It's Not Over Yet...

After leaving Naples I still had a week to spend in Israel. Most of the time was spent with my new friend Mish Mish. 

I also went to Haifa to visit the Baha'i gardens. And because I think at this point was slightly crazy, decided to walk to the top of the gardens in sweltering heat.

It was a long way up. 

But an incredible view from the top.

And the gardens were beautiful. 

I ended my trip in the best possible way: sunset on the beach in Tel Aviv and night swimming.

These Are a Few of my Favorite Signs

Last Stop: Naples

Before going to Naples we had heard two things about the place: the pizza is very good, and it's a shady, crime-filled city. Both of these things we found to be very true.

We went to the beach a few times - had a great view of Vesuvius from one of them, ate pizza a few times -and it really was delicious (I don't know about best in the world...).

While walking around the city we came across a random chicken and a kind woman, who as far as we know was completely unrelated to the chicken. The woman bent down, picked up the chicken so that we could take pictures of it, put it down, and then went on her way. All this with no words exchanged between us. Shortly after this we walked past a cafe where a small old man was playing a beautiful piano cover of "I Will Survive." We went inside for breakfast and the man started speaking French with Carla without having any reason to have suspected she spoke French. As we were sitting there sipping our espressos and eating pastries the man started to play "The Star Spangled Banner." This was outrageous because we had been talking about it quite frequently over the course of the past few days (Carla insistently wanted to refer to things as "star-spangled"), and the old man seemed to know that Lizzie and I were from America. I am convinced the man is a wizard.

By the end of our stay in Naples our nerves were shot. The driving alone was terrifying enough to keep us nervous for a week, but this wasn't what really put us over the edge. On our way back from Sorrento, Matteo (our friend we met in Venice, who joined us for the last leg of our journey) was jumped by a thief who ran off with the necklace from around his neck. The thief jumped on a scooter and zoomed off. The rest of the walk back, anytime we heard the sound of zooming scooters get louder, we gripped our bags close to our chests and picked up our pace. We made it back to the house we were staying at with no further incidents, but continued to be startled by the sound of fireworks going off nearby - apparently the way the gangs in the city communicate to one another. If this weren't enough, as we were trying to relax and grab a few hours of sleep before heading to our early morning flight, a tremendous thunderstorm rolled in and stayed right above our heads. Giant peals of thunder crashing through the night kept us wide-eyed awake. It was clear that our time to leave Europe had come.

When in Rome

Here are the Rome highlights:

-It was very hot
-We saw a bunch of really old stuff
-We visited all of the "important" sights (including the cat sanctuary)
-We made friends with a large, boisterous, "typical" Italian restaurant owner who made sure we ate way too much
-We went to a dance club on a boat
-We had some of our stuff stolen (this is a long story for another day)
-We visited Vatican City and did NOT have to stand in line to visit the museum and Sistine Chapel
-We ate way too much gelato

Saint Carla of Assisi

From Perugia we went on a small excursion to Assisi. Something about the city felt very sacred and magical. It may have been the interior of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, or the way the sun was setting behind it, or the following story:

As we were walking down the narrow pathways in the city, we all spotted a tiny gray bird flapping its wings desperately, not able to fly. We all felt sorry for it and wished there was something we could do, but the situation seemed pretty hopeless. Carla (the one who has to prevent herself from ducking and shrieking every time a bird flies above her head) was the first to jump into action and bent down to pick the bird up.

We walked around the city, Carla cradling this bird in her hands, trying to figure out where to put it, getting plenty of strange looks from people on the street. We finally took it to a place beside a church where a steep incline led out to a field of trees, and beyond it the hills. The poor bird attempted to fly a few times and kept flopping down to the ground. We could all barely look as Carla held the bird above the steep drop, fearing the worst.

The little bird forced itself out of her hands and seemed to be plummeting straight down before it caught the wind and zoomed up. A few more dives and catches and soon the little bird was flying, soaring into the sunset in the distant mountains. This was such a beautiful moment, like a scene from a movie, we expected music to start playing or people to start cheering.

Only later did we find out that St. Francis is the patron saint of animals, and is frequently pictured with birds...

Concert Crashing in Perugia

As we were getting off the train in Perugia, a young man approached me and asked if I had any extra tickets to the Sting concert that night. This felt like a strange question to randomly ask someone until we  talked to our couch surfing hosts and realized everyone in Perugia was going to the Sting concert. There was also a Jazz fest going on that night. We spent the night roaming around between concert venues, and stood on the outskirts of the Sting concert, barely catching glimpses of the screen in the distance, listening to the music float out to us. 

Our time in Perugia was lovely, our hosts were delightful, and the city itself was hard not to fall in love with. 

A Whirlwind tour of Florence