Southern Trip Summary

I know I have been away for a while, but luckily for you, I emailed myself my thoughts about my trip to Southern Italy while I was on the trip, so that I can let you see what I was thinking at the time. So....here it is!

Richard has been making this trip less than enjoyable with all his commentary but nonetheless the trip so far has been amazing.

Yesterday we hit the road early and spent the whole day in Pompeii. It turns out the city is way over rated. The drive was beautiful with all the mountains but the city of Pompeii is very small and compressed and kindof boring. It was pretty exciting to be so close to Mt. Vesuvius though. It hasn't erupted since the 40s or 70s or something so it is long overdue for an eruption. A little exciting I must say.

When we FINALLY left Pompeii at 5 or so, we drove a little further south and closer to the sea. We passed the Amalfi coast which looked BEAUTIFUL and we had the perfect timing because as we were driving along the shore, the sun was setting over the Tyrrhenian sea. It was so so pretty.

The mountains here are absolutely amazing. I really really love them. Today when we were driving we saw some covered in snow. So nice. We were actually on our way from Paestum to Padula when we saw those. We started today with some Greek temples in Paestum from the 5th and 6th century BC. I have studied these temples for so long, it was really amazing to be standing in front of them. The land that they are situated on is an open plain so it was really appealing to me. It was a complete contrast to Pompeii with it's blocks and blocks of houses and groups of tourists. It had soooo much space and plenty of time to just walk around and explore. I was really enjoying it and actually enjoying my sketching.

From there, we hit the road for an hour and had the most GHETTO lunch at an "Autogrill" next to the highway. So ridiculous. Once we got to Padula, we visited the convent of St. Lawrence. The overall complex kindof bored me but the end destination was this staircase that was SO BEAUTIFUL I CAN'T GET OVER IT. It was a twisting staircase that went up two sides.....so it was an oval in plan....so pretty. Completely travertine or marble..don't remember..but every window I looked out, I felt like I was living in a painting of the Italian countryside. The sun was coming out and casting shadows from the Cyprus trees.....omg. It was amazing. I can't really put it into words. The pictures will have to do it justice.



Tuesday and Wednesday were 100% opposite from each other. Tuesday, we left Paestum and drove to Trani, stopping at the Castel del Monte first. The only thing was, it was POURING all day long. So, when we got to Castel del Monte, needless to say nobody was excited to get off the bus and walk up a hill to the building. Once we got there we realized that we had to sprint across the courtyard to got to different parts of the structure and then, as always, we were forced to sketch something in the 30 degree weather. By the time we left, we were all so cold. It was ridiculous, But it didn't stop there.

Once we got to Trani, we realized it was a beautiful town, but it was pretty much a hurricane we were driving through. A lot of people got their luggage soaked because the compartment on the bus was leaking water. Anyways, we got to the hotel that was SO NICE. We felt like princesses because there were only two of us to a room and they were huge and wonderful. The hotel was right on the edge of the port with the cathedral directly opposite, which, of course, we had to trek over to. In the hurricane. So, we all bundled up and grabbed out umbrellas and set off. The streets were pretty much rivers and the staircases were waterfalls. Because the cathedral is right on the water's edge, the wind at that point got SO RIDICULOUS and the water was pouring off the side if the church. It was ridiculous in every way. At that point, my shoes and two pair of socks were soaked through and through and my pants were wet up to my knees.

Then, we froze our butts off inside the church, which was beautifully constructed out if limestone on the exterior as well as the interior-no frescos or paintings or reliefs or anything. Very simple but very beautiful.


Luckily when we woke up Wednesday morning, it was a sunny day with blue skies and warm weather. Now we REALLY got to enjoy the city because we had the whole morning to ourselves. We got to see all the fishing boats coming in with their daily catch and they sold it right there in the boardwalk at little booths. Very nice. We walked all around the town and fell in love with it.



The rest of the day was spent on the road. Four and a half hours driving down the coast of the Adriatic sea. It was sooooo pretty. The color of the water is absolutely stunning. We passed hundreds, maybe thousands of olive trees that grow right up to the edge if the sea. So so pretty.

We arrived in Otranto at about 5 and had to hike up to the top of the medieval fortress town to sketch the church. It was an alright church with a huge mosaic floor and a room full of skulls and bones from when the crusaders came into the town and killed the locals. Creepy. The town was empty and a little creepy so we had NOTHING to do for two hours until dinnertime. We all ended up going to the one bar that was open and drinking wine until it was time for dinner. Finally after dinner, we drove to our hotel outside of Otranto which ended up being a beautiful little oasis in the countryside. Had pools and olive trees and everything. Very nice.

Now, the last leg of the journey I did not have time to record on the spot, so I will tell you what I remember. From the fancy hotel, we went to a town called Lecce. We didn't spend TOO much time in there, just went to the town's main cathedral complex with its fancy bell tower. We also saw a Roccoco church with a facade that was INSANE. Just about every inch of the facade was covered in something. There was a small amphitheater in the town that we had to draw, but other than that we spent very little time in the town. We had to HIKE back to the bus because it couldn't enter the city center. It was literally a half hour walk back to the bus with us hoping that we were going to right direction.

The last place we visited was a town called Matera. It was BEAUTIFUL. I really liked it. It is a town that was built into the side of a mountain around a river. The original dwellings were caves carved into the rock, and then after that houses and dwellings were just built ontop of each other. There is a large cathedral at the top of the mountain, but aside from that, the whole town consists of small houses clustered on the mountainside. Very impressive. Our hotel was one of these caves that was fixed up. SO COOL. It was warm and dark and quiet....which was lovely when going to sleep. The bathroom was a tiny fully tiled room WITH A BATHTUB, but I didn't have time to take a bath. We visited some old, original churches carved into the rock. We got to see a super fancy hotel that was also in the caves, and it was SOOOO NICE. All of us girls there decided we were all going to return to the hotel for our honeymoons. We also all went to a restaurant together for dinner one night. All 22 of us and the teachers and Carlo, our bus driver. Carlo seems to know everyone, and he was the one who got us into the restaurant. Mel Gibson ate there when he was filming the Passion there in Matera.

All in all, the trip was a success. Every town we visited was beautiful in its own way and I'm really thankful to have the opportunity to have seen so much of the country. We still have the Northern trip to go on and we get to spend a few days in Venice, which I'm super excited about.

I'll try to do a better job keeping up!