Four days with my family

My family came to Naples on Saturday night and left this morning.

I’m a little sad, but I didn’t cry too much. I’ll be home in 2 months and a bit. That’s nothing.

They arrived quite late, 8.30pm. I had to navigate my way to the airport on the Cumana, Metro and a bus. I kinda just jumped on the first bus I saw recognising the number and then realised half way through the journey that I had NO IDEA whether it was the right direction or not. It was luckily. Also during the journey I discovered the location of Saturn, Media World (Media Markt) and Ikea. Felt like I was in Germany again.

Seeing my family coming through the gates was great. I was a little embarrassed about speaking Italian in front of them though. I could see them listening in as a ordered myself a panini. “How did you communicate with him?” asked my Sister. “In Italian obviously” said my Mum. “Wow that’s really cool.” Said my Sister. haha.

The hotel, although in a stupid location, was really nice. My mum made a fool of herself trying to order a coffee at the bar. “Mum, you do know coffee in Italy is a small espresso type drink.” “But I want a NORMAL coffee!”. *Face palm*.

On Sunday I took them for a trip of the nice parts of the city. The castles, the sea front, Mergellina port. I thought I’d save the more daunting parts for Monday. I was really disappointed with the weather, we couldn’t see anything. What’s the point of going for a walk by the sea when you can’t “sea” anything. Luckily after lunch the sun finally came out, although we still couldn’t see the volcano. There was a lot of walking involved on Sunday and Monday, which obviously was a concern for my brother and sister. But it was my mum who did most of the moaning! At times I really wanted her to just shut up.

On Monday, like I said I took them to the real parts of Naples. I tried to walk at my normal speedy pace through dingy Montesanto but my family walk SO SLOW. It was painful. I took them into the historical centre and we had a look in the little religious shops. For lunch I took them for fried pizza, which they all hated. Great. We then went to the park for an hour, where my dad fell asleep. In the park I found a 4 leaf clover :D

When he finally woke up we made our way up to Vomero for an unsuccessful shopping session and then to Mergellina for dinner.

Tuesday was a trip to Sorrento. I took the Circumvesuviana train for the first time. The train ride takes just over an hour, so pretty much like travelling from Marburg to Frankfurt. There is no beach in Sorrento, as it is on a cliff but the views are beautiful.

Sorrento

I found the town very strange. It was stunning but everyone there was either English or American and everything we went into a shop we were greeted with a “Hello, Can I help you?”. Unlike in Germany, I’ve not really had to deal with Italians trying to speak to me in English when I’m out and about. We had more ice cream, I lost count of how many times we bought ice cream in the last few days.

Gusto di Cheesecake and Frutti di bosco

We decided to get the ferry back to Naples, which was a lot more refreshing than the train and faster.

Today is my sister’s 12th Birthday. It was sad not being able to spend her birthday with her properly. But at least I was there for some of it. I’m really looking forward to June now. My boyfriend is coming and then I’m off home.

Them being here was stressful, but in a good way. Not only was it great seeing them, but they pushed me into speaking Italian in scenarios that I’ve been able to avoid so far. I now feel a lot more confident with going into a shop and telling them what I want. I’ve kinda been motivated by seeing how proud my dad is of me. He was never very supportive of my decision to study modern languages at university, especially Italian. So him telling me how good I’m doing really means a lot to me. :)