Pisa and Livorno

Crazy story - I didn't bring any contact info when we came to italy, so I didn't quite know what to do to get ahold of friends (or to ask for places to stay). SO when we went north, things got a little fuzzy. I had the email adress of a girl in Livorno named Irene. I was able to get ahold of her by email about a week before we got there. SHe gave me her phone number and the number to a couple other people that I couldn't really remember. So me and Tom went up to Livorno without a clue as to where we'd sleep or even if we'd stay there. So when we got off the train, we called irene. She was going to the beach so we arranged to meet. All I knew was the bus I needed to take, but she didn't tell me where they were going to be swimming. We got on the bus and after going all the way accross town, the bus driver stopped the bus, got out and took a lunch break. He just sat there eating a sandwich for 15 minutes, then got on the bus again and we continued on. We eventuall got to the beach (about an hour later).


We got off the bus when we could see the ocean and just started walking along the beach. About 20 seconds into it, I see the back of the head of a friend of mine, Giacomo. I yell, "Giacomo!" and he turns around. Certaily enough it's him, with all the kids from Livorno. We were just going to sleep on the beach, but Giacomo and his brother Willy invited us to sleep on their marble floor. We were so happy to have a place to stay.

In the morning we got up and went to Pisa. In Pisa we saw the Tower. Tom had just finishe Atlas shrugged and will have to tell you all one day about how he left it on the fountain in Piazza Dei Miracoli in the shadow of the tower of Pisa.

Our last day in Rome with Norma

Norma Calabrese came with us on our last day in Rome and showed us around churches we never would have seen without her. She also took us to eat some of the best gelato we've had.

Zingari

I told tom about the Gypsies in Italy, and we went almost a week without seeing any. I thought that that was strange, but then the Bosco family told us that now they dress like tourists. Well, that makes sense. The kid in this picture got on our train in Rome and started up a tape player then got down to some Romanian pop music. Boy could this kid sing (loud). We like the perfoming Gypsies. As the trips progressed we've seen a lot more of them in their traditional garb and such. Today I saw a Gypsey begging at the Cathedral of Florence and a couple of American girls ran up to her and gave her three sacks of food. She sure was happy.

Tom has become obsessed with the gypsies.

Lopezes

The Lopez family was awsome. They let us stay at their house and we had some great times together. Stefano (Itala's boyfriend and a friend of mine from Pescara put us up in Rome and his family let us sleep over for two nights in Pescara).

The Vatican and St. Paolo

Inside the old cathedrals and churches of rome, the light comes in throught the windows, creating great rays of light. It is heavenly to be in the Vatican and see the enormity of this spacious building made so many years ago. And though there are overtones of corruption - especially when you look at the history of the popes that created it- I revere the forgotten peasents who made actually cut the stone and placed it where it is. I am sure those poeple were excited to be part of building a building that would become the new Temple of God - a resurrection of Solomon's. I have no doubt that in the centuries of it's construction, the people that made it felt that they were making a building for God - not just the often times jaded papacy. We really enjoyed visiting the sites where Peter and Paul were burried.

Ode to the piazzas of Italy

I'm starting to understand that one of the big motivations I had to drop everything and bum my way around Europe for a while was the pace of my life. Everything spinning around at 100 miles per hour, you barely have time to breath, much less to think. Well, me and Tom have been cruizing the streets of italy for two weeks now, and it seems like these people have figured out a thing or two about not getting caught up in the velocity of modern living.


First of all, even if an italian wanted to work 24/7, they couldn't because the laws of italy force every store to close for two hours in the middle of the day for lunch. Also, they can't be open until after 8. So, with no option but to go home, everyone takes lunch in the middle of the day and rests.

The next beautiful thing about their way of life are the piazzas. In every city in italy there is a big square where people come down and chat every evening. I don't even remember the name of my next door neighbors growing up, but here neighbors see eachother every evening. Families come down to the streets together and take walks, eat gelatos and spend time together. It truely is a wonderful life.

Pompeii

This was one of the shortest visits to Pompeii in history. We literally got off the train at about sunset, ran to the entrance of the city, somehow avoided the entance fee, and then wandered around in the ruins until we were kicked out. In that same day we spent time in Atrani (woke up in a hostel here), Amalfi, Sorrento, Pompeii, Napoli, and Caserta. There has been a fairly good balance between really intense days like that, and then really relaxed days where we just swim and read and do laundry. But to recap, Pompeii is worth a visit, and a little bit haunting.

