GL Week 6

Week six was yet another week full of unexpectedness and surreal moments, go figure right? I can’t believe that only eleven days are left in this trip; I’m not exactly sure where the other thirty some have gone! No time to waste sad thoughts on that though, with so little time left I’m definitely not taking anything for granted and trying to make the most of the remaining time I have here in Italy!

Where to start with week six? Well on Monday and Tuesday we went to the Vatican and it was so great. Monday consisted of going up to the top of the dome which in my opinion was beyond surreal. It was gorgeous! I mean the view from the top was definitely worth the climb up! Afterward we had a tour of the Vatican museum which was really interesting as well. Ending the tour we found our way to the Sistine Chapel, and thank goodness I had a much better experience with the Chapel this time. Looking around at all the paintings was breathtaking; the scale on which the paintings were done was just amazing I can’t even what it must have been like for Michelangelo to paint The Creation. Tuesday then, like I said before, we headed back to the Vatican and went underneath St. Peter’s and saw the tomb of St. Peter which was both surreal and unexpected. Surreal in the fact that I was standing less than 10 ft. from the bones and tomb of St. Peter and unexpected in the way in which his tomb was displayed. I expected some decently elaborate display but in fact what I saw was almost the exact opposite. Afterward Brandon and Katie Moore gave a tour of St. Peter’s which was really good. It was nice being able to go through St. Peter’s and actually learn about it while seeing it.

Wednesday and Thursday went by pretty quick and before I knew it was Friday and we all were headed on a train to Sorrento for the weekend. On Friday there was a little hiccup with transportation and unfortunately the train wasn’t running how we had planned but that was ok with me. Instead we had to take taxis but saw a much better view. Driving through Pompeii up to Sorrento and seeing the cities in the hills and the cliffs was breathtaking. It was gorgeous.  Now I’m not sure about anyone else but I’m a Pinterst junkie and looking at the cliffs and blue ocean water made me feel like I was on pinterst gawking at all the pictures like I usually am;  this time it was different though because seeing those cliffs with houses on the edge it was real life. Being in the city of Sorrento was kind of the same way. Although it was rainy for basically the entire weekend Sorrento was such a pretty place.

                Like I mentioned at the beginning of my blog week six has come and gone and only two weeks left. This week in class we started the book the Talented Mr. Ripley and it has been such a good book so far! It’s funny because in the book Tom Ripley travels to Italy and some of the experiences he has are ones just like I have experienced here; reading the book brings back some of the memories from the beginning of the trip. Talking about the book in class it was funny because someone would bring up part of the book as a memory and then we would all remember it and laugh and then someone else would do the same. I especially thought it was ironic because while we were in Naples this weekend Danilo was constantly telling us to watch our stuff and be careful because Naples isn’t a good city and while we were on the train leaving Naples I was reading this book and I got to a part where Tom an Dickie, two of the characters, went to Naples and Marge was furious because they went and never told her when they changed plans and she knew bad things could happen in Naples. The book just brings recalls so many memories it’s I’m not even half way through yet!