So for this post, instead of focusing on things from the week, I’m choosing to highlight the most amazing weekend from this semester yet! This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to an island of the coast of Italy, named Ventotene, with about 15 other Temple students. The trip was open to anyone in the program and was completely organized by my awesome teacher from my Italian class, so how could I not pass up this opportunity?!? Anyways, here are some pictures from the trip and hopefully by the end of this post I will have convinced you to also fall in love with this tiny island! 🙂
In order to get to the island we took a train down to Formia and then began our 2 1/2 ferry ride. Here we are leaving the shore and getting to see this amazing site of the mountains, while we were also happily leaving the clouds back at mainland.
My teacher leading the way off the ferry an into the quaint town. Something cool about Ventotene was how shops were built into the natural caves formed from erosion into the rock. It gave it all a very natural feel!
The view from our room’s balcony. Let me tell you, waking up to seeing this out the porch door every morning was the perfect way to get up!
I was sitting on a wall just enjoying the sun on my face and gazing out at the island of St. Stefano, where our group would be later traveling tomorrow!
So the next morning we took two small dinghies over to the island of St. Stefano to explore and see the old vacant prison occupying the area.
This prison was actually only shut down a few decades ago. It was so neat to be able to tour it and have a guide tell us all about the history, the escape attempts, and the usual procedures that took place here.
Native to Ventotene, our guide had the maps to show us the building plans as the prison started out and how it changed as human rights and prison guidelines progressed throughout the years. Apparently the shape and structure was inspired by a theatre’s layout, so that the guards in the middle could hear everything going on. It was so interesting to learn all of this!
After getting back from the island we all felt the need for total relaxation so we had a yoga session out on the lawn led by my Italian teacher.
Saturday night we were blessed enough to be invited into the kitchen to get to help the cooks make the dinner for that night. On the menu were lentil soup, fried breaded mozzarella, a seafood pasta dish, and tiramisu. We split up into four groups and I had the opportunity to be apart of making the mozzarella dish. The best part is that I can now take the recipe back home with me and make it!
The last day we were there I went out with two of the other girls to explore yet another part of the small island. Again I was blown away by cliffs and views surrounding us! The best part though, was looking down into the water and seeing how amazingly blue and clear it was!
The whole amazing group of ladies as well as my Italian teacher that went on the trip! This was taken on the ferry ride home, marking I would say one of the greatest weekends of the semester! I would go back to this tiny island again for sure and highly suggest the remote place for anyone in search of an adventure as well as relaxation!