Italia

Sailing into the port of Napoli (Naples) was a gorgeous site – at least that’s what I was told. There was no way on earth you were going to get me out of bed at 7am to watch us port. Especially when we only had one sailing day between Spain and Italy, and that one day was used for the Sea Olympic games.

[The Sea Olympics]: Representing deck 2 we were the Aegean Sea(lions)  get it? Lol! We rep’d our orange hard that day. Each deck, was assigned a sea. The upper decks were split into 2 due to the large amount of students. Each deck also had a corresponding color. The day consisted of an opening ceremony where each sea was introduced and gave off a great cheer in hopes of winning.  The winning sea gets the grand prize of getting off the ship in Boston first. Which will make a difference of a few hours and less hassle with the rush of students eagerly awaiting to meet parents, friends, and the fondly missed cellphone usage. Anyway, the games in the Olympics were hilarious for the most part. I participated in the” Dean Says”, an uncanny similarity to “Simon says”.  Other games that went on included the limbo, poker, Jeopardy, crab soccer, ping pong, tug-o-war, volleyball and the very, very entertaining synchronized swimming. (I’ve got some epic videos of this particular event) The hustle and bustle around the ship was fun to see. There was great music being played, friendly competition and never ending laughs. Though we successfully came in dead last in the whole competition (even AFTER the faculty & lifelong learners) we still had a hell of a time. It was the first time we were able to really see who was a part of our deck and who was willing to put it all out there for the team. Regardless of coming in last, I still had fun and made some awesome memories.

Back to Italia-
As I said before we ported in Napoli. Though I didn’t get to see us actually dock, the port itself was gorgeous. We were right next to a castle. It was astonishing to me, and many others. So much so that we had forgotten to get pictures of it before the excitement of getting off the ship and exploring before we left that evening. Our day started out early as we walked through Napoli to get to the train station. This city was defiantly not my favorite with cars zooming though the roads with no sense of any traffic laws and streets littered with trash. However, amongst it all sat tall buildings with laundry hanging outside giving you a sense of community. We arrived at the train station and all bought tickets to Pompeii. We had the tough decision between spending the day in Pompeii or Capri before we head off to Veniza (Venice). Pompeii was amazing. The archeological sites were incredible, and so well preserved. The site obviously pushes thousands of tourists through it a day but you never lose the eerie sense of destruction in the shadow of Vesuvius.  We walked for around for several hours managing to read through guide books giving ourselves our own little tour and being able to see the incredible painting of Dionysus in one of the old villas. As the sun blazed down on us we were unable to escape a minor sun burn by midday and headed back out of the archeological site. A few of us opted out of going up Vesuvius due to time constraints and were able to make it back to the ship for a shower, little nap and dinner before heading back to the train station to catch an overnight to Venice.

[Venice]: 9hrs on a train but all worth it. Though I woke up with a bit of a cold Mama Sylvie didn’t let me go any 4hrs without taking some medicine which was able to help quickly kick my cold for the most part. Victoria, an exchange student I was traveling with from China had set up a hostel for us to stay at in Venice which ended up working out quite well in terms of money. Italy is not a cheap place to travel (nowhere with the Euro is, really).  We reached our hostel just before 6am, pretty much sleep deprived and starving. The owner of the hostel graciously met us at the train station and brought us to where we were staying and had breakfast ready for us when we got there. She then handed us a map with suggested places to go and we were off. We went to Murano, Burano and Torchello; all little islands around Venice and all extremely picturesque. We then made it to the main square in Venice where we were able to see some gondola riders, find some wifi and of course familiar saser faces, which is always comforting. We left Venice the next afternoon and went onward to Ferenzi.

[Florence]: It was now the 4th of July and we had just reached Florence. The girls went out for a bite to eat and I opted to stay in the hotel to shower and take a quick nap before we went out for the night. There was a concert in the main square in Florence put on by the Hardrock. We’re all still a bit confused as to whether or not that was for the 4th or a just because sort of thing. In any case, the streets were packed with people of all ages, American and not. The streets were also littered with sasers, it was intense. Where ever you went you’d hear “SAS?”…….. “YEAHHHHH!! HAPPY 4TH!” Meeting up at the Dumo was crazy; such a gorgeous site in the evening only to have its steps full of people literally slugging back wine by the bottle. We had gotten a gelato and set off with some other sasers to a bar that was coincidentally “Hawaiian themed”. Having my handy-dandy license with me, proving I was from Hawaii earned me free shots. It was a fun filled night full of dancing. The next afternoon, onward to Roma.

[Rome]: We once again caught a longer train ride from Florence to Rome through beautiful Italian country side with fields full of sunflowers and rolling hills. 5hrs later we made it to Termini station where we were once again met by our hostel owner who had dinner ready for us. We all chose not to go out that evening because we had an early day in Rome the next day with 9 other sasers on a guided tour. Bright and early we caught the metro into Rome, to step outside and have the Coliseum right across the street. When our group of 13 was complete the tour guide took us through the giant structure full of blood shed history. We are all still amazed by the fact that this structure is still standing and the magnitude of it. We were also able to walk through the ruins of the forum. After a quick lunch we were shuttled off to the Vatican City where we were met by a new tour guide after yet another gelato and a quick cool down in the 90 degree heat. Walking through the Vatican museum was like information overload. There was so much to see there was no way you could have read everything about every piece of art there was. Walking through the Sistine Chapel and the Basilica were amazing experiences, it was epicly overwhelming. I only wish I could post some pictures, though they do no justice to the actual things. After our 9am – 6pm tour we all got some dinner and headed back to Roma Termini to catch the train to Civitavecchia where the ship was ported, because a free bed was the best idea for everyone. Then next day I stayed around Civitavecchia and did some homework out on the deck on the ship while Christine and Sylvie went back into Rome for some more shopping and to visit the Trevi. The next day we were back to sailing towards Dubrovnik.

[C9 & C10]: The past two days after Italia have been “C” days, or class days. After 10 days of no class it was definitely a struggle to get back into the swing of it, especially when I’ve had 3 papers and a midterm to get through. But the day is over and we will be in Croatia tomorrow. People have been saying for days now, how beautiful Croatia is – I hope it will live up to its reputation though I have no doubt that it will. Plans have still yet to be decided other than my snorkeling trip on Tuesday. Until then, we’ll see how everything pans out.