S-T-R-I-K-E.
The man on the platform slowly mimed the letters to me through the steamy glass
window of the train. Oh. A
Strike. It took me a moment to
realize what was going on, but once the pantomimed letters registered in my
mind, I knew we were in for a long day.
You see, we had meticulously planned a weekend trip to Cinque Terre – a grouping
of five scenic northern coastal towns – weeks in advance. It was going to take us three trains and close
to six hours to get to Cinque Terre on Friday afternoon, but the Italian train
labor union had other ideas. We never
made it out of Rome.
We spent seven hours in the train
station trying to get on other trains, but we eventually settled for a refund
on our original tickets. We still had to
pay a little bit of money to the hostel that we had booked in advance, but it
could have been a whole lot worse. We
left Roma termini on Friday evening feeling very tired, but not defeated.
After some discussion Friday night,
we decided we had to do something to
make up for the bad experience at Termini, so we settled on trying for a whole
new day trip – this time to Sorrento – on Saturday.
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| Our Sorrento Crew: Myself, Lindsay, Kristin, Jacob, and Alex. Post Beach. |
Sorrento is a southern coastal town
on the bay of Naples famous for its rich history, delicious citrus fruits, and
scenic cliff-side views of the Mediterranean.
It took us two train rides and more than four hours to get there, but it
was completely worth it.
We arrived around 1pm, and very hungry
at that. So, after stopping at a tourist
office to get a map, we walked straight to the center of town – Tasso Square – and
found a place to eat lunch. The pizza I
ordered turned out to be one of the best I’ve had so far on this trip. The thin-crust Roman style pizza is good, but
the thicker-crust, wood-fired Naples style is the best! The latter is what I had on Saturday
afternoon – topped with bacon, zucchini, and copious amounts of cheese.
So a little bit of history here on
Tasso Square. It actually used to be
called Piazza Castello, as a large castle used to sit on the very spot where
the square is today. The fortification
was centrally located, and controlled the main entrance into and out of
Sorrento. Walls have been present on the
site since ancient Roman times, though they were mostly destroyed by the
Saracens in 1558. The walls were rebuilt
following this attack, however, and became quite extensive by the 19th
century before they were destroyed again – this time by Napoleon.
So why is it called Tasso Square today? Tasso is the name of a famous 16th
century poet who was born in Sorrento.
He is most famous for his epic poem about the battle for Jerusalem in
the first Crusade, Gerusalemme liberata (1581),
which was widely read and circulated in Europe up until about the early 20th
century.
After lunch on the square, we climbed
down a steep set of steps from the square to a narrow street that led to the
beach. This street was originally the
main point of access from the Bay to the centrally located castle. We followed it straight out to the sea, which
was just visible in the distance – a deep, sapphire blue swath of frothy sea-surf
fabric.
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| Access to the Bay of Naples below Tasso Square |
Once arriving at the beach, which
was a narrow, rocky, black-sand (thanks to the volcanic activity of Mt.
Vesuvius nearby) stretch of cliff side water access, we spent a few Euros to
lounge on a deck that jutted out into the bay.
I quickly jumped into the water, however; as I had been sweating all day
and was in desperate need of a cool down.
The water WAS cool, very salty, and very refreshing.
After spending about three hours
lounging in and out of the shallow water, we climbed up another steep cliff and
started heading back toward the train station.
On the way back through town, we stopped at a small restaurant/bakery,
where I got a delicious lemon slushy.
Citrus fruit - and specifically lemons - are the name of the game in Sorrento.
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| Cliff-side stairs |
We arrived back at our apartment
just before midnight on Saturday evening, and I slept for the next eleven hours.
Rest has been a rare commodity for
me this past month, and for good reason, but I desperately needed some extra
shuteye after the long trip to Sorrento.
Anyways, when I finally did get up, I ventured out on Sunday with my
friends Jacob and Christine to check out the Basilica of John Lateran in Rome.
On our way over, we stopped at the
Altare Della Patria Monument, which is a late 19th century white "wedding cake" structure (the Italian nickname for it) that serves a dual purpose – it commemorates both King Victor Emanuele’s
role in the unification of Italy, and houses Italy’s Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier.
After climbing about halfway up on foot, we took a lift the
rest of the way. Once we made it to the roof,
we were rewarded with an excellent panoramic view of the city. We didn’t stay up very long though, as it was
96 degrees here on Saturday and the sun was beating down on us!
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| Top of Altare della Patria. Colosseum in the center of the background, Roman Forum to the right. |
From the monument, we took a bus out
to John Lateran, which is south of Roma Termini on the southeastern outskirts
of the old city.
 |
| The façade of John Lateran |
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| Doors of John Lateran - which were originally a part of the Roman Imperial Senate building. |
The Basilica of St. John Lateran is
the ecumenical mother church for all Roman Catholics, as it is the oldest of
the four Papal Major Basilicas in Rome (the other three being St. Peter’s, St.
Maria Maggiore, and St. Paul Outside the Walls). In fact, it is the oldest church IN Rome. St.
John Lateran has been the seat of the Bishop of Rome, that is to say the Pope,
since the early 4th century.
The original church burned down twice – in 1308 and
1360. It was rebuilt in each instance,
and in 1377, after the Popes returned from their exile in Avignon, a renovation
project was initiated that wouldn’t be definitively finished until 1655. The author of the baroque-era renovation that
is still visible today was the architect Francesco Borromini.
Borromini also did some of the
interior design work at St. Peter’s Basilica, which is where I started my day
off this morning.
This weekend was ALL about getting some good views of the city. We started off with the climb to the top of Altare della Patria on Sunday, and capped it all off today (quite literally) with a trek to the top of the St. Peter's Basilica dome. It took 551 steps to get to the top, and luckily we were able to take a lift for about a third of the way. The Basilica is 132 meters tall from the crown of the dome to the floor.
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| Half way there! Our dome-climbing crew at the bottom of the cupola before making our final descent. |
The climb to the top was not unlike the climb of Il Duomo (Florence Cathedral) that I made a few weeks back. I felt a little bit claustrophobic at times, as the walls started slanting drastically inwards when we got towards the top, but, as per usual, the view was phenomenal once we reached the top.
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| View from the top of St. Peter's. Altare della Patria is visible center right in the distance. |
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| St. Peter's Square from the top of the dome |
After climbing back down from the top of the dome, I made a quick stop at the Vatican gift shop with my friends before heading back to Trastevere - where everyone was already gearing up for the Italia vs. Spain soccer game this evening. Spoiler alert: Italy won!! It was an incredible game.
This weekend didn't go the way I expected it to at the outset, but everything worked out just fine in the end. There's just SO MUCH to see here in Rome. I'm glad I had one more weekend here to take it all in - and from a different angle! It was really neat to be able to look down from above on all the sites we've been visiting as a class the past few weeks. There's so much history here just crammed into the buildings, the walls, and indeed the very cobblestoned streets I've grown so accustomed to these past several weeks.
This weekend was all about the beach, the big churches, and the beautiful panoramic views. I'll never forget how it all went down. It started with a S-T-R-I-K-E.....and it ended with a.........GOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLL!!!!! Two of them, in fact!
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| I've enjoyed every minute of it |
Ciao,
Brock
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