The Amalfi Coast

This weekend Daniela and I decided to take a trip south and visit the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. It was an exciting weekend and I loved it! We left on Friday afternoon and the train ride was about 7 hours. We arrived in Salerno, Italy at about 9 pm and had to find our hostel. The directions posted online weren't very good and they had clearly been written by an Italian-speaker trying to learn English because they hardly made any grammatical sense. But notwithstanding this setback, we met a really nice lady who actually lived on the same street as our hostel and she said she'd take us to the street. We stopped once we got to the street and were trying to decide where to go when I guy walked by and asked us if we needed any help. We told him the name of our hostel and he told us exactly where to go. Italian people are so nice!

The hostel was kind of a dive. I'd never stayed in one before and it was definitely a new experience. This hostel had a lot of older people in it. Daniela and I shared a room with two girls from New York, a Russian lady, and a Japanese boy. Everything seemed really dirty and I was kind of disgusted the whole time. Especially as I picked hairs off the sheets. That was gross. Luckily we weren't there for that long. We got in late and left early. Everything went fine. There was a rather frightening moment when Daniela left me by myself so she could go call her fiance and the Russian lady pulled out a knife. I was sure she was going to kill me, but then she pulled out some pizza and cut herself a slice. We left bright and early, caught a bus, and went along the Amalfi Coast!

The Amalfi Coast is the most beautiful place I have ever been! I loved it! It is a long, cliffy coastline south of Naples. First we went to Amalfi, and it was charming. We explored the city a bit, ate breakfast, and went inside the Duomo. From there, we took a bus up the narrowest, windiest mountain road I've ever been on (it puts silver lake to shame) to Ravello. Ravello was gorgeous and it had an amazing view of the coast. After a little while in Ravello we took the bus to Positano, which was about an hour and a half away. The road goes right along the cliffs and the bus drivers are fearless. They just honk a couple times before ever blind corner and it's pretty intense with cars, busses, and mopeds going in both directions. Eventually we made it safely there. Positano is the most beautiful city I've ever been to!! I am in love with it. We had some lunch and gelato on the beach and walked around the streets and explored all the little shops.

From Positano we took the bus along the rest of the coastline and ended in Salerno. From there we took the train to Portici, right outside of Naples. I have loved every place in Italy that I have been...Naples is the exception. I don't ever want to go back. It wouldn't have been quite as bad if my visit there hadn't been preluded by fervent warnings from professors and others about the dangers of Naples, "La citta' di Ladri" (the city of thieves), as it is sometimes called. It was very dirty, didn't smell very good, and we recieved more honks and yells than we have in our entire stay in Italy put together. We eventually found our hostel and it was quite a bit nicer than the other one had been. It was actually pretty cool and we felt safe inside.

Despite the negative end to our day with our stop in Portici, it was an incredible day!!! I absolutely loved the Amalfi Coast! Everyone should go there at some point in their lifetime.

Lucca and Pisa

I thought I should also recap on the weekend. Daniela and I took the train up to Lucca (about two and a half hours north) and spent several hours there. It was beautiful! Lucca is surrounded by huge walls that have grass, trees, and even parks on top of them! We walked around the walls for a while then explored the city. There were tons of churches and they were all amazing. We found a cool new church everywhere we went. For lunch we got focaccia bread and pizza, it was the best I've had yet! Then we went in search of a gelateria. We eventually found one that looked good so we each got some. This was definitely the best gelato I have had yet. It was divine. So good. I got two flavors: mint chocolate and "Bounty" (A candybar. Pretty much the same thing as an Almond Joy without the almond. But this gelato also had caramel in it which made it even better!). I very thoroughly enjoyed that gelato!

We were really tired after walking around the city for a long time and we rested in one of the parks on top of the wall. We had seen everything we'd planned on seeing in Lucca but we still had about three hours before we'd planned on leaving. Then Daniela had an ingenius idea. We were scheduled to change trains in Pisa and we both really wanted to see the leaning tower. So we took the train to Pisa, got off, and walked till we found the tower. The duomo right next to the tower is amazing! My favorite one so far! After a sufficient amount of picture-taking, we headed back to the train station. We had to walk for about 30 minutes to get there, but we eventually found it. We caught a train back to Siena, did a little grocery shopping, then rode our bikes home. It was a very tiring, but fun and exciting day!

