When in Rome

you know i never understood that expression, ¨when in rome do as the romans do¨, because if the romans stood in line for the vatican, check did that, if the romans stood in a crammed pack metro bus or any bus for that matter, uh huh yup check, if the romans ate pizza pasta and gelato everyday, yea pretty much got that down, then i pretty much did as the romans did. but if they didnt do any of those things then im just a regular tourist trying to fit everything in rome into 3 days.
but let me rewind 2 weeks since i havent written since then. i left off in cinque terre i headed south to sorrento, now this was my ¨vacation¨ from my vacation. little did i know there was so much to do there. the first day i layed out on the beach, the disadvantage of not traveling with someone is i have no one to put suntan lotion on me, so i just went to th beach hoping for the best. well 6 hrs later i was burnt of course (but no worries the peeling is gone and i have a nice golden tan (sorry keri:) anywho the second day i climbed up mt vesuvio, which we all know erupted and covered the city of pompeii. the day i went it was cloudy, but to my suprise it was really cool. it gave the volcano a mysterious look. now before i left on my advanture i gave my roommates my full name and address so in case the volcano erupted ya´ll would know what happened to me :) haha but luckily no eruption. the following day i went to the city of pompeii and hurculaneum, two very different looking cities. in herculameum you could actually tell it was a city at one time where as in pompeii it was so spread out with random ruins everywhere it seemed like different towns as opposed to one city. THEN the next day i went on a day excursion to the island of capri. this island is known for its beautiful blue water and the ever so famous blue graddo. well on the way over it rained a little so the seas were a bit rough and unfortunately we could not go into the groddo cuz the hole to get in there was completely covered with water/waves. but when we docked on the island and the sun came out. me and these two girls from cali, kim and haley decided to hike to anacapri which is where all the big houses and ¨star¨hotels are. little did we know that this hike would take us scaling up rocks holding on to chains as we went up and climbing through bushes and weeds up to our waists. yea that was our hike, needless to say we got lost and just made our own way up but we eventually made it the top of the mountain and the view of capri and the italian coastline was breath taking, so worth the ¨narly¨hike. when we hiked down to anacapri we decided to get lunch at this place called il cucciolo. this place was definately off the beaten path but when we finally found it it was right off the coastline with a beautiful view of the sea and coast! the meal was the best i have had in all my trip. obviously every meal i have had has been from a different culture but everything involved, taste, presentaion, authenticity, company, service etc was over the top. we started off with the house wine. then had the antipasti. capri is known for their mozerella and tomatoes so we had that. i am NOT a fan of whole tomotoes, but paired with the mozerella i could have eaten those ALL day. next came homemade ravioli and tomato sauce then for dessert chocolate cake with walnuts. this meal was amazing! after nearly endulging everything on our plates we were ready to make our trip back to capri since our boat left in an hr. we hiked back into the middle of anacapri to catch the bus back but when the bus came no one was gettting on and it left, now we had 40 mintues to get 8 km back. so what else do we do we start walking with our thumbs out, yea thats right we were hitch hiking, after about 5 minutes this little red car pulls over and picks us up. to our luck it was a dad with his little girl. he takes us all the way downt to our boat with time to spare. so me and haley jump in the green blue water. very nice after the day we had. the next day i just lay out on the beach again but only for a lil cuz the rain came in so that day was spent mostly inside which was good cuz i needed a day of rest before roma.
now enters rome, luckily kim and haley were going to rome too and staying at the same place. so we traveled together. made it there and had an interesting time trying to find our campsite. but 2 hrs later we did and it actually ended up being like and hr metro ride away from the city and near the beach. i spent 3 total days in rome and did pretty much everything i wanted. the vatican, st peters basillica, colosseum, roman forums, palentine hill, villa gorhese, spanish steps, trevi fountain, pantheon, and all the piazzas. kinda insane huh? but rome was fun, a lot like paris, a lot to do with a lot of people doing it at the same time. but being at my campsite away from the city was a relief got some peace and quiet at night. the best pizza i had was at san castillo pizzeria, and now my new favorite cheese is buffalo mozerella and my favorite gelato in all of italy is near the vatican museums called old bridge gelateria. they had my favorite, black cherry, this taste just like the bubble gum icecream i used to have as a kid....so good!
i caught an early flight this moring to madrid and that is where i currently am. i got into my hotel around 2 and walked around the city. i went to the prado art museum which was nice but i must say it is my last one in europe, i have seen so my paintings and sculptures to last me ohhh quite some time. but i will go to the goudi museum in barcelona. i leave friday to go to seville which i will be there for a day then i head to barcelona till i fly out next wednesday. so one week left...cant believe it. the next enrty will probably be my last night in barcelona just to wrap everything up. hope everyone is doing well and is looking forward to me coming home :) i must say i am ready to stop living out of a suitcase thats for sure. until next time. ciao!

Kelly