Castel Sant Angelo, Serrento and Capri (and Boots)

We went to Saint Angelo's Castle last Thursday as a class. I have not ceased to be amazed by the architecture of these places. The first thing we saw when we walked past the formidable castle walls was another towering structure of brick and mortar. We walked through the narrow passages and up the even narrower staircases, stopping into rooms to see whatever artwork was kept therein and getting yelled at by those people who are payed to harass tourists who try to take pictures.
When we got to the top, we were treated to another great view of Rome. From the top we could also see a lot of the stairs and walkways that made the castle so castle-like. We just hung around the top for a while, talking about class and the trip and what we thought we were going to do for the rest of our time in Rome. One of the girls made a comment about the fact that "we get to just chill on top of a castle in Rome talking about what we are going to have for dinner," a reminder of just how lucky we all were to be there.

It was our second weekend in Italy and we decided to take a trip to Serento and Capri to see some of the Italian beaches and the Mediterranean. Getting there was a little brutal; sitting on a train in the hot Italian sun for seven hours was not my idea of fun, but hey I'm going to fricken beach so I don't really get to complain. We lucked out when we got to Serento because the owner of the hostel we were supposed to stay at overbooked, so she set us up in an even nicer place in the heart of Serento (plus she gave us a discount on a very decent restaurant nearby, making me very very happy!)
Serento was a very nice tourist town with a lot of small streets lined with pubs and small restaurants. There was a main street that was closed off to motor vehicles and where all of the ritzy little stores were.
The next day we went down to the port to catch a ferry to Capri. The weather was perfect and the water was beautiful, even in the harbor. There were schools of these little, colorful tropical fish just relaxing by the docks, which I thought was a testament to how great the water was.
The ferry ride was a short 25 minutes and was delightfully rocky (as in the boat was rocking side to side; there were thankfully no rocks to speak of. Sorry Dana) and we got a great view of some of the surrounding coastline.
When we got to Capri, the first thing we did was head over to a very small, rocky (this time yes, the hard thingys) beach and swan around in the Med (the very very cold Mediterranean) for a while and soaked up some rays, something that someone I know would call cancer; I just did not care. I was on an Italian beach on an island in the Med. The water was, again, beautiful. It was not crystal clear like the some of the waters in the bahamas, but it nontheless looked pristine. I guess it was the blue-ness of it that looked like it had a hint of turquoise dripped into it. I was looking through the surface of the water about 20 meters of the shore and saw a lobster just walking along the bottom. That crustacean was lucky because had I had my goggles, it would have been dinner. I'm not kidding. We had a pot and a stove back at the hostel and I was hungry for something other than pasta!
From the beach, we took a trolley ride up to the top of one of the mountains to a very ritzy part of town, where the brands were exclusive and the prices would put a hurtin' on anyone's wallet short of those who could actually afford to own their own island. We explored this very affluent part of town for a bit before deciding that it was time to head back down to the beach. As oneof the guys put it, "I feel like I'm losing money just being here."
Back on the beach we found the girls tanning on the beach, flipping over in a domino-like fashion, much the way you would flip burger on a grill. They chided us for not visiting the Blue Grotto, but when all you get is three minutes in a cove for 25 euro, I'll pass. I know some of you guys wouldn't put a price on something so unique, but I just didn't think that I was going to get enough wow for my buck (or rather euro.)
Having had enough of the island we tried to catch a ferry back to Serento, but not thinking ahead, or thinking ahead too far, we got round trip tickets, which forced us to wait another three hours on the island. The guys and I used that time to philosophize about the true meaning of virtue. No bull; we were honestly trying to find an answer. I'm not going to write it here because it was extremely long-winded and not worth the effort in my opinion.
When we finally got back to Serento, we met the girls for dinner where I had a very delicious pasta dish and several glasses of wine. After finishing, some of the girls took us to a pub near their hostel where they served beer and other refreshments in a glass boot (anyone see beerfest?) A whole 2 liters of whatever beer or cocktail you wanted. The owners of the bar were very accomadating, putting on some American hip-hop and giving us our own private imbibing room (probably to keep us from annoying the other customers because were got kind of loud after the 5th boot of cocktails. Mind you this was after each of us drank several glasses of wine. Also there were 12 of us.)
For our final drink we decided to have a little competition betweeen the guys (four of us) against the girls (eight of them) in seeing who could down a boot of hard cider first. The barkeep was happy to oblige our little competition by putting us in the front room and refereeing the contest. The girls got a head start and were done with about two thirds of a liter by the time we got our boot, but we as men had our pride on the line so each one of us dug deep to our frat boy nature and ended up dominating the girls by a near quarter liter. A proud day for men everywhere.
We stumbled out of the bar, taking some of the girls home when we got pulled into a club. This part was a little hazy for obvious reasons, but it was a great club. The bar was stocked with nicely with top shelf spirits, although everyone undoubtly went with beer and "what is the cheapest damn drink you got." The club was open air and saw nicely in a courtyard. The music was not too loud and there were a lot of Americans there just enjoying themselves. I just relaxed at a table, talking to some of the guys and gals of our group and having a good time. I overheard some people behind me talking about how great it was to be here and, being a bit more inclined at this point to talk to strangers, I turned around and interjected, somewhat rudely, but was received without offence. I ended up chatting with an attractive red-headed California girl about school and the programs we were participating in when I mentioned that we were going to Florence in a couple weeks, at which point she stopped me and told me to take down her number. I quickly borrowed one of my friend's phones and enthusiasticly punched it in under "Amanda (redhead)". Her friends quickly wisked her away from our table, at which point I got many congratulations from the group, some more bawdy than others. I admit I was kind of proud at that moment.
Heading back from the club, we picked up some gelato and made our way back into our hostel, where we fell into a deep sleep, not quite looking forward to being back in Rome the next day.