Sunday was good as well. I am slowly mastering the art of riding a bike while wearing a skirt. That was a trick. Luckily, returned missionary Daniela knows a couple tricks. If you take a clothes pin and pin your skirt at the bottom, you don't have problems. I wish I'd known that before Sunday. Oh well, I'll do it next time. Church was great. We spent a while in Piazza del Campo. We were just about to leave when all of a sudden we heard drums. We looked around and one of the contradas was parading through the square. They had flags and drums and guys all dressed up in medieval attire. It was really cool. We looked all over the city for an internet point that was open and finally found one and were able to call our moms! That was great! It was a good day and this week is going to be great, too!

Long Afternoon

Whenever something bad happens to me, I make myself feel better by thinking, "It's okay, I'm in Italy!" Today, for example: I woke up early because Daniela's alarm went off at 6:15. After reading in bed for a while, I had breakfast. Today is our laundry day and because of differing schedules, Daniela and I decided to split up our clothes and do it separately. I didn't want to have to haul all of the clothes home on my bike after my internship when it's dark, so I decided to go into the city early, do laundry, come back to Rita's at lunchtime with the clothes, then go back again for my internship. The bike ride is kind of hard and takes about 20-30 minutes. There are big hills both ways. They aren't necessarily steep, but they're really long and make you pretty tired.


I left Rita's at about 8 with my backpack and a bag full of laundry. That wasn't a very good idea. It was a very arduous journey. My big bag full of laundry was really heavy and kept getting in the way of my pedaling because it kept bouncing off my backpack that was also pretty full. I finally made it into the city. I took a little walk to the Basilica di San Caterina (it has one of my favorite views of the city), stopped by the library for a little while, then went to the lavanderia to do the laundry. After it was done I folded all of the clothes as compactly as I could so my bags wouldn't be so bulky and began the perilous trek home. It was about 11:30, so this ride wasn't very enjoyable. I was really hungry and the sun was out so it was hot. I finally made it home and Rita was just finishing up my lunch. It was delicious and very much appreciated.

As soon as lunch was done I got back on my bike, with a significantly lighter load, and rode back into the city. I was congratulating myself on completing the trip two times as I rode into Piazza Gramsci where I park my bike. I got to the place where I lock up my bike and when I reached into my backpack to retrieve the key, it wasn't there! Then I remembered. The key had been thrown dramatically onto my bed when I had gotten home for lunch and I had left it there! I let out an audible moan, got back on the stupid bike and rode all the way back to Rita's. She couldn't believe it when I came in the door again. I explained the situation to her, marched into my room, grabbed the key, then got right back on that cursed green bike and began the trip into the city for a THIRD time. I finally made it into the city, sunburned and extremely hot. I think I glowered at a German man on a motorcycle. I didn't mean to. But all is well. I met up with Daniela in the library and we planned our trip to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast this weekend. Even though those were several very long, hot, and tiring hours, it's okay, I'm in Italy!

Cooking with Luisa

My second night as an intern was even better than the first! I loved it! There are two chefs at the school, Nando and Luisa. Nando is awesome and very funny. Luisa is incredible though, she is an amazing chef and she's so nice. I get to do a lot more interacting with the students when she's there and I also get to cook quite a bit! She'll show me how to do something then just leave me like I know what I'm doing. I'm learning, though, and it's so much fun. When Luisa is there, the other assistant is Letizia, one of my Italian teachers from the school. She is so much fun to work with too! Plus it's nice because she's the one who taught me all of the cooking vocabulary so she knows if I know a word or not. So if the translating gets tricky, she helps me.

Italians have a hard time with my name, Luisa's definitely not the first. She kept forgetting it last night. She'd grab my wrist to have me help her with something, then stumble for a while trying to remember my name. Finally, on about the fourth time, when I told her my name is Hillary she said, "Ohhhh, Hillary Clinton! Got it!". That's not the first time that's happened. I'm always associated with her. Oh well. We had a lot of students last night and the food was incredible! We cooked with eggplant, which I'd never done before. And we made home-made fettucini noodles, they were so good and so fun to make!

