Lessons. Learned.

Naples is a pretty neat city. It reminded me a lot of San Fransisco though, especially when walking along the coast. It's very impoverished, and quite large for an Italian city. To be honest, I was kind of disappointed. The coast line was pretty and the pizza was really good, but I think I would be okay with not going back. Pompeii, on the other hand, was awesome! I don't really know how to describe it since it consists of ruins after ruins, but it is definitely a place to go see. I mean the city was preserved from 79 A.D. to the 17th century by volcanic ash, pretty crazy. We got to see the basilica, houses, crosswalks, where restaurants would have been, bakeries, DOGS - there are stray dogs everywhere, and you can adopt them - and the pottery, people, and dogs that were able to be preserved with plaster.

I know I've already asked this question, but seriously what if the Roman Empire hadn't fallen? They had a running water system in, some say, 500 B.C. which didn't really happen again until, at the earliest, the 16th century. What happened for 1000 + years? I keep asking myself that question every time I see something else the Roman's accomplished.

I learned a lot of lessons on my journey to Napoli... Lessons that I hope I never have to learn again.

Lesson 1 - Do not, I repeat, do not get on a gray and red train if in Italy. These are the fast trains that cost a fortune. Yes, very nice, and you get there extra quick, but EXPENSIVE! After buying a train ticket to Naples, we saw on the screen train leaving to Naples. We got on not realizing we had to go to Rome, and then get a connecting train to Naples. Sometimes, not always, a person comes around and checks your ticket to make sure you're on the right train, or to see if you actually bought a ticket. We were on an express train that costs 72 euro one-way. Not the regular train that costs 52 euro round-trip.

Lesson 2 - Try to persuade the guy checking tickets into letting you get off at the next stop. Me and three other friends were checked before the 6 others were. We paid our 50 extra euro since we got on the wrong train then went to the others and told them what had happened so they knew it was coming. They argued their way out of not paying and got off at Rome - the only stop other than Naples that was taken - and proceeded to get on the right train to Naples at no extra cost.

Lesson 3 - The food on the express train is not free. They do have a buffet and drinks on the train, but they are not free. However, we did not get the food, we were thinking about it. Good think we actually asked on this one and didn't just go help ourselves.

Lesson 4 - Actually do research before you go to a foreign city. I was just along for the ride because I didn't really know much about Naples, and I just really wanted to go to Pompeii and Vesuvius. Bad idea, I feel like I didn't see anything because we didn't really know where to go or what to see.

Lesson 5 - CHECK THE FORECAST! [This one can be broken down to a few parts] If it is going to be raining the entire weekend, do not go to Naples. We walked in the pouring rain, with no umbrella, for oh a good 40 minutes. We were soaked, and even though we used the dryer at the hostel, my clothes were still a little damp in the morning. I didn't really come prepared for soaking wet clothes either, so I was wet pretty much the entire trip. Also, we couldn't climb Mount Vesuvius because of bad weather. I was pissed - one of the only reasons coming to Naples.

Lesson 6 - Before you leave stations, check the times of your connecting trains. Not one of us checked the last train back to Florence from Rome, thinking it's a big city and there are plenty of trains at least stopping through Florence. We got into Rome at about 7:30. The last train to Florence left at 6:45. We had to spend another 22 euro to get to Pisa and then take a bus from there to Florence [arriving back into Florence at about 3 A.M.]. Our other option would have been walk around [or get a hostel] Rome until 6 A.M. to then spend more money on a ticket from Rome to Florence. We decided to go home the earliest we could.

Lesson 7 - 25 and up, run. Romes train station is huge! After deciding that we were going to get on the train to Pisa, we had to buy our tickets and get to the train. It was at terminal 28. We had to speedwalk/run to get there to make sure we got on in time because 25-29 are out in the middle of nowhere.

Lesson 8 - This one isn't too bad and is the last one, thankfully. Don't put your feet on the seats across from you. The train from Rome to Pisa was 4 hours long, and there was like no one on the train. We each decided to stretch out and use another seat to put our feet up. The guy that came around checking tickets yelled at us like three times for having our feet up there. Oops.

I think it's safe to say this weekend wasn't one of the best weekends I've had since I've been here. It was still fun and I did see some pretty cool things. Just wish it went a little better than that.