Oh, the places you'll go...

Bad news: no pictures today. I wasn't able to bring my laptop today, so all I can do is post. But that's pretty exciting, huh?!

I went to the Vatican, Sorrento, Pompeii, and Capri this weekend. The Vatican was awesome, and I'm not even Catholic! Haha! I completely forgot that School of Athens was in the Vatican museum, and when it showed up in front of me, well, I was very excited! The Sistine Chapel is absolutely amazing. Michaelangelo was nothing short of a genius. Then in St. Peter's Basilica, that statement was reaffirmed when I saw the Pieta. St. Peter's was beautiful, though I didn't get to climb to the top of the dome. I would've liked to, but we just didn't have the time.

It's official. My favorite place I've ever been (previously the Tower of London) is now Pompeii. I don't think I can do it justice in the short of amount of time I have to post on here. The city is beautiful, sad, funny, and awe-inspiring all at the same time. I took a ton of pictures there, and I will post a few soon. We got there early (and it was free admission because it was a holiday), right after it opened, so for a long time, there was hardly anyone there. My friend Lauren and I walked around together and got lost in the streets of the neighborhoods. It was quiet, and gave me time to reflect on the people who lived there. Seeing some of the bodies, and the positions they were in, made me want to cry. Everything happened so quickly there, and they never had a chance. It's a pretty crazy feeling to walk in the city that was lost in less than ten minutes. And the temples and structures there...again, this is why I think ancient civilizations are so amazing. They built all of these incredible things with absolutely no technology. I know this sounds cheesy, but Pompeii really changed me. It affected me as an Archaeologist, but even more as a person.

Well, our beach weekend was ruined by something that the locals say is very rare this time of the year...rain, rain, and more rain. We didn't even get to swim in the pool at our hotel in Sorrento! It was such a bummer! The weekend, though, was worth it for me because of Pompeii, but I know a lot of people were really disappointed.

I'm just going to go ahead and tell everyone to never, ever go to Naples (Napoli) if you can avoid it. That city is filthy and creepy beyond words. We may be young American girls, but thank goodness we're not young, stupid American girls. I'm pretty sure we narrowly escaped a potentially bad and dangerous situation because of our logic and awareness. But that's a long story for a time when I have more minutes on the internet.

I felt really sick today so I only had a half a day the field. I'm feeling a lot better now, and I think I just needed some rest after our insane weekend.

I'll be back soon to post more stories and pictures!