To The South We Go!

Well, last week we took a trip to Southern Italy, Naples, Capri, Stabia, Pompei, and Sorrento. On Monday we left Rome and arrived in Naples. We spent two nights there before travelling to Stabia where we spent our final two nights. From Naples and Stabia we took day trips to the other cities.

Day 1
We left Rome pretty early on Monday morning and we arrived in Naples before lunch. We dropped our things off at our hotel and made a few sketching stops in Naples. We first went to the Spanish Quarter and drew a street section on one of the busiest streets we could find. After that we visited Galleria Umbertoi and drew another street section to compare the two. After that we walked to a few more places before final stopping at the Duomo in Naples for our final sketching assignment of the day.

Day 2
On the second day we took an early morning ferry to Capri, a beautiful island right off of Naples. The island was incredible and we spent almost the entire day at Casa Malaparte, an incredible house that sits on the top of a cliff and is surrounded by ocean. We spent hours sketching there and it wasn't even close to enough. I was able to fill two sketchbook pages and easily could have done more. On the ferry ride back we ran into a storm, which made it a little interesting but fun as well. This was probably the best day of the trip, for the simple fact that the house was incredible.

Day 3
On our third day we left the hotel in Naples. We took a bus to different settlements along the coast where there were several different sites of ruins, some actually very well intact. We visited three different sites, the first two, temples as well as a cave, the second, a small almost city, and the third an ampitheater. After those three visits we made our way to the youth institute where we were staying in Stabia.

Day 4
On day 4, we left Stabia early to catch a train to Pompei. Pompei was incredible but absolutely nothing like I expected. I expected ruins sort of out in nowhere, but there is a city built next to the ruins. There was so much there to see as well and everything was so intricately done. It was easy to get a pretty good understanding of how the entire city worked. After Pompei, we all split in different directions. A few of us jumped back on the train and visited Sorrento, another city along the coast. Sorrento was small but absolutel beautiful. The view was incredible, and even from 100 feet up, the water was so clear. It seemed to be mostly a small coastal city that was built around tourism, because the streets that we walked were lined with local shops selling alcohol, sandals that the city is famous for, and little tourist items. When we got back to our hotel, we went out to the field next to us to play some basketball. A few of us played a quick game of horse before three little kids came over to us and asked if we wanted to play soccer with them. We played with them for a little bit before some older kids, maybe 15 or 16, asked if we wanted to play with them. We played with them for a pretty long time and they were a lot better than us, but I managed to score a goal, the highlight of my game.

Day 5
Day 5, our last day, we split up into groups again. I stayed with a few people in Stabia, because we hadn't really had a chance to see the city that we were staying in too well. We had a small sketching assignment early on then we were free for most of the day. We stayed close to the water, walked around a stopped a few places before eating lunch then heaing back to the hotel to grab our luggage and head to the train. We took the train to Naples where we then jumped on another train to Rome.