Italy: Baia Degli Dei

It's been awhile since you've heard from me. They are keeping me quite busy here at Baia Degli Dei. (The resort I have been at since my arrival) Today was my last day at the resort, and contrary to my earlier belief I will not be going to my host families house just yet. I discovered yesterday morning that me and my classmates would be moving to another town, Crotone, and staying there for a week. Although I am excited to go to Crotone. I was looking forward to finally meeting my host father and moving in.

Now let me get to what I have been doing over the past week and a half. I will opt out of going day by day (like my previous blog), because you would end up reading identical paragraphs for many of the days. I will hit the highlights.

A few days after my first blog I was given the opportunity to preform in one of the shows (Mentioned in the previous blog). I would join most of my classmates in a short dance up on stage. The day of the show we learned the dance and went through it about five times. By the end of the fifth run through I had finally done it correctly. Those of you who know me well will know that I am always nervous whenever in front of a crowd, especially one of about 200. I am also a terrible dancer. This combo would normally leave in an extremely nervous state, but for some reason that evening before the show I wasn't nervous at all. You might even say excited. The performance went well, and I am fairly sure that I went unnoticed in the back.

The next event worthwhile telling about occurred in the pool. The resort had set up some "olympic events" for guests at the resort to compete in. The only event that I could compete in was the swimming. The swimming contest went as followed. Swim once across the pool. It was large pool so once across was about the equivalent of a 50 m swim. Each contestant would swim one at a time and their times would be recorded. Lowest time wins. Pretty self explanatory. I showed up late, and this put me swimming in the last position out of about 25. Prior to swimming I thought that I would place near the bottom, because Italians pride themselves on swimming. When my head popped out of the water upon finishing the race I was surprised to find our that I had swam the fastest time. After receiving a round of applause from the people surrounding the pool, and a few "bravos" I walked back to my classmates. The more I thought about my glorious win the less glorious it became. My competitors consisted of about ten people under the age of 14, and 15 overweight, overconfident, middle-aged men. And if any semi fit 18 didn't win it would have been a surprise. But gold is gold right?

On the 9th of september our class took a day trip. After about a two hour bus ride we arrived at a mountain village. Apparently well know for its skiing and vast amounts of snow, but unfortunately it is still summer here. Although the air was crisper and I was a bit chilly in shorts and a t-shirt. After about an hour of wondering around the main street, and peaking in stores we left. After lunch at a restaurant about halfway home. At the restaurant we were served bread and meat platters. Which were delicious. After our meal we returned to the resort. It seemed a little ridicules to me to drive two hours to the town and then spend less then two hours at the destination, but we got back in time to catch a quick nap before dinner.

The next five days went by with nothing extremely interesting happening, but on the 15th we took another day trip. This one was to a different town on the edge of the mountains. We visited an old castle and church. The castle was called Santa Severina and it was beautiful, set atop a foothill. The panoramic view from the top was incredible. (Pictures below) If you want to really see a good view of it though I would google Santa Severina. We were given a guided tour of both, the only fact that I got out of the tour was that the door of the church was over a 1000 years old. This was cool considering is was wooden and seemed to be in rather good shape. The castle was also a burial site for I think Byzantine kings. (Pictured below) Not certain on that though. Next came a meal at a local restaurant. I have never been served so much food in my life. Five different full courses. But more detail about food will come in a later blog.

That about sums up the last week and a half. I am excited to travel to Crotone. I am more eagerly anticipating getting settled down in Siracusa though, and wearing clean clothes. Thanks for reading, ciao!