a condensed recapitulation of events

I know, I know, I'm a huge blogging failure. I've been promising entries for Sicily and Greece for ages but they're so far behind me now that it would be really hard to write a detailed entry about either of them (especially Sicily, where we were constantly on the move and switched hotels every single night). Plus I've already told most of the people who read this regularly about those trips. So...I'm just going to skip ahead and fill you in on more recent events. A week ago we got back from our Campania trip! It was slightly less enjoyable than our Sicily trip just because it rained almost the entire time. It was the worst during our visit to Pompeii, though. It was almost the end of the day and it had been raining off and on...we had only one more house to visit, the Villa of the Mysteries...and we were running late, worried that we were going to miss it, because the site closed promptly at 5. Anyway we were shuffling along through the streets in small groups when all of a sudden we hear a mighty crack of thunder, and the rain starts POURING down. The wind was going crazy, so carrying an umbrella had become completely pointless. Now, the drainage system in ancient cities generally wasn't the best--at this point running down the street was like running through a small river. The thunder was sounding more and more threatening, people were screaming all around...a bunch of us desperately ran for cover in a small cave on the side of the road. It was a tight fit, but at this point we were so elated from laughing and screaming that no one cared too much. We knew everyone else must have also found cover, because we were towards the front of the group and no one passed our cave. But of course, being the classics nerds we are, we didn't want to miss the Villa of the Mysteries just because of a little (ok, a LOT) of rain. The rain wasn't easing up and we were worried it would only get worse...so we boldly threw caution to the wind and made a run for it. My feet were literally submerged underwater at times and my shoes (the only pair I had brought, might I add) were damp for days. But I have to admit, the "thunderstorm in Pompeii" experience was a fun (albeit wet) one, which I will recall with fondness and amusement in the years to come whenever I'm dry and warm.

That was probably the highlight of the trip, but we also visited Naples (a contender along with Syracuse for the Most Unpleasant City award), Herculaneum (the houses were preserved even better than in Pompeii--the wooden doors and upper levels of houses were still intact!--because it was covered with mud-lava instead of ash), and Cumae (where we saw the Sybil's cave). But my favorite stop was our last one: the Benedictine monastery at Montecassino. It's situated high in the mountains, which were dusted with snow. We arrived at twilight and didn't have too much time to look around, but by some stroke of luck we were in the cathedral when the monks started chanting the vespers. It was such an incredible experience...I feel like I'm running out of adjectives here, but honestly I don't know how to describe it any other way. It was very moving.

Ok, I have to go now--a couple of friends and I have an appointment at the Villa Borghese at 1 and we're leaving soon. But I'll update again soon (no, really) to tell you about my weekend trip to Florence and Thanksgiving at the Centro. Get excited!