Internship Appreciation Post

I know I’ve talked a little bit about my internship already, but it really deserves its own post. To recap, I have an internship at the Punta Campanella Marine Protected Area, which I am completing along with the rest of my courses. This internship was one of the deciding factors on why I picked this study abroad program, and I do not regret that decision at ALL! Having this opportunity has added so much more to my experience than I expected. So, I wanted to list some of the things I love about what I’m doing!

Ieranto Bay

1. The Location

Ieranto Bay, the main part of the MPA that we work in, is one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen in Italy. And once you go underwater, it’s a whole new world of amazing organisms from algae and seagrass to colorful fish and corals. It’s so much different from anything I’ve experienced back home. There’s very interesting history in the bay, such as the look-out post on Punta Campanella which is part of a chain of posts running along the coast that was used to warn cities of incoming pirates (think Lord of the Rings). There is also a beautiful traditional olive grove that was restored by the Italian Environmental Fund, who help take care of the land area that is adjacent to the MPA.

2. The Work

For the first month, I didn’t go on any weekend trips, because I already felt like I’d been on vacation just by going to work. When your work involves kayaking, snorkeling, and hiking, no wonder it feels like I’m just having fun! Even when we are having to chase down motorboats on kayaks because they illegally entered the bay, it’s still an adventure. It’s definitely exhausting work, but well worth it. One of the best experiences was monitoring sea turtle nests (post coming soon)! Office days can be a little dull in comparison, but they are necessary for staying on track with all of the other projects we are working on, such as educative events for schools or informative books about the organisms in the bay.

One of the other interns (Anne-Marie) and I during the training tour.

3. Cultural Nights!

My favorite weekly events are the cultural nights on Mondays! Each month is dedicated to one of the volunteer’s culture, and on Monday’s they plan activities and cook traditional meals to share them with us. So far I’ve only experienced French and Serbian cultural nights, which were both delicious and informative! It’s also just a good time to bond with my coworkers outside of work. Hopefully we will get to share an American cultural night with them sometime soon!

Low quality picture, high quality fun making French food!

4. The People

Last, but not least! I primarily work with a group of 6 Erasmus+ volunteers from other countries. From my understanding, Erasmus+ is similar to the Peace Corps but it’s European and the placements are for less than a year. Their names are Daniels (Latvia), Laura (Spain), Lidija (Serbia) Erica(Portugal), Etienne (Reunion Islands), and Ale (Tunisia), and they are some of the coolest people I’ve met while abroad. Working with them is always a blast, and they push me and the other two American interns to improve ourselves and our skills (especially learning Italian). They aren’t just coworkers, they’re friends. It’s also been really cool working with the other two interns, we have a lot of fun whenever we have shifts together. It is also worth mentioning our supervisor/boss, Domenico (but we call him Mimi), who is also my marine biology teacher! He is always very supportive and upbeat, which makes even early morning shifts bearable!

We recently rented a couple boats and went around Capri and Positano.

I would like to say a special thank you to Nicole in the UAH Study Abroad office who told me about this program and the opportunity to intern here! I never would’ve found this otherwise, and I am extremely grateful to her!

Punta Campanella

Ischia: a hidden gem

Ciao a tutti! Some of you have been wondering why I haven’t posted more on the blog. Unfortunately, a power surge fried my laptop battery soon after my first post, and it’s proving to be difficult to fix. However, I just discovered the WordPress app, so I’ll be able to update it from my phone! There’s a lot to catch up on, so I’ll be making a bunch of posts soon back to back to make up for the missed ones. With that said, let’s move on to the good stuff!

I recently took a weekend trip to Ischia, a little known island north of Capri, with a couple of my friends. So far, it’s been my favorite place I’ve visited! Most people (Americans) don’t know it exists, so it is much more laid back and less commercial than other destinations in the area, such as Capri. Also, it is only a short ferry ride from the port in Sorrento!

Because less tourists visit Ischia, it has a much more residential and authentic vibe. When you get off the ferry, you’re not bombarded with tourist traps or endless souvenir shops. We spent about an hour exploring the port area and the main town of Ischia.

Eventually we took a bus the Forio on the other side of the island, where our hostel was. If you ever go, I highly recommend the Ring Hostel. The owner Lorenzo was very nice and helped give us recommendations of where to go and how to get there. He actually moved us to his bed and breakfast because our room wasn’t ready yet (a nice free upgrade). He even drove us to his mothers restaurant for dinner! We tried Ischia-style rabbit ravioli, which was absolutely delicious.

Many people associate volcanic activity with Vesuvius, but there are a quite few other spots of activity in Italy. Ischia is one of them, as it has many beautiful volcanic hot springs around the island! We went to one on our second day there, and it was quite an adventure. The hot springs we visiting run into a bay, so the waves bring in colder water as the spring puts out steaming hot water.

Other things to do in Ischia are going to the beach, climbing the mountain in the middle of the island (which sadly we didn’t have enough time for), boat trips, and many beautiful churches. I really wish I could’ve stayed longer, but at least it’s easy enough to go back!

So, if you’re ever in the area and want to visit an Italian island, go to Ischia!

Buongiorno Italia!

Ciao a tutti, mi chiamo Clare Crenshaw! (Hello all, my name is Clare Crenshaw). I am a senior Biology major at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, but I am currently spending the fall semester abroad in Sorrento, Italy at the Sant’Anna Institute. While here, I am taking classes as well as completing an internship at the Punta Campanella Marine Protected Area. I have been in Italy for a little over a week now, so I have a bit of catching up to do!

