June 2009 - Naples

My study trip in 12th grade lead me to Naples, Italy. A good year before, we had the choice to sing up for a destination: Naples, Tuscany, Vienna and Irleland. Naples was reserved to students still taking Latin that school year or at least had taken it for a long time. According to my interests, I decided for Naples. I was attracted by the Roman history, the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the Greek myths this region is connected with and the geological treasures of Campania. Neaples lies beneath Mt. Vesuvius, the only active volcano on the European continent. Around the city are the Campi Flegrei, the "burning fields", an area of high volcanic activity. I was very excited to see all of that.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Flight Hamburg - Naples

Luckily my Latin teacher, who was leading the trip, had decided to abandon her plans of going to Naples by train and book a flight instead. That way, we saved 22 hours of travel time and a lot of money.
We met at a bus stop close to our school from where we departed to Hamburg on a chartered bus from my stepdad's company. Having arrived, we checked in quickly and proceeded through security. After all, we didn't have much time to waste. C13 is a remote gate which means we enjoyed another bus ride to get to our plane parked on the apron.

It might not have been easy leaving the bright sunshine. On the weekend there had been horrible news from Naples: heavy rain, floods, chaos. Should even the Ireland-group have better weather than us? Upon arrival, the weather wasn't perfect but far not as bad as predicted. Over the days, it should even improve.
We had chartered another bus that took us right to our resort in Piano di Sorrento, about one hour from the airport on the south coast of the Gulf of Naples. After getting there nothing much happened anymore. We had dinner and sat on the lawn in front of one house that had a little space. Before we had been shopping for drinks and food in a close-by shop.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The next day began brutally early. After breakfast we had to report at the resort entrance by 8.30, ready to leave. We walked to the train station and took the Circumvesuviana train to Scavi di Pompei, next to the ancient Roman city. It had been destroyed during an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in August 79AD. It was the first location of our educating trip.

Pompeii

It wasnt that easy, though: at the gate we were told that at the other entrance, on the other side of the city, admission was free for groups on that day. So to save money, we walked all around Pompeii once and then started our tour from the end. The group that had prepared the tour had to turn their plan upside down but they managed it pretty well and we got to see a lot of famous and interesting sights like the amphitheatre, a brothel, temples, baths and famous villas. At the end of it we were all pretty exhausted and expected it to be called a day - instead we had another item on the list: a tour through Sorrento.

Sorrento

Thursday, June 25, 2009

"Naples I" is what our week planners read for this day. Naples one stands for: the National Archeological Museum of Naples, one of the most important archeological collections of the world, and later the city of Pozzuoli, west of Naples. This city has some beautiful Roman ruins as well as the Solfatara-Crater, a volcanic crater where hot sulphur steam is rising up. The ancient Greek believed this to be the entrance to hell.
The day began as the last one had and as the following would: get up, get dressed, have breakfast and report at the gate by 8.30 to walk to the train station. This time, we took the train to downtown Naples.

National museum of Naples

Gabinetto Segretto

The "secret cabinet" contains a collection of sexually explicit and erotic artefacts. It was closed for a long time since the church did not want the public to see the this collection. For a few years now, it is open and after signing up beforehand small groups are allowed into the small room.

Pozzuoli

In Roman times Pozzuoli was the most important port of Italy, the ships bringing corn from Egypt were unloaded here and the cargo was then transported to Rome on the Via Appia. The city has the third-largest amphitheatre in the Roman world (after Rome and Capua). It is located in the Campi Flegrei and directly next to the Solfatara crater.
First, we had pizza for lunch before clmbing back up the steep hill slope to see the amphitheatre and it's gorgeous underground constructions.
To finish the day (and us) we marched further uphill in the heat and sun to the Solfatara crater, were showed around and took the long train ride back to Piano.

Solfatara

Friday, June 26, 2009

"Naples II" meant: the city center, a walk through the fish market and along the shore to Castel dell'Ovo and back. We were introduced to the city of Naples and it's history, and we could experience the flair of the city, even including a Mafia wedding ceremony.

