Another Great Week in the Books!

We ventured to Paestum, Amalfi, and Atrani this weekend. It was incredible! We saw some of the most pristine temples that remain in Paestum. These Greek Temples were constructed over 2500 years ago and they are in great condition. It was awesome to see a city that was once active, then covered by landscape, and finally rediscovered. The ruins were everywhere and to see such large pieces was amazing! We then traveled on to Atrani. Everything was so beautiful and we were away from the huge crowds of people for the majority. It was Regata weekend so that made it a little more busy than normal however. The city was built into the hillside and I definitely hiked the most stairs I have in a long time, but the site was gorgeous! Cars were not allowed to drive through the main part of this town (given it was very small), but it added to the serene beauty and it is not really plausible because every structure only has space for a human to access the entry after walking up stairs. We were able to do some hiking up through some trails, where we ventured to the top point, giving us gorgeous views of both Amalfi and Atrani, along with the sea. Not only was the view and landscape incredible it was nice to have the space to be able to do some hiking. The Regata was a boat race between Amalfi, Pisa, Genova, and Venice. We watched the parade through Atrani and then followed it over to Amalfi where we stood above and watched the race. The race was super close, but Amalfi ended up pulling off the win. It was cool enough to be there to see this, since it is only in Amalfi every four years, let alone have them win, after it has been several years since their last win. Afterwards we all went back to watch the fireworks, which were the greatest fireworks I have ever seen. They were setting them off four different locations; it was like the finale, but for 20 minutes straight. It was an incredible light show. Overall, the weekend was great and relaxing. This week we got to have a tour by Jeffrey, which was so informative. He has so much knowledge about many buildings and the aspects within them; he informed us of it all without ever looking once at notes, which was incredible to me. Another great week in Rome for the books!