I have to walk for about 10-15 minutes from my school to Piazza Gramsci to catch the bus, and I don't like doing it at night. Luisa actually lives in the same general direction as me, so she gave me a ride home because we got done pretty late. She, like all Italians I've met so far, was a crazy driver. She has a funny taste in music. The CD we listened to ranged from Elton John to Sting to Backstreet Boys. She loved her American music, especially Sting. She just sang her little heart out to those songs. It was really funny, and it was really nice of her to give me a ride home.

I'm really excited for the rest of my internship! It's going to help my Italian, and my cooking, a lot! (The picture above this post is the view from the terrace outside the kitchen I work in)

Cooking with Nando

Here is a brief recap of the last couple days because it's been a very good week:

Sunday: Church started at 9:00 so Daniela and I left early so that we'd have plenty of time to find the building. The gave me a map and I put it in my journal thinking that I'd remember it was there, but I didn't. After looking for a while we saw the missionaries and followed them to the building. I had a "calling" within the first five minutes. No one in the branch can play the piano so that's my new unofficial calling. It was cool to have church in Italian. The Relief Society teacher was probably the faster speaker I've encountered yet, and that's saying a lot. But it was a good lesson. There are about 30 members in branch. After church we had 6 hours before dinner and Rita doesn't feed us lunch so we had a lovely lunch of gummy bears and cookies. I read outside in the garden and took a walk while Daniela took a nap.

Monday: We went to classes on Monday because our internships hadn't started yet. We had to haul all of our dirty clothes into the city because we needed to do laundry. After classes we went searching for a good lavanderia (laundry place). Just as we were getting ready to make our way to Piazza Gramsci to catch our bus, it starting raining. Then it turned to hail. It was torrential. We thought we'd wait for it to stop because these random little spurts of bad weather are quite common and usually don't last long. It didn't seem to be letting up at all so we had to brave it with all of our freshly-laundered, freshly-folded clothes. My clothes were lucky and didn't get too wet because the bag they were in kept most of the water out.

Tuesday: I woke up early, ate breakfast, and went for a run. It was the most beautiful run I've ever been on! I ran through field after field of wildflowers. I loved it. I needed to stay at the house till noon because Rita was cooking me lunch since I would miss dinner. I read out in the garden while I waited for lunch. After a delicious lunch I caught the bus. I explored the city for a few hours. I found a really cool basilica, it was beautiful inside! During my walk it started raining three different times. They never lasted for long and it seemed like by the time I got my umbrella out the worst was over and I was already really wet. My internship started last night and it's going to be very cool! There is a big kitchen in the school, it has a terrace that looks over lots of rooftops. I got there at five so Enzo, one of the teachers, could show me around. The chef, Nando, is a really nice guy and he doesn't speak any English. The people that come to the class are either students at the school who are learning Italian or tourists who don't speak Italian at all. There were ten students last night, which is a lot. There was actually a couple from Salt Lake, so that was exciting. Nando explained how to make each part of the meal in Italian and then Enzo or I would repeat it in English. After everything had been explained the students split up to make each part of the meal. When it was all made, they went into a dining room we'd set up for them to eat. They serve the students wine and I actually had to carry it into the dining room. I've never handled wine before and I made sure that I held it at a safe and respectable distance from my body. That was probably a little extreme, but it was a new thing for me and you can never be too careful. Then we got to eat it, too, in the kitchen. It was so good! They made stuffed peppers and a salad, home-made pasta with tomato/garlic/herb sauce, turkey rolled up in this mushroom/herb paste with mushroom sauce on top, and a carrot cake with strawberries. My job is to translate for Nando, ask Nando questions in Italian for the students, make sure they're following the recipes correctly, and do dishes as they are dirtied. I really liked it and it's nice that I'm going to get dinner each night since I'm missing it at Rita's!

Today (Wednesday): Woke up early and went on a run. I came into the city after my run, but because my internship got over pretty late last night I couldn't buy another bus ticket. Our bicycles were supposed to be ready last night so I didn't really worry about buying one when the stores were open. However, Rita didn't have time to pick our bikes up from the shop where they were being adjusted, so I needed to take the bus. I took the bus as far as I dared, but sometimes they check to make sure you have a ticket and if you don't they kick you off and fine you. It was slightly dishonest, I know, but I felt justified because I really couldn't buy a ticket and the stupid pay phone took 70 cents from me last night when I called Rita to pick me up from the bus stop. So I figured, I had already given Italy 70 cents and should be allowed use the bus. I was nervous the entire time and I got off well before the end of the route. I had to walk about a mile to get into the city and I wasn't entirely sure where I was, but I eventually found my way. I went and read for a while in the Piazza del Campo and then bought an apple for lunch. Today is a beautiful, hot day and I don't think it's going to rain!