Galeria Umberto

San Francesco di Paola

Castel dell'Ovo

Castel Nuovo

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Vesuvius

Our visit to Mt Vesuvius had been postponed a few times due to unstable weather conditions, but now we finally visited the mountain that governs the skyline of the region, gives life and is the biggest threat to Campania. Responsible for guiding the group and giving information were my friend Flo and I. Some of us were a little sick after the bus ride so it took a while before we could start walking the last few hundred meters to the crater. This was easier than our teacher had predicted.
Having arrived at the crater, our history teacher, who accompanied the group as well, organized a professional tourist guide, which made it easy for Flo and me to do what we had prepared for. At least the tour guide provided insight and information we hadn't had access to, so it was interesting for all of us.

Unfortunately we didn't have much time since the bus driver didn't want to negotiate. So we had to hurry to get back down to the parking lot in time. From there he took us directly to Herculaneum, a small Roman town at the foot of Vesuvius.

Herculaneum

Like Pompeii, Herculaneum was destroyed during the 79AD eruption of Vesuvius, though in a different way: Pompeii suffered from ashes and lava raining on it. The weight of the rocks on the roofes made the buildings collapse so that hardly any buildings there have more than one storey left to see.
Herculaneum was engulfed by a liquid mudslide that left the houses mostly intact. Even wood was conserved and can still be seen today. The mud dried and became concrete. Parts of the city still haven't been excavated, you can see the work in progress and you can see how hard it must be scratching the ruins of the city out of solid natural concrete.
I liked Herculaneum better than Pompeii. As I said the town is better conserved and it is much less crowded, hardly any tourists find their way here.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

It was Maltes day: he had spent the past days practising his speech for the tour he was supposed to guide: Positano, just south of Sorrento on an even more beautiful coast. The plan was to go to Positano by bus and then take the next bus to Amalfi where Lasse and Jannik would have their presentations. The original plan contained a ferry ride back to Positano but due to financial problems we couldn't make that and had to take the bus back home.
Having arrived in Positano our teacher realized that on Sundays, the bus frequency was lower than on weekdays. That gave us some extra hours in the 'vertical town' where some famous people of the beginning 20th century had spent some time. We went to the beach to swim in the Mediterranean Sea.

Positano

Amalfi

Monday, June 29, 2009

Capri

There is a reason why Capri is one of Italy's most famous destinations: it is of amazing beauty. And it keeps that beauty even though masses of tourists swarm on the island in the morning and prices are incredibly high. There is a lot to see there, which is why the group to lead today's expedition consisted of five people.
We took the ferry from Sorrento. The ride took about 30 minutes in a very comfortable cabin. Having arrived at Marina Grande the tour started immediately and we were lead across the steep hills to the south coast of the island, down the famous Via Krupp to the beach and back up, criss-cross across the island and finally a small group still had enough energy to visit the Villa Iovis, home of emperor Tiberius, resting on a 300m-cliff in the east of the island.

35°C - with regards to Ireland and Vienna

Via Krupp and it's vertical beauty

Villa Iovis

Only a few of us made it up here to this peaceful spot free of tourists. The villa used to be the residence of emperor Tiberius and thus de facto the capital of the Roman empire for a while. Some say the complex might have had up to eight storeys. Of course today only some remains are still there, having survived twenty centuries. Even they are impressive, though. The cliff the complex is resting on is not less than 300m high and features a gorgeous view on the mainland and the blue sea.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Flight Naples - Hamburg

It was the day of our homecoming. The chartered bus picked us up again to take us to the airport. Luckily, we didn't have to spend much time there as it is a small and boring airport.
The flight wasn't very exciting, we arrived on time and my stepfather picked us up again, taking us back to Rendsburg where our group spread wide apart to go home.
Since we had arrived two days earlier than the other groups, we were supposed to go to school and fill the days with project work. This gave us the possibility to recapitulate and work on the results of our studies before the tan could vanish.

Passing Venice