Jared in Alaska: February 2008

I had a lot of fun while in Italy. I did 4 days in Naples, 5 days in Amalfi, 4 days in L'Aquila, and 6 days in Rome. A whirlwind tour, you might say.

Naples was CRAZY. Kind of like what I envision Mexico City would be like. Really dirty, crazy traffic, graffiti on everything, people harassing you to buy things on the street, and did I mention crazy traffic? It wasn't exactly relaxing, but was a neat experience. I took day trips to the ancient sites of Pompeii, Herculanium, and another I can't remember the name of. It was very cool to walk around in and see some of the places I studied in the Roman history classes I took in college.

From there I took a train to the coastal town of Amalfi. It was about the most picturesque place I've ever seen. I spent several days hiking on the stair-stepped mountainsides among lemon and orange trees, and wandering into old farming communities. I took a day trip to the ancient Greek city of Paestum on a very nice day. The temples were very impressive.

The next stop was L'Aquila, which I picked at the last minute purely based on Google Earth pictures due to complications with getting to Sardinia, which was my original plan. This was a smaller town about 2 hours east of Rome, and was considerably less touristy than any other place I went. I got lots of practice with communicating with people that spoke absolutely no English, and stayed in a really cool (any tiny) B&B. Most days were rainy during my stay, but on the few nice ones you could see lots of snow-covered mountains of respectable size surrounding the town.

The last city was Rome. A bit touristy possibly, but also very pretty with lots to do. I made the rounds to all the must-sees and then spent a few days trying to find the lesser-known side. I went to a very good orchestra performance with a featured pianist at an impressive auditorium, and explored some of the catacombs buried beneath small churches. The Vatican Museum was also very cool.

All in all, a very fun trip.

Tomorrow morning I head back to Alaska. Other than a monster 12 hour layover in Salt Lake City, I'm really looking forward to getting back. There will be lots to keep me busy at work for a while, and then the old college roommate Toad is coming to visit in March for some snowy adventures.

Hope everyone is well!

The gate to my B&B in Naples