First Day of School

Today was our first day of school!

We got up at about 7:00 and got dressed in our school uniforms.

Then we walked to our school and saw alot of kids wearing uniforms and parents along the way. There were two policemen stopping traffic so kids and parents could get across Viale Vittorio Veneto. We wandered into the school courtyard trying to find a teacher or find the right place to stand in line. Finally we found another American girl who was in Rogan's class, named Ellie. She had been to Mario Rapisardi School for three years, so she was fluent in Italian. She helped Rogan a little bit. Then we found the vice principal, also Rogan's mathematics teacher who took me and Rogan around to find our classrooms. After about ten minutes, we found a third grade classroom that had room for me. We had math first, and I had alot of fun. My math teacher left, and we had a snack. Then we had writing. Writing was not as fun as math but still okay.

Excursion to Tindari

On the way to Palermo, and the rest of our four day trip around Sicily, we took an excursion to Tindari. Tindari is a site in northern Sicily, that has very nice mosaics. We parked our rented car in the parking lot, and took a bus to where the site was. There were a lot of tourist souvenier shops and we walked through those to get to the site.

The site was really cool, there was a museum right when you walked in. In the musem there were some statues of people, and their togas looked like they were swishing in the wind, because they were really ripply, even though they were made out of marble.

There were a lot of mosaics and they were super nice. This is one of them. The mosaics were from a bath complex. One of them had the Sicily symbol, which is a three legged person, all with their knees down, making sort of a pinwheel shape. The legs stood for the main cultures of Sicily, the Phoenician, the Greek and the Roman. Then there was also a big mosaic floor that had a picture of two brothers wrestling, some dolphins, Dionysius and other things.

Cefalu

Today we went to Cefalu. Cefalu is a city with a Norman church that looks like a castle from the outside. The church was made by Roger the II, and then he died, so he didn't get to finish his church that he was making. It had a lot of different busts of other rulers from other times, because it taken over by many different rulers later on. You could see everything from Greek and Roman ruins that Roger built on, and then later, other rulers from Sicily including French and Spanish rulers. You could see al these styles in one church.

The part that King Roger the II finished, was the mosaics. The mosaics were made of small pieces, with gold-leaf on top. King Roger the II didn't have any people who did this kind of mosaics, so he brought people from Constantinople to do the work. They had to do it their way, because that was the way they had been taught.

The mosaics were in bands of different people, going up in importance. So, Jesus was on top. Jesus was holding a bible, and his hand was making the sign of a blessing, that is still used today. The sign is when your thumb is touching your little finger and ring finger, and you point it towards the person you are blessing.

Rogan's Birthday Dinner in Sorrento

It's my birthday tomorrow! We wanted a nice to place to have dinner in Sorrento, since we were going to be driving all day tomorrow to go back to Sicily. So we looked at a lot of restaurants. Some of them were closed, some of them didn't have my favorite pasta dish, that is RAGU, or Bolognese with Angel Hair pasta. Finally we found a place that was near a little garden surrounding a monument and a statue against the wall. Flowers were climbing all over. There, I got my RAGU. After dinner, I went to the bathroom, and when I was in the bathroom, Daddy asked our waiters for a cake for desert for my birthday. They said they didn't have one, but that they would run to a nearby bakery to get one for me. They brought it out with two candles and they everyone in the garden started singing 'Tante Auguri', which means "Many wishes" in Italian. Then we cut the cake. It was a little too sweet for me, but I ate some of it. There was a lot left at the end. It was a good birthday dinner. I liked it.

Swimming at the Sorrento Lido

After we saw Pompeii, we went to the Lido in Sorrento. Sorrento is a town with many, big huge cliffs that go straight down into the water.

There were some hotels and we saw a beach and we tried to get to it, but the only way to get down to it, was to get checked into the hotel to get down to it. We asked someone if they knew a way to get down to a public beach. They said they knew a way. We walked down this cobblestone road to the water, and looked for a nice beach to swim. The beaches were super sandy, and they had this wall with some openings in it, so you could get farther out to the sea. There were a lot of fish in the sea, and I had a lot of fun diving down to touch the fish and scare them away.

We swam around at this beach called Leonelli's Lido. It had been there 100 years or more. There were some little huts were you could change into your swimsuits, and some seats to lie or sit down on. You had to pay to get in. We looked at a lot of them before we decided to go to Leonelli's. There were a lot of people at Leonelli's. There was a cafe and many people were playing games and having fun. Overall, not many people were swimming, most people were playing on the beach, eating or playing games elsewhere. It seemed to me like it was a place that you would meet your friends, and that everyone at the beach would know you.

Visiting Pompeii on August 23rd

The 23rd of August in 79AD was the day before Mount Vesusvius erupted. Everyone would thought it would be all right, because they were used to having it be cloudy, and having small earthquakes here and there. So they didn't really pay attention, and did their daily business. We visited on the 23rd of August 2009, and on the 24th, my birthday, all life in Pompeii was wiped out, except for those that escaped on boats. About a 1,000 people died out of a town that was about 10,000 people at the time. On my birthday, Pompeii erupted exactly 1,930 years ago.

We saw a site that had been the city of Pompeii. So there were streets, shops, courthouses, villas, public baths, fountains. There were also statues of people that had been found in the lava. The archaologists had put plaster in to the cavities into the lava, and then excavated the lava so that the person would be exposed in plaster. Some of the people were praying to the Gods, some of them were running away, some of them were laying down, covering their heads. There was even a chained dog who had died.