Campioni del Mondo

The big news around here is that Italy won the world cup. Our friend Norma Calabrese went to Circus Maximus to see the game and said it was crazy. A bunch of people waited through the night for the team to come back from Germany the next day. There were so many people that some were climbing on the buildings in the Roman Forum to see the spectacle. The police got on the PA system and said, "Please do not get on the ancient ruins, anywhere but there please." They really love their soccer here.

All Roads Lead to Rome, but appearently we took the longest one.

We went from Napoli to Pescara on a train. Vaguly in the back of my mind I remembered someone telling me that you can't take a train from Napoli to Pescara, but that you have to take a bus. I was happy as all get out to find a train (especially to find that it was only 10 Euro. About 2 hours into the train ride, they made us get off and hop on a bus. The bus weaved from small mountain town to small mountain town, until 6 hours after we left. It was expecially exhasting because it came after spending the morning walking a couple miles to see the Palace of Caserta.(below)



There's not much to say about Pescara except that it was nice and relaxing. We stayed with the Bosco family and chilled on the beach. We had some fun talking to cute italian girls in english and asking them for rides to the movies.

Our train to Rome, also about 10 Euro, took us all over italy, stopping at every station in between and got us into rome in the afternoon. We finaly made it back, and now we are stationed in Rome.

The Paradigm Change We've Been Looking For

We took a train to Salerno and a bus to Amalfi. We weren't quite sure what we'd do about accomadations because we are pretty much broke. I walked up to a couple old local men and asked them were I could find some cheap accomodations. They just looked at me and laughed. Eventually they told me that if we walked to the next town over we'd find something cheaper than in Amalfi.

We walked to the next city over which is called Atrani. The whole city consists of a black sand beach, a central piazza and stairs up the sides of the mountains to rural homes. We stayed in a youth hostel called A' Scalatella. It was really nice. A couple of girls we met there said that it was the best place they'd been in all of Europe - and they'd travelled all over.

We did a little bit of hiking through the city - as you can see in my imaginary photos.


We took a boat from Amalfi in the morning. It stopped at POsitano and then continued on to Sorrento. It got super hot between Positano and Sorrento and the captain got on the loud speaker and said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we're going to take a 10 minute break so that everyone can jump in the water."

I looked at tom and said, "Did you hear what I heard?"

He looks at me with a huge grin on his face and said, "YES!"

The boat came to a stop and me and tom ripped off our shirts and jumped in off the top deck of the boat. Floating out there in crystal clear bue water I looked at Tom and knew he was thinking the same thing I was - that in jumping off that boat, floating in the water, looking out over ancient waterside cities, we could see what life should be. I still can't articulate what it is I learned, but my whole way of looking at life - especially the speed at which I go from point A to point B - changed. As we walked back up to the top deck, Tom went up the the captain and said, "Grazie Capitano." And the captain looked at him with the look of a benevolent patron, as if to say, "When you are on my ship, you live life like this."


But Tom, was greatful not only for the 10 minute dip in the medditeranean, but for a captain that shifted our paradigm.

Grazie Capitano


These are some cool ladies that we met on the way up the trail. These are cutest girls I've put my arms around on this whole trip.



Here are a few more pictures of our trip to the Amalfi Coast.

Down to Napoli we go.

Napoli is quite the city. We woke up early in Caserta, took a 45 minute train into Napoli, got on the finicular and went up to the downtown naples branch meeting house which is situated right above one of the most crime ridden sections of italy (don't tell mom).




We had fun meeting with the members there. The hightlight of church was that my last companion, Elder Hansen, gave a talk. It was his last sunday in italy and he pointed out the fact that I was there for his first sunday in italy as well. Man it's been a long time. He was actually in Caserta for my very last talk.

We ate lunch with a family I taught and then we stormed the streets of Napoli, watching our backs every step of the way. Below will eventually be some pictures.





************************
In the above picture, I asked a couple of nuns where Piazza Dante was and they decided to escort us there. They were very nice. Oh, and the skull didn't originally have glasses-- those are Tom's.

Steamy first night

Eventually, I plan to pack this things with colorful pictures because modern society has made us shy away from words and seek after visual stimulation. Like when I was 5 and all I wanted to do was 'read' Danny and the Dinosaur, but all I really wanted was to look at the big pictures. Well I hope you can bear with anther text-based entry - illiterate. (Look at me, I'm insulting an audience I don't have. WOW)

Well the first big trial was picking TOm up at the train station. We had made some elaborate plans. I'm not kidding when I say elaborate- there was a plan a, b, c and D. Well, he wasn't where I thought he'd be when I got there, so I wandered around the station for a while. Two hours passed and I didn't know what to do. All of the plans we made involved me not being there, I didn't even think about what I'd do if he didn't show up. Well, luckily, I took a little glimps around the station and saw Tom siting on his bag like he'd been there all day. I walk up to him and he'd been waiting there for over an hour. I must have just looked passed that one spot.

