Well, I know it has been a very long time since I last gave this page some love and I apologize. Two weekends ago we went to the Tuscan coast to Castelione and Marima Massima. I definitely forgot how much I missed the beach, and in Italia they are gorgeous. During our weekend trip we also stopped at San Grigiano where Grigiano was a rebel child (killed people, committed theft and other crimes… you know the usual haha) and then “some person related to god” as Mike said talked to him. He stabbed a stone after this figure talked to him and the stone is displayed in a church up a big hill by the old cathedral that is sitting for view, stone covered in Moss with out a roof. The beaches were beautiful even though I wished we would have more time to sit and bake in the sun.
Last week was still really crazy. I started to write my eight page papers in Italian, sent postcards to all of you who got postcards, had a cooking lesson with Leila and learned how to make delicious tomato zuppa, watched Harry Potter in Italian before it came out in the U.S., went underneath the city and took a tour of the aqueducts and more that I cannot remember at the moment.
Last weekend we went to Naples, Pompeii, and Salerno. Naples was beautiful, even though there is a lot of trash and one of the worst cities for mofia control. Naples is probably second to Sicily for mofia influence. The mofia in Naples is called Camorra and if you have ever heard of the movie Gomorrah, they are talking about the mofia in Naples that different families are always fighting to control. The mofia has a lot of control over the trash business and the trash workers have decided to strike and stop picking up trash recently. So, you can say as we were walking we would see trash just piled on the street, but it really was not that big of a deal. When we arrived at 5:30 a.m., we were pleasantly delighted to use the dirtiest bathroom I have ever been in at the train station. After that, we walked out to Piazza Garabaldi and saw a line of sketchy people gathering together and I half thought it was a gang gathering at 5:30 in the morning. As I looked again, I saw clothes on the ground and realized it was a market with very used goods. After we realized this, we walked by and I think Joe and Mark were even scared (mind while we were with Joe and Mark, no one would ever dare even talk to us haha). Besides that, Naples was beautiful and probably my favorite city. We went a and saw the Port of Naples which is were great grandpa Teodoro sailed twice and great grandma Lucia sailed once to go to Il Stati Uniti. We also tried to find the Church of San Maria, where they were married but little did we know there are about 37 San Maria churches in Naples. So.. I took a picture of five and compare with Aunt Chirs later to see if we actually saw it. We had Margherita Pizza in Napoli and it was definitely the best Pizza I have ever had. The sauce was heavenly and every other wonderful aspect just complemented it.
After Napoli, we had fun on the trains trying to get to Pompeii but everything worked out and we got to our air-conditioned hostel with a pool (we did not know this existed prima questa). Pompeii was awesome, especially since Joe’s last name is Pompeani, and some of his ancestors died in the eruption in 79 A.D. Crazy huh? I do not know how mean this is but we joked with him and said, there is your great great great great great great grampa Joe and found his “house” too, haha. Salerno was awesome. There were wonderful shops and the most sereal view of the montains from the beach (picture here).
Barbara from Switzerland moved in Sunday and she is a hoot. I guess I was kind of spoiled and hogged Maura because it is definitely different now. Barbara likes to talk a lot, does not understand a lot of Italian or English but is super nice. While I was writing my paper two days a ago, Maura came in and started talking about how weird she is and that she does not make her bed like I do. I tried to make excuses for her but Maura was just like yes but it is a little strange. It was really funny. I felt bad but at the same time the little devil in my head was like good job Ash you won, she loves you and you got an Italian to gossip to you. Barbara is very nice though. She is 25, teaches tennis to little kids and was a psych major in school.
This week has been crazy with paper writing, getting ready to leave, and going to Florence and San Gimignano. San Gimignano has the world winning ice cream with white wine flavor (it sounds good but I do not know if I like the two as a combo) and a whole bunch of towers. Sarah said that it is because the rich people of the city wanted to show off their power so had a competition of tower building. Pazza ma carina. We just went to Uffizi in Florence, went to Ponte Vecchio and walked around. I am going to Rome tomorrow but am taking a trip back there with Grace to explore more and get a leather jacket hopefully.
Today we had our pool party with homemade lasagna. The pool party was at the cleanest pool I have ever seen and they make you take a shower before you can get in. From the pool you can see Siena in the distance and it is over looking the Tuscan countryside. Priceless. Just had my last dinner with Maura and she made me homemade Tiramisu, ahhhhhh sooo good. Crazy that this is my last night in Siena and flying home in a week. I am probably going to cry when I leave this beautiful country but should probably go home soon haha. Love you, take care and talk to you all soon….. Ash
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