To celebrate the beginning of spring, our class headed south to the region of Campania for a weekend of archaeological explorations. This was my second time to the area because I went with my family for a day in early January. This weekend, I had much more time to experience all the ruins, landscape and nightlife that Campania has to offer.
Our journey began Friday morning with a stop in Santa Maria Capua Vetere. This is a small town just outside of Naples. It is home to a beautiful set of ruins, the central focus of which is an amphitheater that was used as a model for the Colosseum. This amphitheater is much smaller and not nearly as well preserved, but the similarities between it and the Colosseum are pretty evident. Our professors guided us around, showing us the different types of stones used for construction. Since Campania is a volcanic region, everything is made from volcanic stone rather than brick. The best part about this visit was that we got to go underneath the arena stage: something you have to pay extra for (and book really far in advance) at the Colosseum. Here, we saw the rooms where the slaves and animals were kept before they entered the arena. I was in love with the maze of rooms and water channels under the intermittent streams of light peeking through the wood planks above. The abundance of plant life made the atmosphere eerie and beautiful.
After a local, organic lunch, we stopped by the Mitreo, which is a secret, underground temple for the worshippers of Mithras, who is a Roman cult god believed to be the first idea/ depiction of Christ. The cave was small and full of frescoes. There wasn’t much to look at, but it felt pretty cool to see the dwellings of Rome’s most prominent secret society.
We continued on to Sorrento, where we checked into our hotel for the night. We were pretty hungry after our (tiny) organic lunch, so we decided to head out to dinner. Molly and I had both been to Sorrento before, so we each had a place in mind to eat. I couldn’t remember where mine was, so we went with hers for Friday dinner. As we walked up, I realized it was actually the same restaurant that my family’s tour guide had taken us. I’m glad one of us remembered where it was! Our table for 13 ordered more food than I have ever eaten in my entire life. Bread, bread with tomato sauce, 2 cheese plates, 3 pitchers of wine, entrees for everyone and desserts to share… all followed by gelato next door. We followed dinner with drinks at a local English bar, where we ended up running into friends from all 3 other schools. The DJ was great and the dance floor was packed, so we were glad to break from our usual early bedtime routine and dance the night away.
The next morning came early, but it was pretty easy to get out of bed because we were all so excited to go back to GREECE. We were headed to Paestum, which is a city south of Sorrento that is home to some of the best preserved Greek temples in all of Italy… and arguably more beautiful than those of Athens because they are still original and not reconstructed (for more on that, please see the rant in the Athens blog).
We only had 2 short hours in Paestum, and there was a lot to see. We stopped in the museum to see the plan layouts of the temples, as well as some famous drawings of them. But it wasn’t long before we were frolicking through a field, arms wide open, towards the three remaining temples on the site: the Temple of Neptune, the Temple of Hera and the Temple of Athena. Much like the temples of Athens, these were protected by a fence, preventing me from hugging any columns (and our professor is a pretty big advocate of staying behind fences, so I wasn’t going to risk it like I did at the Temple of Hephaestus). Even from behind the fence, the temples were beautiful. The columns were perfectly spaced and swollen, and crowned by the most wonderful capitals. I could go on and on, but let’s just look at pictures instead.
The only problem with southern Italy and its beautiful green fields was the allergy-inducing grass. I spent most of the day with red, watery eyes and an itchy nose. Most people weren’t sure if I was crying because the temples were so beautiful, or if I had just sneezed 50 times (spoiler: it was the sneezing). The good side to the allergy argument, is that everything blooming also means fresh fruit. Outside of the archaeological area, there was a small fair going on, and we found a man selling fresh strawberries out of his truck. These were the juiciest, most delicious strawberries I’ve ever had. Almost every single person in our 45 person group bought a box, so we probably made the farmer as happy as his strawberries made us. While I was sad to get back on the bus to leave Paestum, I was pretty happy to spend some time away from allergens.
