Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri

Hey, guys. I got some great traveling in this past weekend. First a bunch of us visited the ancient ruins of Pompeii, which are still, suprisingly, pretty well intact. You can still see plaster casts of the victims of the 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Especially interesting was one victim who'd perished while praying. After that we took a bus through the winding mountains of Southern Italy to the little town of Sorrento, where we checked into a hotel. That night we all went out to a few local bars and cafes and had a great time. However, there was a bit of problem--a hilarious one, no doubt--at the hotel when someone from our group took pity on a stray kitten and tried to bring it into their room. Here's a lesson: a mysterious, meowing bulge beneath your shirt is bound to get you strange looks from the hotel manager and possibly booted. But everything worked out, no one had to sleep out on the street, and we had a good laugh over it in the morning.

That same day we took a ferry-boat to the island of Capri, a small beautiful island off the South Western Italian coast. Coming in from the Tyrrhenian Sea, your senes are arrested by huge, seemingly random mountains rising out of clear, sapphire-blue water. Personally, I couldn't help but think of the opening helicopter scene in Jurassic Park. After docking, we bought a few slices of pizza and lounged around on the beach--the girls sunbathing, the guys cliff-diving off rocks of volcanic sediment. Later, me and three other guys rented a boat and took it around the island, occasionally stopping to dive in and cool off, but mostly just taking pictures and shaking our heads in awe. Luckily, the people before us had left a few pairs of goggles behind. I've never seen water so clean or clear. Before leaving I bought a postcard and mentally chalked up Capri as somewhere I'd like to see again before leaving.

Oh, and a weird thing happened on the long bus ride back to Rome. I had the vague but undeniable sense of returning home. Somewhere between arriving here pie-eyed and nervous and the bus ride home, there was a silent recalibration of my comfort zone. Without even realizing it I was thinking, It'll be good to be home; only the home I was referring to was Via Simone De Saint Bon, 61. Maybe it took the subtle exhaustion of travel to realize that I live here, and that I will continue to live here for quite awhile. That being said, I've made a small list of things I miss from home:

• The comfort and convenience of the English lanaguage
• Barnes & Noble and the attached Starbucks at Easton
• American steak
• Being on campus for Ohio State football games
• Watching NFL games at my sister's
• Bob Evan's breakfast, more specifically their pancakes and bacon
• Television: ESPN, Comedy Central and CNN
• And, above all, family and friends

Well, tune in next week. As the batman cartoon used to say, "Same bat-time, same bat-channel."