After breakfast, we packed up our rooms and made sure we had all of our cases with us (I sadly lost a very useful makeup brush), loaded everything onto the coach and set off to an olive oil farm on Mount Vesuvius.
Because of the eruptions that have happened over the years, the ash has settled into the soil and made it very fertile and very good for growing things. One of Italy's main produce and exports is in fact olive oil. At first, I really wasn't looking forward to this activity, I thought that it would be really dull and not something that I would be at all interested in - but I was actually really wrong! When we got there it was really interesting.
Like the day before in the morning, it was a lot cooler and was a nice break from the sun especially when the people at the farm took us into their olive farm. They showed us how they had these large nets which when the time was right they would unravel and shake the tree causing all of the olives to be caught in the nets. They also told us that olives are very important in Italy, and therefore so are the olive trees. Apparently it is actually a crime to cut down an olive tree, and if one was to fall down, for example in a storm, someone would have to be sent to confirm that the tree did die of natural causes with no human interaction whatsoever. It was also very interesting because they don't just grow olives, but oranges and lemons too, however on a much smaller scale. They had found a way to genetically modify some trees, so that half of the branches would grows lemons and the other half would grow oranges.
We were then taken to see the old fashioned methods of making olive oil. I can't remember exactly how it was done, but a donkey was strapped to a machine and walked around and around in a circle, moving the machine so that the olives would be squeezed and pressed and filtered.
We were then taken to see the modern methods of creating olive oil. The method was very similar to what it had been, but without a donkey and with a lot of mechanics involved.
We then went into the olive oil shop. There was so much olive oil, and so many different flavours. We had the opportunity to taste some, and there were about 20 different bottles on this little table all with different flavours and designed to go with different dishes. There were also some baskets of bread to dip in the oil. However, because everyone crowded around this table, and I'm not actually a very big fan of olive oil, so I didn't end up sampling any of it - I just ate my little piece of bread!
I did try to get some artsy shots of the shop.
We then went outside to wait, where I spotted some sewing machines which completely made my day!
And Alice, Leah and myself decided to take a super cool foot trio picture. No prizes for guessing that I'm the one with the least sensible shoes on! But come on, you've got to love my funky red nail varnish!
After we left the olive oil farm, we all hopped back onto the coach and made the very long drive to Solfatara, a very small supervolcano. It was during this particular drive that one of my all time favourite trip moments happened. About half way through, I popped my head up over the seats to look at everyone else, and pretty much everyone was asleep. I found it hilarious that in a coach with 26 teenagers, there was only about 3 awake!
Now for those of you who don't know, a supervolcano is not really like a regular volcano, because it's a lot lot lot bigger. Not that you didn't get that from the name or anything. And instead of being a kind of cone shape that we expect volcanoes to be, supervolcanoes are more of a sunken dip in the group because the magma chamber is just too large. The most famous and largest one is in Yellowstone National Park in the USA. It is predicted when that erupts it will demolish pretty much everything around it, lower the global temperature by 10 degrees which will then lead to worldwide starvation and around 2 billion deaths in total. Oh, and we're overdue for an eruption... so happy thoughts everyone!
However, the one that we went to visit, Solfatara is a very small supervolcano, although it's quite amusing to think of it like that.
I actually found this bit really really interesting, though many people really didn't like it. Because of the heat in the magma chamber below our feet, where there are cracks, even of the smallest amount, it lets up steam that we can see on the ground. It has a lot of sulphur in it, and incase you didn't know... sulphur gas isn't a particularly nice smell. Actually, it's down right horrible and many people could stomach it. I found it ok though.
You can see the sulphur in the ground, the little yellow bits.
It was also quite incredible because our tour guide showed us that when you drop something heavy on the ground like a large rock or when you jump, it echos, making the ground sound completely hollow. It isn't of course, I think that our tour guide said it was something to do with the minerals in the soil.
There were 3 steam vents, and they were called the queen, the princess, and I can't remember what the other one was called, but they were amazing to look at, even if a bit pongy to get too close to.
There were also these chamber thingys that had been built, I guess to try an enclose the steam, but you were allowed to go in them. I did, and it was like a very bad eggy smelling sauna. I won't be taking it up as apart of my beauty routine!
We then went and saw a well, though unfortunately I can't remember the significance of it... oopsie!
Lastly, we saw the huge bubbling mud bath. Our tour guide told us that it was about 200 degrees in it, and it wasn't actually the mud that was bubbling, but the water. The mud was just all around and underneath it, making it look like it was bubbling mud.
We then set off, and caught up with everyone else who had bailed on account of the smell. Puny insects. But believe me, we all began to feel a little queasy after the long coach ride to the airport with everyone smelling of sulphur gas! However, we had been pre warned and so we all had a change of clothes for the airport and the journey home. I can't imagine the pleasure of the other passengers if we hadn't been so well prepared and wonderfully organised!
We got to the airport, did some shopping in the ridiculously overpriced dutyfree, got on our plane, and before we knew it we were landing in Heathrow once more. We got another coach, the last we would get on for a while, and headed for school where are parents were waiting to pick us up. It was quite amusing however, because my friend Leah had clearly gotten very tired and it all suddenly caught up with her and she went really delirious, and acted like the was drunk. I had to carry her bag and everything!
We finally got back to school about 11:30pm English time, I met up with my parents and talked non-stop for about an hour and then fell into bed and stayed there for quite a while!
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