Firenze (Florence)

Early Saturday morning Daniela and I took the train to Florence. I loved Florence, there was something to see everywhere we went! However, I’m not entirely sure why Sandra Bullock wanted to go there so badly in While You Were Sleeping, it was pretty and art-filled, but not necessarily the most picturesque or beautiful city I’ve seen. But it was a wonderful day! The weather was perfect, actually really hot. Later in the afternoon as we were getting ready to leave it rained for a few minutes and it felt really good. Because it was a holiday weekend, the city was pretty crowded! We had a full day of walking, but it was very enjoyable. The following is an outline of our day in Florence:

• Got lost.
• Found the Galleria dell’Accademia which houses Michelangelo’s David. We saw a line so we walked to the end. After walking down the street and around the corner we decided that although David is a lovely work of art, he wasn’t worth the LONG wait.
• From there we went to the Duomo. The line there was relatively fast. After about 30 minutes, we were inside. The inside was very pretty, I really liked it! We saw the outside of the Baptistry before heading off to our next destination.
• We wound around the streets until we found the Uffizi. The line there was even longer than the one at the Galleria dell’Accademia! We really wanted to go inside though, so we got in line. We were prepared to wait for quite a while, even though it was time for lunch. We jealously watched the people who had made reservations breeze through their practically non-existent line. After learning that the line would take at least three and a half hours, we decided to bypass the Uffizi and come back another weekend after making a reservation.
• The Uffizi is right by Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Florence with an expensive little shopping district.
• Once across the river we went to the Palazzo Pitti and saw, among other things, the Boboli Gardens. There were incredible! They’re huge! It started getting really hot while we were there and we walked around them for a couple hours. There were some amazing views of the city from the upper parts of the city. We also got to see the porcelain museum and il Museo delle Costume. We got to see parts of the actual clothing worn by Cosimo de Medici. But I loved the Boboli Gardens, they were absolutely beautiful!
• Our next stop was the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Cappella Brancacci. On our way we got some lunch and stopped at a little supermarket to buy water and an apple. It was a delicious lunch. We ate on the front steps of the church of Santa Maria.
• Inside the Cappella Brancacci there are frescoes on The Life of Saint Peter. I had studied some of them in my humanities class so it was really exciting to see them.
• We started making our way back to the train station. Florence had an open market and tons of the streets were lined with stands selling things. We looked at lots of them and did a little shopping. It started raining while we were there and it was kind of refreshing.
• We got to the station, found our train, and headed back to Siena.
• The train was a little behind schedule. It left on time but due to a sudden thunder storm and extended stops at deserted stops just outside Siena, we arrived a bit late.
• We finally got back to Rita’s and were starving and exhausted. Rita had dinner ready for us and we were very grateful. We had a lovely dinner of penne pasta with tomato, chicken, little sausage things, salad, bread, tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, and we finish every dinner with a pear! The pears are always perfectly ripe (except for the hard one Daniela had the other night) and they are delicious!

Monteriggioni

May 1 is a holiday in Italy so there is no school and most of the stores are closed. Rita offered to drive Daniela and I to Monteriggioni, a nearby citadel city. I had read about Monteriggioni and it was on my list of places to go, so I was really excited. In the morning we took Martina to the train station because she was done with classes and went back to Germany. While we were there, we bought train tickets for Florence. We had about two hours before leaving so I went for a run when we got back. It was beautiful!

We packed some snacks, water, and our cameras, and Rita drove us to the city at about noon. It is a very small city on a hill surrounded by big walls. There are only two streets in the whole city. For only € 1,50 you could walk around on top of the walls. The view from there was amazing. We walked around the walls, went into all of the little shops around the city, and hiked around the outside of the city. It was a lot of fun. Everything in the city is very small and very old. There are actually quite a few permanent residents there which kind of surprised me. The little city was very crowded with tourists and I can’t imagine living there.