Despite the fact that it wasn’t on the itinerary, we made the spontaneous decision to spend our afternoon hiking Mt. Vesuvius as a class. And by that, I mean we made the decision to make our bus driver bring us 90% of the way up the volcano and we walked the rest. We were all pumped to be hiking one of the most dangerous volcanoes in Italy, but our enthusiasm quickly dwindled as we began to climb. The slope was incredibly steep and full of slick gravel. Because this was a spontaneous decision, pretty much none of us were wearing appropriate shoes, causing us to slip and slide all the way up. Add this on to the fact that we eat nothing but pasta and literally never work out… we were a sad sight. Italy has a way of constantly reminding us all how out of shape we are, and Vesuvius was no exception.
Anyway, we FINALLY made it up to the top and the views were breathtaking. You could see Naples, Pompeii and Sorrento, all along the coast of the glittering Mediterranean Sea. Our tour guide walked us around the crater while she explained the history of the volcano. We all noticed steam coming up from some of the crater walls, and this is when the experience went from feeling like we climbed a mountain to realizing we were standing on top of an actual, active volcano. Our guide assured us the steam that was volcano’s way of lowering its pressure so it doesn’t erupt more often. The barren, rocky landscape felt so foreign, almost like we were on another planet or something.
After taking about 10,000 pictures, we descended along the side of the cone, trying our very hardest not to slide on the slick rocks. We were all covered in dirt, and smelled pretty bad after spending so much time in the baking sun. We were all happy to return to our hotel and shower after a long day, before going back to the same place as the night before for dinner.
After dinner we made our way down to the beach to dip our feet into the Mediterranean, because we still hadn’t done so after a whole 3 months in Italy. The sun had gone down, so the water was freezing, but we can now say we’ve been in the Mediterranean! The coastline glittered with lights around the bay, and we could see Naples and Pompeii glowing at the foot of Vesuvius, which had retreated into darkness for the night. In the 10 minutes that we were down at the beach, the security staff had locked the gate to the cliff walk back up, so some nice locals told us an alternate route (which was a steep staircase… and our legs were pretty dead after climbing the volcano earlier that day).
We spent another night out on the town, enjoying all the music and dancing that Sorrento had to offer. The next morning came way too early, but we were headed back to Pompeii to explore the ruins. When we arrived, the city was PACKED. This was like, worse than Disney World. Every street, every theatre, and every traditional Roman Domus was flooded with tourists, all sweaty and smelly in the hot southern sun. We had headsets so that we could hear the professors, but there were many times during the day that I couldn’t even see them. One thing I DID get to see, however, was Mt. Vesuvius as a stunning, monumental backdrop for the ancient forum of the city. What made it even more amazing was the fact that we were standing up there just the day before. Last time I was at Pompeii, it was so foggy that the volcano was hidden behind the clouds. But this time, the mountain stood tall over the city, and really made the history come alive. I can’t imagine how the ancient Romans felt seeing this erupt from below.
I thought back to my family’s visit to Pompeii in early January. We were one of maybe 5 families in the entire complex, and had our own private guide to show us around. It was a rainy day, but I think the ruins were a bit more radiant when they were wet. I liked the way the street glistened and how bold the wet stones looked against the dull, gray sky. Pompeii might just be one place I like better in the rain than in the sun (although that may just be my sunburn talking).
This weekend went by really fast, and we spent a lot of time in our bus compared to the amount of time we spent at our destinations. But I’m glad I had a second chance to visit Campania because I got to see so much more than I did last time I was there. It really makes me wonder what else I’m missing from only spending a few days in cities that have so much to offer. Our next few weekends will be spent in Rome as we prepare for our final project reviews. This gives us plenty of opportunity to explore the city we call home, getting to cross everything off our list before leaving in a little over a month. I can’t believe how fast time is moving. I never want to leave!
Number of Columns Hugged: 6
Days Since Mexican Food: 105
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Read more from Haley at https://haleywalton.wordpress.com/
To find out more about the U of A Rome Center semester program for Architecture, visit http://studyabroad.uark.edu/romecentersemester/