Since he'd been travelling for over 24 hours, we went strait to Emmanuele di Ulio's house and slept. Boy was it hot. (Her's where I'd slip a picture into the mix, but I just don't have one. Sorry.)

Throwing myself across the Atlantic (or am I being pulled?)

It's 1. I still haven't put a single thing into my backpack and I leave for Europe at 7. I'm pretty sure that I'll see the sun come up this morning.

Tom and I have been planning this trip for quite some time now. If you would have asked us a few months ago where we are going, we would have told you about this trip that would have began in Hong Kong, taken us up to Tibet, down through Nepal and had us end up in northern India. If you would have asked us why, I don't think you'd have received a definitive answer (other than Tom saying something about connecting to the immortal Chi of the universe through meditating in the Himalayas with the Yaks -- or me saying that I just need to get away from life for a while).

Well, now we have turned our eyes to the Old World. Europe came into the picture as the political situation in Nepal deteriorated and our departure date got pushed from may to July. It could have been a girl or something too, but now I've come to realize that where we are going is not as important as the potential we have to learn something about ourselves and this ever smaller earth we live on.

Ask us why we're going, we'll still give you the same answer -- I just need to get away from life for a while and Tom will tell you that he will be connecting with an inner essence by meditating over Bach's grave in Leipzig. But the truth is, we haven't yet discovered our purpose in going abroad. I can't even justify the money I'm about to spend and the responsibilities I had to shirk to pull away for over a month.

So, we are going to Europe in a couple hours. I still don't know why. But if this trip doesn't change me in some serious way, I will be disappointed.

Signing off...

In Amalfi

No time to write, but we are in Amalfi having the time of our life. This morning we were chilling in the mediterraenian sea looking up at the midevil city that we were staying in and wondering how in the world we ever got here.

Arrivato

Yesterday I arrived in Rome. During the last hour or so of my flight into Rome, I began to get a little nervous because I had no idea where I was going to sleep that night. On arrival, I collected my backpack and headed for the train. On the train I sat next to an italian girl who had just returned from a trip to Isreal. In the back of my mind I kept thinking that I should ask her if I could sleep on her floor that night, but that was a silly idea. I got of the train at NOmentana because that is where the mission office is. I went to the office and the first person I saw was Sister Rhein. We were so happy to see eachother. I ended up chatting with the Himes -- they're the office couple. Then I started calling people that I havn't spoken to in years. Some numbers were disconnected, but some, especially in Napoli, were there. Bruno Martino, the minute I told him who was calling said, °What do you want?" I said , "I want to come see you." then he said, "Okay, just call me when you're around." then we said bye and that was it. He did it without the least bit of excitement, and I don't even know if he remembers who I am. Little does he know that I'm planning on sleeping on his floor on Saturday night.

I did get ahold of Itala and Saul who offered to have me stay with them last night. So I slept for about 12 hours and today I'm going to meet Tom at the central station at about 6:30. We'll be stayin in Rome tonight with Emmanuele Di Lulio, a kid from Pescara who is going to University in Rome.

Throwing myself across the Atlantic (or am I being pulled?)

It's 1. I still haven't put a single thing into my backpack and I leave for Europe at 7. I'm pretty sure that I'll see the sun come up this morning.

Tom and I have been planning this trip for quite some time now. If you would have asked us a few months ago where we are going, we would have told you about this trip that would have began in Hong Kong, taken us up to Tibet, down through Nepal and had us end up in northern India. If you would have asked us why, I don't think you'd have received a definitive answer (other than Tom saying something about connecting to the immortal Chi of the universe through meditating in the Himalayas with the Yaks -- or me saying that I just need to get away from life for a while).

Well, now we have turned our eyes to the Old World. Europe came into the picture as the political situation in Nepal deteriorated and our departure date got pushed from may to July. It could have been a girl or something too, but now I've come to realize that where we are going is not as important as the potential we have to learn something about ourselves and this ever smaller earth we live on.

Ask us why we're going, we'll still give you the same answer -- I just need to get away from life for a while and Tom will tell you that he will be connecting with an inner essence by meditating over Bach's grave in Leipzig. But the truth is, we haven't yet discovered our purpose in going abroad. I can't even justify the money I'm about to spend and the responsibilities I had to shirk to pull away for over a month.

So, we are going to Europe in a couple hours. I still don't know why. But if this trip doesn't change me in some serious way, I will be disappointed.

Signing off...