We moved into our apartment on Friday! Finally! We're really excited about it, everything is coming together quite smoothly, though, I'm not gonna lie, there could be some changes- like who actually wants a bidet in their shared bathroom? It seems awkward to me... privately tucked away in your bedroom bathroom, maayybe, but one that is at the end of the hallway for any guests' usage? No thanks! Everything is manageable though, at least once I lose the fear of blowing up the place every time I cook! Eek! Also, we are using loaner furniture, compliments of the US Navy, while waiting for the rest of our shipment to make it over here, good times. Oh, and we definitely put some things in the wrong shipment, i.e., our silverware, pillows and some other necessary odds and ends aren't here yet... Whoops.
We also had our first visitor from home, Kendall, and it was a blast. We hadn't got our car yet so we rented one and we took her on our first adventures to Pompeii and Capri. Pompeii was incredible. The old paintings on the walls had me mesmerized, and the architecture from that long ago (79 AD)- and it is partially still standing! Wow! Also, there was tons of Pottery, and one of our friends pointed out that they didn't have the tools and machinery we have now and yet it was so perfect looking as if they did! It's pretty indescribable, so you'll just have to come for a visit and witness it first hand! We were there for about two hours and didn't even cover half of the town. We'll definitely being going back there! And hopefully taking a real tour next time. They give you a map and book but it wasn't as helpful as the tour guides seemed and it was hard to track as you walked, so we didn't know what anything was. We did however use our imaginations, and created some good times for the People of Pompeii... and of course eavesdropped the occasional passing tours!
And Capri! Everyone should see this island, or something like it, at some point in the their life! The water was like the color of blue Powerade, and as clear! We woke up kind of late that day because I set my iPhone for Italy time, but the clock is still on MD time... Uh, Hi... So we didn't get out until about 10am and then we caught the 12:40pm boat across the water from Naples to Capri. When we got there we were fortunate enough to catch the last tour boat around the Island. The tour is about two hours long and stops at The Blue Grotto. It's a cave with a tiny opening (we had to switch to a four man boat and lay down to enter the cave), and then it's open on the inside. The way the water shines in and reflects off the rocks and water makes the water look like it's glowing- mesmerizing! Then we hung out on the island, checked out the shops and got dinner. I had Bruschetta as an appetizer- most delicious I've ever had! The tomatoes are fresh and it was nice and salty and OH so yummy! That was followed by spaghetti. I think the best way to describe the food here (other than perfect) is fresh. You just feel like you're eating healthier and more fresh food. It's great. Though I have no idea how many calories or fat I'm in-taking because the nutrition labels are different (and in Italian) and I don't think the laws are the same here as far as providing nutrition facts- though even if they were I couldn't read them!
Finally, Monday, we toured downtown Naples. It was a day full of "parla inglese?" (Do you speak English?), beautiful old buildings, a castle, iced coffee, gelato- you know, the usual Italian living! One sharable moment- here pedestrians have the right-of-way at crosswalks, common sense right? Only if you make eye contact with the car you're walking out in front of, you have given up your right-of-way. So, basically you have to just walk and hope you don't get hit (main intersections DO however have crossing signals, fyi), we haven't had the guts to try this out, until we got to a street where no breaks in traffic were to be seen (and an Italian in front of us did it), so we went for it! Needless to say, you didn't get a phone call, so you know - we all made it across in one, fully functioning piece. The whole time crossing we were saying "we're doing it, we're so doing this!" I feel so "in" now! So, after a long day of walking around the town, we took Kendall to the main train station so she could get back to Florence where she was studying abroad. And along the way we found "Africatown" down one on the allies. I felt like I was in NYC again! They had knock off purses, sunglasses, watches and many other odds and ends. The amusing thing was probably how many languages they spoke! There was an African man and an Asian Women communicating in Italian! Which leads me to think about one thing- I NEED TO LEARN THIS LANGUAGE!
Well, it was a great weekend, lots of good memories, and good to have had a piece of home for just a bit! We were glad to have our first visitor and now back to real life in Italia!
XOXO
Classic Capri:
Blue Grotto!
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