Things I have learned in Italy

Yesterday I took a day trip to Naples. Excited to eat pizza and experience a new Italian city, we booked our tickets home for late in the afternoon, around 6:30 pm. We left Rome at 8:15 am and purchased the cheapest Trenialia ticket, €10.50 each way. Being our first time going to Termini Stazione, we arrived at 6:30 am, thinking it would take us longer. At that point it was raining in Rome. Alright, deep breath, we're fine, just have to hang out at the train station for three hours. Don't get mugged, don't get mugged! I got a cappuccino and got on the train.

I slept most of the two hours we were on the train. Got to Stazione Centrale in Napoli at around 10:30 am and instantly went looking for L'Antiche Da Michele, the pizza place featured in Eat Pray Love. #obvi.

Took us sometime to find it but arrived before the lunchtime rush. We were seated instantly and the six of us ordered our own pizzas. It was the best pizza I have ever had. ever. Perfect in every way. Here's a picture:

Gorgeous, right?
the dough was light but chewy and the sauce was so simple. Perfect.

 Once we all finished our pizza (or tried, i definitely couldn't finish it all) we were all in complete food comas. All we wanted to do was lay down at rub our bellies into a nice long nap. But we couldn't. We were in Naples for another six hours. We walked down the main street from the train station and looked at sunglasses and shoes and then decided to find the National Archeological museum.

 We walked back to the train station and looked for the metro. found it but there was actually no way to buy tickets. just open escalators down to the metro. we hopped on and hopped off without any problem. Went to the museum and they wouldn't let us use the student discount because we're not students from the EU. Walked around the museum, hungover from pizza, for two hours. We still had four hours to kill. We found that there's not a lot to do in Naples except eat pizza and buy crappy shoes. The city is very very dirty too, trash everywhere and people are everywhere! Definitely made me realize my San Francisco bubble. We hung out in the train station McDonalds for another hour or two and finally could go and sit on the train. This was the same McDonalds I went to when I was eight when my brother got his camera stolen and he missed America. I think I got an ice cream cone. The train ride home was really gorgeous at sunset but took almost four hours because it took long breaks at every station. It was a very long day.

Here is just a short list of things I have learned in Italy thus far
- There are no toilet seats in public bathrooms. be prepared to squat.
- Rarely is there toilet paper. bring tissues or TP in your bag.
- Bring a lot of water, or be prepared to spend a few euros on water bottles.
- Sometimes you even have to pay to use the bathroom. what?
- Hand sanitizer. 'nuff said.
- Do not buy a return ticket for late in the afternoon/evening. Most tickets allow you to take a train four hours past the time listed on your ticket.
- Police officers do not speak English and are rarely helpful.

That's all for now. I should start studying for my midterm on Wednesday. Almost halfway done with my Intensive Italian! Wish me luck! or better, wish me bocca di luppo (in the mouth of the wolf, as they say in Italian)

te amo, Hallie