Finally, an update

It has been a long time since my last post, and many things have transpired. The internet has been down for over a week now, but we are finally back up on dial-up because the cable line was struck by lightning while we were in southern Italy. So...to southern Italy.
We left on the night of the fourth and took an overnight train to Reggio Calabria. This train was old and dirty. The air conditioning in our couchette did not work, so I sweated all night long. We arrive in Reggio Calabria at 6:15 the next morning. We went straight to get a pastry and a coffee, as usual, and then ventured into a museum. After the museum, we caught a ferry across the straights of Messina to the island of Sicily. We got to Taormina a few hours later and checked into our hotel. Taormina is a beautiful beach side town with a ancient Greek/Roman amphitheater. We wander through the tiny alleys and ate at cozy cafes the rest of the night. The next morning a few of us went snorkeling in the Mediterranean. That was a lot of fun! We drove to Catania that night to worship with the church that meets there. The next morning, we left early and drove to Villa Casale, a Roman villa with really good mosaics. We arrived in Agrigento that night to a hotel in the valley of the temples. The view of the temples from there was amazing. The next day, we had a long onsight class in the valley of the temples and then drove to Palermo. In Palermo, we visited several sights, but the most odd and interesting was the crypt of the Capucini monks. You should really look this up online. It was so creepy. That night we caught an overnight ship to Naples. This was a lot nicer than the night train! We arrived in Naples early and stopped at a cafe, as usual. We visited the National Archaeological Museum and saw many artifacts from Pompeii. That afternoon, we went to Pompeii. It was so interesting to see a city of ancient times preserved as if it was abandoned yesterday. That night, we stayed in Sorrento. The next morning, we got up early and caught a ferry to Capri. I loved Capri and the salad that they are known for! We had one more night in Sorrento and then headed down the Amalfi coast. We stopped in Positano and Amalfi, both small beach side villages. We caught the five o'clock train from Naples back to Firenze, where we were all glad to return.
Thats all for now, but I will try to write some about our trip to the Cinque Terre before I leave for free travel on Wednesday.

San Gimignano and Siena

On Tuesday, we traveled to San Gimignano and Siena. San Gimignano was the first destination on our journey. It is the perfect medieval city with tall thin towers and walls on all sides. This tiny town was once a thriving city, well, for its time. After lunch, we drove to Siena. Siena was once the richest city in Europe: like Florence it gained its wealth from banking. Until 40 years ago, it was on the main road to Rome. The cathedral from Siena is a must see. Its stripped marble is very interesting and the floor mosaics are amazing. The Palazzo Pubblico is also a very cool building. Around the square in front of the Palazzo is where the famous Palio di Siena occurs. I hope to go to it, seeing that it takes place twice a year on July 2(my birthday) and August 14. We leave for southern Italy on Monday night, so until I return expect a lull in the post.