But anyway, as promised I can now write about what I did last weekend, which was take a class trip to the Campagnia region of Italy--we went to Paestum, Ercolano, and Napoli. We left Thursday morning at 6:45 am. Why so early? Well, we had to get down to near Paestum in time for our reservation to visit...a buffalo mozzarella farm and factory! On the way we drove past Monte Cassino! Drove past as in, saw it up way up on a mountain, but still. Anyway, "Buffalo mozzarella" is an Italian thing that I've been eating all year, but never really made the connection that it might have something to do with buffalos. I sure learned last Thursday--the place we went made the mozzarella totally on site, every step from milking the buffalo (actually they milk themselves; there's a station in their living area with a robotic milker, and they can go whenever they want), to the final products--mostly cheese, but they also make pudding and yogurt. Everything there is organic, and only sold on site. While we were there lots of locals came to buy cheese. We tried some too, of course, and it was delicious. Apparently buffalo milk has more protein than cow milk...and also lots more fat. And it has natural preservatives, so everything keeps for a few days without being refrigerated.
After that slightly random and not architectural at all side trip, we went to Paestum. There are some Greek temples there that were built at various times, so it illustrates really well the development of the Doric Order. It also started POURING while we walking around, so we quickly took refuge in a museum and spent the rest of the afternoon there, before getting back on the bus and heading to Salerno.
We spent the night in Salerno, but in the morning headed straight to Ercolano (Herculaneum in English). Our hotel was right along the coast, so I was going to go running by the water in the morning, except that when I woke up it was hailing. My plans quickly changed. Luckily by the time we left for the day it was bright and sunny--crazy Italian weather. Ercolano was just a short drive away, so we were able to spend most of the morning and afternoon there. It's like a smaller and less well-known version of Pompeii--like Pompeii, it was buried when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, and was discovered by accident almost entirely preserved. It's preserved a little differently than Pompeii, though, because it was buried in mud, while Pompeii was buried in ash. That means in Ercolano some traces of wood still remain, and 2nd floors on some of the buildings, while those things are gone in Pompeii. It was really incredible to see such a complete ancient city, and think about the people who used to live there...and Mt. Vesuvius is HUGE. I guess I forgot that it's still there...and still active, in fact. The last time it erupted was 1944, but it's overdue to do it again. Luckily, it didn't while we were there, and apparently there'll be about a week's notice before it does.
We headed to Napoli that night. Napoli is where pizza originated, and I believe I ate it for every meal (except breakfasts) while we were there. It was cheap, and delicious. The crust was thin, like all Italian pizza, but somehow still managed to be fluffy. Imo's just might not be the same when I get back...:-) Anyway, the architecture stuff in Napoli was cool too. It's a very layered city, literally--it's partly at the base of a mountain and partly spreads up the side up the side of it. It was under control of the Spanish for awhile, which is evident in street names like "Via Toledo". It's also right along the coast, just like Salerno, and still in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius.
We were in Napoli Friday night, all of Saturday, and Sunday morning, and then Sunday afternoon headed back to Rome! And like I mentioned in my last post, from that moment til the next Sunday night I was working pretty hard on my project.
I didn't take very many pictures during the trip, except for tons and tons of Mt. Vesuvius from various angles...not quite sure why I took so many, actually. But here's a pretty cool one from a castle up on that mountain in Napoli:
Mt. Vesuvius is the snow-capped one on the right.
Wednesday, of course, was Ash Wednesday. Apparently the North American College here in Rome organizes something during Lent called "Station Churches", which means that every day they have mass at 7 am in English in a different church around Rome. I was maybe going to go to that on Ash Wednesday, but due to a combination of factors (1. I had been up til 4 the night before, and 7 am was just a little too early and 2. I decided I'd like to go to an Italian mass) I went to Il Gesu at a more reasonable hour instead, and I discovered that the Italians have a slightly different tradition about the ashes: they don't make a cross on your forehead, they sprinkle them in your hair. It was interesting. So I didn't have black mark on my forehead all day, I just looked like I had a patch of gray hair, haha.
I've been to the station mass a couple times since then, though, and it's always really cool. There are lots of people there--lots of priests and seminarians, but other various English speaking Catholics who happen to be in Rome, too, like lots of study abroad students. It's kind of surprising how many people I know who go, actually. On Saturday I went by myself, and had to stand in the back because all the seats were taken when I got there. And from my spot back there I saw a couple of other archies (who had gotten there earlier than I), the priest who teaches our theology class, two of the seminarians who help out with our program, a seminarian who graduated from ND last year, and my friend Chris who's studying here in Rome this semester. I'm used to going to mass and seeing people I know, but I'm not used to that happening when I go to a random church in Rome...
Anyway, the station churches are a good thing to do for Lent--sacrifice a little sleep and make a mini-pilgrimage every day. But if I go to them every day then I won't be able to go to Italian masses at all, and I've grown rather fond of those. In fact, when I go to an English mass I've started hearing the Italian words in my head for some parts of it. So I'll probably alternate between the two.
For the next couple weeks I won't really have a chance to do either, actually--we're leaving for Sicily on Friday! And then the week after that is Spring Break, and I'm going to Greece with three other archies. We're hoping for warm temperatures in both places:-)
