Today I went with another student to Salerno. I had never been to Salerno before and she was meeting her friends and asked if I wanted to join her. We had a great day! I will tell you all about it! :)
We left around 11:20am. It took us about 1 hour to get there. As we started to drive towards the city I started to get excited because I could tell that I was going to like this place. I saw the sea and I was very happy! I love the sea, well I love water! We met my student's friends and decided to go and eat near the sea but not right on the water. We made reservations at the restaurant and then went across the street to the Villa, I think, which is a beautiful park filled with many plants and flowers. It was a beautiful day to be there. The sun was shining and everyone I saw had a smile on their face. In the park, there were the older gentlemen talking amongst each other, children playing, and others meeting and conversing in a wonderful atmosphere. I enjoyed walking around and taking pictures. It was quite relaxing. I love parks though :)
After the park we walked back across the street and ate outside at the restaurant. We were starting to figure out what to order when I had to drop the bomb on everyone that I don't eat fish. You could tell just looking at their faces like "omg, what are we going to do..." but I always can find something to eat. It is just a shame because if I had liked it, I would have been able to eat fresh and delicious fish and seafood since we were next to the sea...Anyways, I had pasta with zucchini and provola (smoked mozzarella). And for an antipasti we had fried zucchini, croquet, bread, calzone with ricotta inside, mozzarella, etc.
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| Fruit of the Sea Pasta dish |
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| My pasta dish- zucchini e provola |
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| Some fish pasta dish |
After our meal, we walked to the sea. It was beautiful. It was hot! The sun was out and the temperature was high! We walked along the coast before stopping for some delicious gelato! It was a popular place! It was packed. When we got there they were on order number 1 and we were order number 31! The line went fairly quickly and we got our gelato. It was my first gelato since the fall when it was still fairly warm outside.
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| The gelateria we went to for gelato |
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| They had 36 flavors! |
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| noccella e bacio bianco |
After eating the gelato, we continued walking. We passed many people. Old couples, young couples, middle aged couples, children from all ages, and many dogs! We passed people selling sunglasses, toys for the children, musicians, and a Mickey Mouse look alike even though it looked nothing like him :) I took many pictures. On our way back we also saw a train and a puppet show featuring the pulcinella. When I saw the puppet show, I ran towards it like a little kid. I wanted to see it and take pictures. I even pushed and shoved my way through so I could get a good view to take pictures :) After I got the pictures the show finished, so perfect timing! We continued on our way and I heard a loud "SQUAWK, SQUAWK." I thought immediately, "What is wrong with them (the seagulls), they sound awful, it sounds like they are trying to stop a wedding. Where is Ariel???" Yes folks, the first thing I thought of when I heard a seagull squawk is the when the animals are trying to stop the wedding of Prince Eric to Ursula in the Little Mermaid. Maybe a little too much Disney? Nah, :)
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| A market next to the marina |
We continued on our way and met back up with some of the friends. We then went separate ways and we headed for the historic area of Salerno. It is very quaint and cute. All the streets are cobblestone and there are little alleys everywhere with the classic Italian look. I kept pinching myself because I thought, Angela, you are on vacation, but wait... no! Angela, you LIVE here! I have small cute alleys at my disposal all the time! But, it didn't stop me from taking millions of pictures though :) I saw one alley go up a little hill and I saw steps. My student told me it was the Duomo. She asked if I wanted to go and I said sure. It was beautiful. And we got there just in time, mass had started. I felt my mother would be glad I got to church today.
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| A shop window with Easter gifts |
Afterwards, we were both quite tired from walking all day that we decided to sit in a little cafe and have something to drink before we headed back home. At first I saw all the options for tea and I got overwhelmed with the choices, then I saw the hot chocolate list and felt like I was in heaven. I went for the white chocolate with amaretto. The hot chocolate here is nothing like the hot chocolate in America. Instead this was more like pudding. It was still delicious though :) Afterwards, we played a game with sticks, they called it Shanghai but I think we call it something different in America. The objective of the game is to get as many sticks without moving any of the others. Then we took out the fortune telling cards and looked into our fortunes...Everything seemed to be positive :)
We left the cafe and started walking towards the car. But on our route back, I saw a bookstore and asked to go in it. I have run out of books to read and thought I could use a book to read at night. We went downstairs to the English section of books. I saw Eat, Pray, Love but I bought it this summer and left it home because I didn't have room for it in my suitcase. I scanned to another book. It sounded interesting. I read the back and realized it was the sequel. So then I found the first one. The second one sounded funnier but I didn't want to buy the second and be confused so I grabbed the first one as well. When I went to the cassa to pay, the lady behind the counter asked me if I wanted to buy an Italian cookbook for 3.90 euro. I said what the heck, yes! I love cookbooks and it is only 4 euro, I'll take it! So what ended up being a one book deal ended up being 3 books. What can I say, I find bargains :)
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| American and British flags have become popular in fashion here and this is just one example... |
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| My books :) |
I am now home and exhausted from such a wonderful day in Salerno. On the way home, my student asked me if I was tired and I said yes. But I explained that it was a good tiredness. It was a tiredness created from exploring the city as well as the heat and sun that shone on us all day, something we longed for all winter! Again, as I stated in my previous post, spring is here and I am very very happy! And everyone else seems to be as well! We also saw fireworks on the way home! Happy Spring! Thank you again for such a wonderful day!
