break in the evening, so i might go see Ocean's 13 at the cinema in Republica Square.

will update again, probably in florence.

mom - i've emailed you a few times, but it says your address no longer exists at that name. the $500 is fine.