Our field trip last weekend began with a visit to Paestum, and its extraordinary Doric temples of Hera I and II. A short train trip and an exciting bus ride then brought us to Atrani, where we stayed for the weekend. Besides getting to know the stair-filled town of Atrani, we also hiked way up to beautiful Ravello and made several trips to nearby Amalfi. I really enjoyed exploring the area and relaxing on the beach, but my favorite part of the trip was wandering up and down through the maze of stairs that served as the streets for these small cliff-side towns in search of interesting places to sketch, which weren’t hard to find.
While I was drawing, locals walking by would stop to look over my shoulder and often started speaking to me in Italian. The people were so friendly; one man was really excited that I was sketching his house and pointed it out to me, another woman thought I was lost although I wasn’t and was trying to help me, and others were just curious to see what I was doing. I would have really liked to be able to understand what they were saying and have a conversation with them, but unfortunately even though I’m trying to learn, my Italian is so poor that I can only speak and understand very basic vocabulary. Seeing and learning about the amazing architecture here is more than enough to make this trip the experience of a lifetime. But if I could change one thing I would have tried to learn the language better beforehand because being able to talk with locals to learn more about the people and culture here would only enhance this incredible experience.
1 comment:
Good work Missy Jane!! And it's funny how you attract the locals everywhere you go!!
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