Pompeii and Not-Really-Napoli, Italy

Saturday, 15th September - Monday, 17th September '12
I was a lazy mofo in Napoli. I went for a walk for about 1 hour until my room was ready and the rest of the time I spent in the breakfast room on my pc. Naturally the internet never worked in my room, so that's why I had to sit in the open with the receptionists judging eyes always on me. I found Naples to be very dirty... and kind of intimidating. I went out every night to a square nearby and ate pizza most nights. It was quite well priced and good food.

I spend Sunday writing an assignment for university. It was the biggest load of wank I've ever written in my life, I feel so bad for my tutor who has to read it. The only worthwhile thing I did while in Naples was go to Pompeii on the Monday. It was a little ways away by train, but once arriving at the station, I tacked myself on to a tour group in English. There was an Australian family, a young canadian couple with a son under one years old and an old American couple. I don't remember if there were others, but nobody in my age range, so I just kind of just hung out at the back of the queue. The guide was Italian and his accent was so thick, I understood maybe one word of ten.

Pompeii was much smaller than I imagined, but other than that I didn't have much expectations and it was amazing to see it, and how well preserved so much of it was.

Florence, Italy

Back in Berlin now and I'm so busy (with games and other useless stuff) and haven't updated. The details in my memory are a bit sketchy so they will most likely be short.

Tuesday, 11th September '12
I remember arriving in the afternoon and staying in some far-away ass hostel and doing... nothing... while there. I was staying in a dorm room and one of the ladies there was an older American lady who was loud and spent whatever time she had reading a bible. Welcome to Italy.

All I remember about the rest of the night and all of Florence was MOSQUITO O'CLOCK.

Wednesday, 12th September '12
Moved in the morning to my other hostel much closer to the centre of town. Had my own room this time. I think I chilled outside in the garden, walked around till I found somewhere to eat. I had a mushroom pizza and learnt that the mushrooms they use in Italy are super... mushroomy. Turns out I'm not a fan.

I had my own room and I decided I would wake up early in the morning to go and visit the gallery which had Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. Turns out, I couldn't sleep all night cause I was driven crazy by itchy bites.

Thursday, 13th September '12 

Anyway, needless to say my crappy sleep led to me sleeping in. When I eventually woke up, I decided today would be a pious day in which I visited the various churches in town. First I walked down to a church which housed a big library and chapel. I can't find the name of it now, but out of all the churches I visited that day, I actually liked this one the best.

The weather was quite all over the place, windy, cold and then all of a sudden hot. I wore a very strange assortment of clothes that day haha. I was wearing a long red dress, but then when I went into churches I put on my tights and a sweater to cover my shoulders etc. Yet wearing all this, I was told to wear those stupid cloth raincoat things.

Anyway, the library was awesome. The mosaics on the floor in the library were awesome. The chapel was awesome. The books.The books were awesome and detailed and beautiful.

From there I went to the main Cathedral in the central square. The outside facade is indescribably unique. The intricacy and texture... incredible. It took me about 15 minutes or so to line up to go inside and it was empty and boring on the inside. Super letdown, but at least I didn't pay to get in.

Afterwards I got delicious gnocchi and got lost, don't remember in what order. I eventually went to Santa Croce after much getting lost. It was expensive as shit and the entire altar was covered in scaffolding. zzzZZZ

Friday, 14th September
Today, I told myself, I was going to see Botticelli's masterpiece. I set my alarm, woke up early, went and had breakfast... and decided fuck everything and went back to sleep. I was so tired, I could barely function. Much later, when I eventually decided to haul my lazy ass outta bed, I went and saw what the line looked like at the gallery near the Palazzo Vecchio. The line was massive as shit, so I decided to visit Palazzo Vecchio instead.

Afterwards I visited the gallery and waited about 1.5 hours in the line to get into the gallery. Naturally once inside, I wasn't allowed to take pics of any of the pictures but I was allowed to take pictures out the windows and the balcony.

Other than the Birth of Venus, there wasn't really anything else remarkable about the museum. Twenty million madonna and childs... renaissance zzzzz etc etc