Buongiorno! It’s now Thursday and I just finished up classes for the week with a midterm in my Italian grammar class. While the test was not exactly fun, I think we were all just relieved to get through it. Plus, we don’t have any classes tomorrow so a group of fellow Sant’Anna students and I all planned a trip to Sicily for the weekend! We leave from Naples airport tomorrow morning and land in Catania around noon. From there we’re taking a bus to Taormina, a Sicilian beach town, where we will all be staying until Sunday. Visiting Sicily is going to be incredible, and Taormina is supposed to be one of the most beautiful towns on the island. I’m definitely looking forward to relaxing on the beach for a few days, eating well, and forgetting all about that midterm I just took. Yeah, judging from the pictures of Taormina (see below), I think I should be able to enjoy it.
Last night, my friends and I went to a live Tarantella performance at one of the restaurants in town. While not exactly a holiday, you’d have thought the dancers were celebrating something. The traditional costumes, songs, and dances made for an incredible show. The performers also got members of the crowd involved (including myself) by allowing them to play some of the instruments or dancing with them. In the picture below you can see the Tarantella costumes as well as the children at the table playing some of the traditional Neapolitan instruments.
Before we went to the show, we got a little history lesson on the dance from our host mother. Apparently, the Tarantella is widely regarded as Southern Italy’s most famous form of traditional music. The dance originated as a way to cure those who suffered from “tarantula” (actually wolf spider) bites, as it was supposed to help rid the victim of the spider’s venom. Another use for the dance in traditional times was as a means of courtship. The Tarantella began in the Puglia region (where Nick and I were last weekend), and then spread throughout southern Italy, taking on different variations in each area. 
I apologize for the quality of the pictures, but there was a lot of movement going on so it was difficult to capture any perfect shots. Seeing the show was probably one of the most interesting things we’ve done here in Sorrento. It was really cool to witness and take part in a little piece of Neapolitan tradition. The restaurant hosts the performance every Wednesday night, so hopefully we’ll be able to go again. And more than just being an interesting experience, it was also a lot of fun!
Well, there are now only two more weeks left in Sorrento, so I’ll definitely be doing my best to make the most of them. My next post will be coming once we return from Sicilia! Ciao!