I left for Italy the morning of August 24th from the Nashville International airport. It was very nerve-wracking, as I had never traveled abroad before and I generally get stressed about the airport process. Everything went smoothly, and after a very long flight filled with unsuccessful sleeping attempts, I finally arrived in Naples around 8 a.m. on the 25th. Once I claimed my bags and met up with the other students in my arrival group (we were all on the same plane and didn’t realize it), we headed off for Sorrento! For anyone (like me) who had never heard of Sorrento, it is a smaller touristy town across the Bay of Naples on the Sorrentine Penninsula. At one point, our driver stopped at an overlook which had a perfect view of the four smaller towns that used to make up the Sorrento municipality before becoming independent towns. I felt like I was on a movie set, and I still feel that way honestly. It is absolutely beautiful here!

The view from the overlook, Sorrento is the town furthest away.

We were all too tired to do much of anything the first day, but we did grab our first authentic Italian meals and tried the region’s famous Limoncello before heading to settle into the dorms. Sant’Anna used to be a convent before it was converted into a school, and the dorms were recently remodeled so we are living quite comfortably. The school is above Marina Grande, which used to be a small fishing village and now hosts hundreds of tourists a day. Since we came on a Sunday, we saw many people as Sunday is considered a beach day in Italy. I got to meet my roommate Julia, who is amazing, and most of the other students before we crashed for the night. The WiFi wasn’t working at first, which gave us nothing to do but get to know each other. We all gathered on the terrace of the dorm to watch the sunset, which was absolutely stunning.

Sunset over Marina Grande.

The next day was a whirlwind of orientation meetings, exploring, getting to know everyone, and trying new foods. We had a welcome luncheon featuring many traditional street food/fast food options, all of which were delicious. There was also a walking tour of Sorrento to help us get our bearings, and I’ll be the first to say that “walking distance” for Italians is not the same as Americans. It has taken me a while to get used to the amount of walking necessary each day, but it is a really good way to get to know the town.

All of the students at the welcome luncheon.

The rest of the week we had our first classes, which for me meant Marine Biology, Volcanology, and Elementary Italian. My teachers are all very interesting, and all of the classes emphasize experiential learning (one of the reasons I picked this program). I also had my first meetings about my internship, which I found out that two other girls were doing with me! Luckily, we don’t have class on Friday, so many of the students took a trip to Regina Giovanna, which is a short bus ride away. It used to be a Roman bath, so there are ruins all over the place, as well as being a perfect place for a swim! The main swimming area is a protected cove with a small natural archway that goes out to the sea, so many people swim or kayak in and out of the cove. Compared to the crowded Marina Grande in Sorrento, this was a much nicer place for a swim.

Overlook of the Regina Giovanna main swimming area.

On Saturday, the program I applied with (CISabroad) took us on a trip to Naples for the day. We had to take the high speed train from Sorrento, the Campania Express, to meet our guide in Naples. We went to one of the oldest pizzerias in Naples (and thus, the world) for lunch, and it was everything I hoped for. After lunch, we took an underground tour of the buried aqueducts that were used as bomb shelters in WWII, as well as the Roman theater that was discovered in an old woman’s wine cellar 8 years ago. Afterwards, we had espresso and sfogliatella (a traditional Napolitan pastry) before exploring the city more on the way back to the train station. We stopped at the statue of Pulcinella, a classic theater character thought to give you good luck if you rub the statue’s nose. Although Naples is a much larger and kind of sketchy city compared to Sorrento, I’ll definitely be going back in the future because there is much more to be seen!

CIS students rubbing Pulcinella’s nose.

The next day, I had my first trip to my internship’s on-site location. My internship at Punta Campanella is mostly working with another volunteer project called Project MARE (Marine Adventures Respecting the Environment) which has 6 volunteers from other European countries. The main focus is on protecting Ieranto Bay, which is on the other side of the Sorrentine Peninsula, although the MPA protects a much larger area as well. The office is in the nearby town of Massa, which we take a bus to for our shifts, but we must take another bus to Nerano and do a 30-45 minute hike to get to the Ieranto Bay if we have an onsite shift. The hike was mostly downhill on the way there, and it passes through traditional olive and lemon groves maintained by an organization called FAI, which protects the land around Ieranto Bay. Once we arrived, one of the volunteers took us to do a beach clean-up, followed by a kayaking crash course and snorkeling excursion. The water is so clear that you can see even to some of the deeper waters of the bay, and it is absolutely full of life!

Overlook of Ieranto Bay, with Capri in the background.

The reason the bay is protected is that it is home to Posidonia, the only native and endemic species of seagrass in the Mediterranean. This provides essential habitat for many other species, as well as providing other benefits like erosion control. Along with Posidonia, there are species of coral, sponges, spirographs, anenomes, and many fish. I am very excited to do more diving and exploring here, and I can’t believe that this is where I get to work!

I think this is where I am going to leave it for now. I am hoping that with this blog I can open people’s eyes not only to the beauty of Italy but also to some of the lesser known locations or traditions that I discover along the way. I feel blessed to be spending the semester in such an amazing place, and I am very thankful to everyone who has helped me get here. Here’s to a wonderful semester! Ciao ciao!