Weekend Update

I talked to Dad yesterday on the phone, and he said that it seemed like I’ve gotten an emotionally mixed bag out of this experience. That is the most accurate way of describing it.

This weekend we went to Naples, and even though we didn’t have a lot of time there, it was great to walk around and shop, to be in a big city. It will be even better to get back to Rome, a city I can respond to emotionally.

Yesterday morning, instead of going to Pompeii with everyone else, they let me go to Herculaneum. Besides being an absolutely fantastic place, it was so terrific to have my independence back, to get on the Circumvesuviana, to be squashed up against a ton of beach-going Neopolitans, to be on public transportation.

Herculaneum is absolutely stellar. I think Pompeii is amazing also, and that the two sites compliment each other well. However, Herculaneum is much more manageable and well-preserved. I left with more questions than I came with and so I’ll have to do more reading about it when I get home.

It was great to get back to the Naples Archeological Museum, and this time I got to see the Secret Cabinet! Otherwise, the Farnese Bull is always a pleasure to see, the mosaics from Pompeii, everything. They have a modest Egyptian collection there thanks to a later Cardinal Borgia, and one of the coolest things is a mummified crocodile with two baby mummy crocodiles.

After the museum, we went to the Gelateria della Scimmia – the Monkey Gelateria for ice cream. I had Torrone, chocolate fondant and hazelnut. A.maz.ing.

We had dinner at Pizzeria di Matteo, which is where Bill Clinton went when he was in Naples for the G8 summit. We had so many different types of pizza, and my taste in pizza toppings has definitely changed or become more refined, something. There was also much Nastro Azzurro, which is excellent with pizza.

It’s looking like I’ll be coming home even earlier than expected, which I think is good because I’m ready to get home. This has been a long month here, and there’s a certain degree of restlessness because I can really go anywhere or do anything unplanned. I also feel like I’ve adapted and assimilated so well into Italy that generally speaking very little surprises me anymore. I love it here, nad I want to be here, but I think I need city life, not small town life. Naples or anywhere in the shadow of Vesuvius would be more affordable than elsewhere and it would be a great challenge someday. If I can survive a month in Calabria, I think the next logical step is the other extreme – small town Southern Italy to big city Southern Italy!