Life in Italy: my last 2 weeks!

Quote of the week:

Take vacations, go as many places as you can, you can always make more money, you can’t always make more memories.

– Anon

I’m writing this blog from London so I’m officially back in the UK! I flew back to Stansted from Naples after a week holiday in Salerno making this blog weeks 18 and 19 – my last two in Italy!! I still can’t fathom how quickly the time has gone and its all over already, it feels like 5 minutes since I was packing my bags to go. My time there was utterly amazing, I enjoyed every minute of it and I can’t wait to go back in October for the academic year. But first I have the summer to enjoy…and I’m going to be very busy. I can’t seem to stay in one place for very long, I don’t know if thats a good or bad thing.

The above quote is basically my summer motto…between now and going back to Italy I think I only have about 25 days actually at home! Living abroad is tricky sometimes when you have to squeeze visiting people into the few weeks that you are back home, I’m going to be on a lot of trains in the near future. I’m staying here in London with my sister for 2 weeks then going home for exactly 2 nights before going to Scotland for 2 weeks with my family, I can’t wait to finally get in my kayak! I’m back home on the 7th August and then have plans to visit a few friends around the country in the 3 weeks I have free. The first week of September my cousin is getting married in Northumberland so we’re all going to stay in a cottage there for a week. Then its only 2 weeks and I’ll be getting on a flight to head back to Italy…I imagine its going to fly by just like the last 5 months have. 

Anyway on to my last 2 weeks in Italy; 3 days in Chiari and 8 days in Salerno. My 3 days in Chiari were full of organising, packing, cleaning and trying to escape the heat! I left the majority of my clothes there as there is no point in bringing it back to the UK to take it back in October. That meant I only had a small hand luggage bag for 1 week by the beach and 2 weeks in London. It took some very careful planning and organising but I did it! By this stage I’m a pro at packing but that was a serious challenge.

We left to drive to Salerno on Friday 1st July, it was just over 800km and took us around 8 hours. Here’s a map so you get the idea of just how far it was…

Once we arrived we went to Paola’s parents house for dinner – it was great to finally meet them! After the drive we were all tired so just relaxed for the full day then watched the football match in the evening.

On Saturday morning we went for a walk around the city centre which was really beautiful. We walked along the main shopping street which was quite modern and then into a few streets which were much older and very colourful. It was very hot so we walked for about an hour but then had enough and headed to the beach. 

We also had a quick look at the Bay of Salerno from the promenade which was lined with flowering trees…

The beach we went to was a private so it provided umbrellas and sun loungers. The grandparents have a cabin there and the clubhouse has a cafe, showers and toilets. The weather was really, really hot so I spent most of the day in and out of the sea (which was really warm) and under the umbrella.

We went to the beach every day, sometimes going for a walk in the morning so here’s a few photos of the things we did (I’m not too sure of the order of the beach photos!)…

One particular pastry from Salerno is a Babà and its AMAZING! They typically have flavoured cream inside (there are tonnes of flavours to choose from) and are soaked in a rum/water mix so theres a hint of liquor there too. I tried pistachio and nutella with coconut…

On Tuesday after a day at the beach we went out for a pizza to one of the best pizzerias in the area. It was outdoors, covered with canopies and surrounded by plants, trees and flowers – I felt like a bridal party was going to appear at any second! To start we had a kind of folded pizza with lots of cheese inside that was delicious. For the main we had 2 humongous pizzas with 4 different flavours that were some of the best pizza I’ve tasted…

 

Antonio, Paola and I

On Wednesday we went for a walk around the Old Town of Salerno which was so quaint and totally amazing. The streets were very narrow and the buildings very high and it reminded me a little of Genova…

We visited the Cattedrale di Salerno which dates back to the 11th century! There is a beautiful courtyard you have to walk through to enter the church, from which you can easily see the Arabian influence. It is dedicated to St Matthew and his relics can be found in the crypt inside the church.

The bell tower 

On Thursday we went for another walk in the city centre and this time I remembered to take some photos of doors – here are just a few of the dozens I took…

On Friday we drove to the airport in Naples and I flew to Stansted – the quickest week ever right?! It flew by even though we didn’t really do that much. It was actually really nice to just relax on the beach as I don’t know when I’ll next get the chance to do that, I don’t have any plans to go anywhere else with beaches this summer.

Thats it! The last Life in Italy blog is over….whuuut?! I’ve learnt so much over the last 19 weeks and reading back through all of my blogs makes me realise just how much I did as well. It was 5 months of sheer enjoyment, making new friends, exploring some incredible places and getting a job offer out of it! I already miss the coffee (Starbucks just doesn’t cut it) and pizza but I’m sure it’ll be October in no time and I’ll be going back 🙂

I’m aiming to blog my whole summer so look out of upcoming posts on London, Scotland, visiting my friends, Northumberland and anything/anywhere else I get up to!

Ciao for now!

Read about my Italian adventure from the beginning by clicking here.