Town Family

A week ago we went on our first field trip. First we stopped in Paestum and then on to the Amalfi Coast. Paestum is a town that has three Greek temples. Two of which are the best preserved Greek temples of anywhere (poor Greece, they can't claim that). It was pretty was amazing to see them still standing along with the ruins of a town around it. I enjoyed walking through imagining what it would have been like to live there when it was in it's glory days. So far, Paestum has had the best lemon gelato.



The Amalfi coast and the town of Atrani was next on the itinerary. In Atrani, there was a bar/restaurant in the piazza called Amercian Bar. We hung out there a lot and the owners (two brothers) loved our group and seemed to have a blast entertaining and being entertained. So we spent the weekend in these coastal towns, hanging out on the beach, exploring the mountain towns, and sketching. Atrani was a fun town to explore and sketch. It was like one big family. Everyone knew each other. All the houses were built one on top of another. The 'streets' were literally narrow stair/path ways. Lots of fun to start on one set of stairs and see where you would end up. The food was amazing. I had my first taste of squid. It was in a pasta and surprisingly not rubbery. But I'm still not a biggest fan of the flavor. The last morning, I hiked with a few others, approximately 1,000 feet straight up to the town Ravello. Pretty little town with a beautiful view of the coast below. We did it at 6am so it wouldn't be so hot and made it back in time for the delicious continental breakfast. My legs were shaking by the time we were done. A lot of stairs. But it was worth it. Though the lemon gelato is good, I had some Kiwi gelato in Salerno on the way back to Rome. Kiwi is my new favorite, but so far I have only seen it in Salerno. But I haven't given up hope, I'll find it.