Category: Luis in Rome

Weekend Trip to Capri and Sorrento (Part 1)

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I was able to go on a school-sponsored weekend trip to Pompei, the Sorrento Coast, and a nice visit to the island city of Capri. This is covering the first day of my three-day, two-night trip.

To start off, I had to wake up early to meet at Piazza Trilussa at 8:30 AM to get on the 4-hour bus ride to start the weekend off with a visit to Pompei. It was a surreal experience walking through the preserved city. It was essentially the same size as some of the other cities I’ve visited but yet it was literally a ghost town lost to time. Our tour guide would point out the markets and the food stalls that used to line the streets, as we walked on the walking stones that would allow room for the carriages and the horses to do their business without causing the citizens to step on the horse’s personal business. We walked through a few houses and were able to get an amazing view of the city of Pompei from on top of a hill made to allow archeologists to survey the land as they unearthed more and more structures. It provided such a wonderful view of the expanse of the city and really allowed you to just appreciate the decades of work people have put into slowly and carefully uncovering a city buried in ash and dust. After we were done exploring the ruins, we had a delicious lunch just outside before heading off to our next location.

We toured a small family-owned pasta-making business, Pasta Cuomo, in Gragnano. One of the owners, Alfonso Cuomo, was incredibly passionate about his craft because he had the chance to reopen and reinvent his family’s business that began in the 1820s. He told us about the way that the city was once built entirely around pasta and how so much of the current block that he resides on used to be a part of the larger structure to help make the pasta for the city. He showed us the way that they used to make pasta and how the old machines used to function and work together to provide the proper foundation needed for creating the pasta. He was a wonderful host, and his passion was very evident in every word he said. Their company also works as a cooking class, bistro, museum, and BNB. I highly recommend checking them out and maybe ordering some pasta from them to help support and maintain a family business that started in the 1820s.

Once we were done there, we arrived at the 4-star hotel that was booked for us and set our stuff down before eating a 3-course Italian meal paired with dessert and more bread than we could handle. The people at the hotel were truly kind and made sure that we had enough water and food to allow us to just relax before we got to rest before our day in Capri.

A day at the beach.

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For some background, my school abroad, John Cabot University, has optional trips that students can pay to attend, filled with a bunch of activities and exploration. I signed up for a couple, but this trip was to the Italian beach city named Sperlonga.

We packed onto the bus at 8 AM to begin our 2-hour drive and the conversations began with plans of what everyone wanted to do once we got to the beach. It was great to drive down the Italian highways and see the stretching landscapes fall behind us as we left the city and began entering the more rural parts of the country. The quieter areas of Italy have their own charm, especially after spending so much time in the hustle and bustle of a tourist town like Trastevere. It was amazing to see the expansive agriculture and farmlands as we moved further and further from the city as we made our way to Sperlonga. Unfortunately, there is not much to say about the drive beside that because I decided to take a nap to help pass the time until we arrived.

The trip officially began at a museum on top of a hill with olive trees lining some of the outdoor walkways leading to ruins about 15 minutes from the city. The museum, Museo Archeologico Nazionale e Area Archeologica di Sperlonga, held many statues of great significance to the history of Sperlonga and the several other coastal cities due to the mythos behind the Greek and Roman legend of Odysseus. The statues have so much to them that if you allow your imagination to take over, you can picture the events of Odysseus tricking a Cyclops into a drunken sleep before stabbing the Cyclops in the eye to guarantee his and his crew’s safe escape from the Cyclops’ lair. They had other Statues that represented other tale such as Zeus’ transformation into an Eagle to kidnap Ganymede to join him in Olympus. For those who would like to, here are some Statue Pictures I took for you to get a glimpse with brief descriptions of the scenes captured in stone.

After looking at statues inside the museum, we moved onto the ruins of a coastal city as we descended closer to the ocean to enter a cove that was once used for meetings and parties. It was truly a beautiful reminder that nature always manages to outshine humanity’s architecture to create a site that simply takes your breath away. When we got into the cove, the water pool in the middle was mostly clean so it was providing a beautiful reflection of the rocks and people walking around within. If you stood at the back of the cove, you could see the city reflected in the water to create a breathtaking view that I was not able to properly replicate on camera. The tour leader had us do an exercise where we sat in the cove, closed our eyes, and imagined ourselves hundreds and thousands of years ago when bands would come to play within the acoustics that the cove provides and imagine ourselves being a part of the history of the land.

Once we were done experiencing and learning the history of the cove, we moved on to a lounge area that gave us direct access to the beach. We had a quick lunch before going to swim but the sight of the ocean was magnificent. The water was so clean that it sparkled with the sun beating down on it. It was so refreshing to be enveloped by the cool waves and look down and see small fish swimming around our legs as myself and a group of students began passing a volleyball within the water. Every part of the beach was far more beautiful than any beach I had been to in the U.S: the sand had a beautiful ripple pattern that showed under the water that I was not able to capture, the water was incredibly refreshing despite how salty it was, and the horizon seemed to go on forever in a sparkling blue blanket across the Earth.

Finally, after several hours at the beach, we were able to go to the actual city of Sperlonga and the buildings were an amazing white with an open-air market and band setting up as we arrived. The shops and restaurants seemed a bit too “touristy,” but it was still a wonderful area to walk through. While we were there, I was able to spot couple taking their marriage photos. The city had its own magic that made you appreciate the small details and I hope that the couple I saw got to capture some of that magic alongside their love. Sadly, we were only given an hour to actually explore the main plaza, so I was not able to see the city to its fullest but even the parts I saw from afar were amazing.

Unfortunately, everything must have an end and this trip could not be the exception. We left as the sun was setting and the way the ocean changed from a deep blue to a sparkling crimson was something straight out of a movie. It is definitely on my list of places I would like to return to and visit fully but for now, this experience added to my appreciation of the vast history and beauty of this country I am lucky to study in. I hope that my pictures do the city of Sperlonga justice, but I know that no amount of camera work could truly capture the depth of its beauty.