I Left My Mark on Naples

This past weekend almost all of the group made its way to Naples. Not scary at all considering that is where the Mafia is based, and they run most of the city. Ahhh!! I survived to tell about it though. See Mom, I'm safe! (It actually wasn't that scary.) Naples was definitely my least favorite place we have visited so far. :( Oh well, it just makes the other places that I have seen that much better. Part of it might have been the weather, it was raining. We wandered through the streets because my director didn't know where the archaeological museum was. I saw a dog dying, heard people yelling, and tripped over piles of garbage. Yuck. We only were there for the museum, so we weren't there for long.

Next we headed to Herculaneum which is an excavation sight. The town is near Mount Vesuvius, which erupted and destroyed most of the buildings. I wish I would have had more time to look around, but I decided to go to a sit down lunch at a "mom and pop" kind of place so I had to sacrifice time. The lunch was very good (and cheap!) so I guess it was worth it. I also tasted the most delicious canoli (another thing to check off my list). I went with another group to catch the train back to Rome.

We got behind so we thought we lost the rest of the group and barely made the train. We got on the train to find the rest of the people that were leaving for Rome. We made the train and got more sight-seeing time than everyone else so it was a good deal! Lisa and I stayed in that night so we could get up early for sight-seeing. And I have been sick for a while so I sat around and loaded up on juice and cough drops. I'm finally feeling better though!

The next morning Lisa and I went to the Colosseum. I figured it would be a sin to live in Rome for 6 weeks and not visit such a well-known tourist sight. It was really cool to see! I wish I would have seen The Gladiator before I went though, because I heard almost every tour guide mention it in their tour. They removed the main "stage" to show the animal cages that were underneath. Tourist spots are so interesting for me. I enjoy hearing English, because in a typical day I don't hear much. It's a comfort thing. I also get really annoyed with tourists and how ignorant they are.

After that we went to the Palatine Hill. We were running on a low energy level though, so I don't think we appreciated it much. We went to grab lunch to go back to the Roman Forum for round 2, but they wouldn't let us in. The Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum have the same entrance and even though our tickets didn't expire until the next day, they wouldn't let us in because we had already entered. Ridiculous. On our frustrated walk home we stopped for a Nutella crepe. Another thing to check off my list. Yes!

Daily Life stuff:
-I'm washing all of my laundry by hand in the bathroom sink. Not too bad, but I miss my washing machine and dryer.

-I have SO much homework here!!! I hardly have time to explore anymore, because it keeps piling up. And it's really hard to study with 5 roommates, so that doesn't help.

Reason for the title of the blog: When we were in the train station in Naples my friends walked right through a construction zone and I blindly followed. In our defense, it wasn't marked. My footprint is now in the concrete of Naples train station.

This weekend the entire group is going with our directors and art history professor to Florence for a field trip. That's my idea of a good field trip! So I might not be on here for a while. No worries, more stories and pictures will come.

And I cannot write this without giving a shout out to the Johnnie football team!! They won homecoming in the last 3 seconds of the game! I really wish I would have been there, because all of the fans rushed the field. It's on youtube if you want to see it. It's a trade off, I got to see the Colosseum, they got to see a great game. It's all good!