There were shops that had holes in the counters, that they would put olives, fish, meat dishes to sell to people to eat. We saw a bakery, where there were stone grinding mills, and rock oven, where they would bake bread, pizza, or pastries, things that a baker would make. They had baths that were made of marble and rock, where slaves would heat the water by putting wood on the fire, and then heating the water from beneath. Some of these baths were for the public, and some of them were in private homes. One of the villas had a mosiac on the floor, of a barking dog, and over the dog it said "Cave Cana", which means "Beware of the Dog".

My favorite thing that we saw on the 23rd, was the Villa of Mysteries. It was like a maze, that had so many rooms going in and out and around two large courtyards, called atriums. They collected water off the roof that went down to the well in the atrium, and they would also let a lot of light into all of the rooms of the house. There was a wine cellar, and a wine press, that we could only see through a small hole in the wall. In the dining room, there were red frescos showing warriors fighting, gods, and some women that were that seemed to be getting ready for a party or something. Frescos are paintings that are on the walls and ceilings. The archeaologists don't really know what the women are doing and that is why the Villa of Mysteries is called the Villa of Mysteries.

Staying in Castelmmare

The hotel, which was really an archaelogical institute, was in Castellmare, a town outside of Pompeii. We could see Mt. Vesuvius from the roof terrace. There were these really small alleyways where they would have their clothes drying.

But they were really busy! They had cars, and mopeds, and people going down them, even though they were super small and one-way. Some of the balconies even had baskets attached to strings, that would fall about a yard from the sidewalk, Someone on the ground would put the groceries in, and someone on the balcony would pull up the basket. Here is a picture.

In one of the alleyways you could see this dome, the top of a church. There were also really small shops that opened out onto the alley. The shop kitchens also opened out onto the alley, so you could see people making pizzas, bread, pastries, and they whatever they were selling, would sometimes be out on the sidewalk. Here is an example, of some fried pastries, kind of like doughnuts.

Paestum

We left Laino Borgo in the morning. We drove up a lot of very windy roads and we weren't too comfortable. We got to Paestum at about lunchtime. Before we got there, we stopped at a place to get lunch for a picnic. We got some roast chicken, bread, and a few other things for lunch. Then we drove onto Paestum. Paestum is an archealogical site that is in between Reggio Calabria and Pompeii. We had the roast chicken which was delicious on the site, under a tree, looking at the Temple of Neptune.

Rogan, me and our Dad walked around after we had lunch. We saw more temples and the ruins of very old houses. There were some very pretty mosiacs and frescos on the houses, but there were no roofs on them, only the walls and the floors. There were very big villas that were huge. We saw a bath complex that was heated in the underneath of it. They kept the fire going, and put a floor on top of that to heat the water. We also saw a very small Odeon, which is small amphitheater. Then we went to a museum which had pots and things like that which were very cool.

Our mom drew pictures of the Temple of Neptune.

Laino Borgo

It was a long day driving north after the ferry from Messina.

We got to Laino Borgo that night. It is a small village in the middle of foothills in the Italian mountains. We looked around and asked a few people if they knew of good restaurant nearby. They said the Margherita,

which was the only restaurant in the village. We walked about a kilometer to get there. We had a very nice dinner, and asked if they knew of a place to stay the night. They said that they had an innabove their restaurant, but it was full, although they had an apartment that they used to live in when they first got married. We stayed there.

When we went to the restaurant, there were many interesting things. There were some grape vines that had lots of grapes on them. There were also some chickens. There was a little river and there also was a place where water could come down, and then someone dug an opening into it, so that water could pass through their crops. There were peppers and corn that were right by the river.

Taking the Ferry to Calabria

We took the ferry from Messina to Calabria.

Calabria is the southern state of Italy, closest to Sicily. It is also where Poppi, Mario's family is from. We were going to Calabria to drive to Naples, which is where Noni, Patty's family is from. And then from Naples we take a Metro to Pompeii, to see the sites. This was in celebration of Mt. Vesuvius erupting on August 24th, 79 AD. The 24th of August is Rogan's birthday.

There was a huge line of cars from all of these Germans who were going back from their vacations in Sicily. We didn't realize how big of a line there would be, until we were experiencing it. And we didn't even know if we were in the right line or not, until we just about to get on the ferry. Then we knew we were in the right lane. We were so happy to get on the ferry. The ferry lasted about 20 minutes, even though the line was super long.

Rogan Playing Chess at the Rosso Pomodoro

One night it took us a long time to find a restaurant, because we were still jet lagged, and we wanted to go to restaurant that was open early. And that was hard, because some of the restaurants open at 7:30, and most of them open at around 8:30 or 9 - 10. Finally we found a place around 7:30, and the restaurant was called Rosso Pomodoro, which means 'Red Tomato'.

The people who own Rosso Pomodoro have a kid, named Sergio, who just started learning chess. I think he was six or seven. And he had a chess board out, and he was playing chess with his dad or uncle. I asked if I could play chess with him. He said 'Si' which means yes. Then I got to play chess with him, even though we didn't know eachothers' languages.

I played easy on him, because it was his first week playing. We played two games, and he stalemated me, both times. The dinner was fine, but I had fun.