Life in the Fast Lane

Traveling is very tiresome and fast. I have visited so many places in the past couple of weeks that all I want to do in my spare time is sleep. Italian sun makes you very sleepy. I have gone to Tivoli, Naples, Pompei, Herculaneum, Capri, and Cinque Terre. Oh and I went to the Borghese Galleria which has all of Caravaggio’s main stuff and Bernini’s main statues. I have also gone to the Vatican Museum. Lots of great stuff there too!I am learning so much in such a short amount of time. I think it might not be the sun. My brain is on an information overload. Lets see….Tivoli has Hadrian’s villa and Villa d’Este. I liked the latter the best, the former was later in the afternoon so it got really hot really fast. Villa d’Este was amazing though. It has 3000 fountains. It’s basically the best backyard anyone could ask for. So beautiful. Naples was an amazing trip. Stayed at a lively hostel which felt more like a family, in a good way. The pizza in Naples was AMAZING. I seriously cannot figure out why anyone else even tries to make pizza. Nothing can compare to the pizza I ate there. Ever. It’s funny because you can eat an entire pizza on your own and in the pictures people might think I am a pig, but one thing to note is that crust is REALLY thin. Its not like thick Americrap pizza. Its easily able to be eaten by one. Probably not the best idea but I wouldn’t want to share. Pompei and Herculaneum kinda go hand in hand. Both were destroyed by Mount Vesuvius when it erupted a long time ago (think Roman Empire). Pompei was preserved in ash while Herculaneum got a landslide of mud. Pompei is HUGE! and very cool, but its kinda like looking at the same thing over and over. Herculaneum is cool because it has mosaics and stuff. They both had preserved bodies that were kinda scary because they depict people struggling for life. You can literally see their pain. Moving on to Capri. How do I even begin to talk about Capri. It was amazing. I wish I had more time there but alas. The water was gorgeous and I was able to take the boat ride into the Blue Grotto. The water was neon blue. I have never seen anything like it. I doubt I ever will. It was amazing. Capri was all sun and waves and gorgeousness. I loved it.
This weekend I visited Cinque Terre. I loved it except it was kind of a bummer because it rained all weekend and I knew that my love for it could have been so much more if the sun was out. I was not properly equipped for the rain so hiking was out of the question. I ended going from town to town on train. They were super cute and it was fun just relaxing and not feeling rushed. Just sitting and reading and enjoying life. I love it there. I will definitely have to go back hopefully with better weather.
I have been to so many museums they make my head hurt. I love them but there is so much packed it gets kinda hard. Vatican was really cool. There is so much history about the Renaissance copying the antiquity and their preservation of it so they could really get it to the point. It’s way cool. The Borghese Galleria was intense. You get 2 hours to look at 3 hours worth of stuff. You have to quickly appreciate the beauty of Bernini and Caravaggio. Bernini was this child prodigy sculptor. He is intense. His sculptures are breathtaking. They are like real people ready to move at any moment. I love Caravaggio also, mainly because of my Grandpa who has about 10 half done paintings of his trying to mimick Caravaggio’s work. Caravaggio is so interesting. He was a rebel and said, “screw the rules of the Renaissance painting, my people are gonna be real and dark and relatable” I love his work. Needless to say life has been moving in the fast lane that I hardly ever have any time to catch up on updating those who read this. I am off to Florence and Venice for a week with my entire program, professors and all….. WISH ME LUCK!