Volcano humor for you.

In case you missed out on my last blog, here's a quick review: study abroad in italy, pizza, smelly roommates, bums, cats, colosseum. Ok, let's continue!

After living with 6 other strange girls and going to school an hour away from our apartment in a stinky, crowded bus in cold, cold Rome, I was incredibly excited to head with our school group to Sorrento for the weekend.
The first part of the trip would be spent on Mt. Vesuvius, but before we got there, the tour guide graciously offered to stop for lunch (because it wasn't actually part of the itinerary, even after 4 hours on a tourbus). So we stop at this very mid-century Italian eatery that could have been right out of L'avventura (the old Italian movie were everyone just wants to have sex with everyone). There was a set menu of one drink and a pizza for 11 euros. At first I thought we were getting ripped off, until they brought out the pizzas. They were beautiful: melty, tasty cheese swimming in a lovely tomato sauce on a golden crust with just the right amount of lovely spices in the sauce (and trust me--sauce on Italian pizza is a rarity!). It was easily the best pizza I ever had.

With sustenance in us, we headed to Mt. Vesuvius, where we bravely climbed the mountain (I say bravely because the guide kept talking about how it could explode at any minute, and how the government was trying to pay people to move out of the cities below). Let me tell you: that is a bit of a tough climb, but completely worth it for the spectacular view, even on a cloudy day. It's a little embarassing when your professor passes you on the trail, however.

Next, we headed for the city Vesuvio done destroyed: Ol' Pompeo. Now, I am going to be honest: we went on a chilly day, when the sky was steel gray and completely ominous, and let me just say: it was AWEsome. I felt like we were visiting some eerie ghost town (which, in fact, we were), and that we would witness the next massive destruction of the place. Pompeii is simply one of those anciently ruined places that deserves all the cool stuff everyone says about it. Plus, you have a lot of fun picture oppurtunities there.

One thing about Pompeii: It's covered in Phallic Symbols. Actually, most of Italy is. It's like, oh, here is a doorway. Can anyone in the group guess what the symbol above the door stands for? That's right, a phallic symbol. Oh, here is an old mailbox, decorated with a phallic symbol.
Oh, and what about this long, cylandrical shaped object with two round bits at the end? A phallic symbol? No, silly, it's a walking cane; get your mind out of the gutter.

Okay, mi amici, I must go and do scholary girly things now, so take a peek at my pictures if you want to see my spectacular sights of this portion of the trip (and if you look behind me in one of the pictures, you might even see the volcano!).