The Adventure of Naples

The day didn't start out too bad, we had a little bit later train than the one to Florence and all of the students were on it (or accounted for since a few had left a bit earlier). But once we got to Naples, the real adventure began. I had read in the Rick Steves' book "If you like Italy as far south as Rome, go farther south. It gets better. If Italy is getting on your nerves, don't go farther. Italy intensifies as you plunge deeper. Naples is Italy in the extreme." He also calls Naples "Italy's grittiest, most polluted, and most crime-ridden city." Okay. We were on kind of a tight schedule and only one person knew where we were going, so it was important to all stick together. That meant getting 48 people onto an already crowded city bus (I was trying to hold a pizza box too). Put that many people into a bus with at least one pickpocket and we were lucky to only have one victim--Carson. He lost his watch to some "dirtbag" (his word, not mine). He wasn't wearing it on his wrist, it was hanging from his belt loop. Luckily it was an inexpensive WalMart kind of watch, but certainly it still felt like a personal violation, and it was defintely an inconvenience.



We all got off the bus and walked to our hotel. That was a bright spot in the day. Very nice, all the rooms were ready, and the A/C was cranked! Then we had to head back to the train station so we could get on our way to Pompeii. That train was really crowded, hot, and SLOW. We finally made it to Pompeii, which was definitely a highlight. It was different than I expected--first of all, I didn't realize how BIG it is. I expected more paintings on the walls and more casts of the bodies found. It also wasn't as hot as I expected it to be. We spent a while walking around and looking at ruins, a few paintings (frescoes), a couple of mosaics, and enjoying the shade in the Triangular Forum. (Thanks to Emily for sharing her crackers so I could keep going.) On our way to the train we stopped for refreshing granita--this time made from fresh squeezed lemon juice (this region is known for its lemons--think Sorrento, Amalfi Coast). The train ride back wasn't nearly as crowded or hot. It also made fewer stops, so it didn't take as long to get back to Naples. We found a pizzeria recommended by the hotel, had some dinner and headed off to bed--it had been a long and draining day. Because the rooms were only for two people, we split up into boys and girls--Gary and Carson in one room and Maren and I in the other room (down the hall). After a long hot shower (hooray! we don't get these in our apartment in Rome) I found the TV had a few English channels. I got to watch CNN for a bit--it was nice to catch up on a little bit of world news in English for once. (It's hard for me to get anything out of the Italian TV news and newspapers.)

After being awakened Wednesday morning by an ambulance outside that didn't seem to go away for at least 10 minutes, we had a nice breakfast at our hotel overlooking the Bay of Naples. That was beautiful, and if you could just sit up that high all the time maybe you could forget the craziness and noise of the traffic below. Maybe. We left as a group to walk up the hill to the National Archeological Museum and experienced more of the crazy, crazy traffic that is in Naples. (If Rome has crazy traffic, then Naples has INSANE traffic!) The musem was great. I'm so glad we could go there and see frescoes and mosaics from Pompeii. I hadn't realized that the reason we didn't see many in Pompeii is because they've taken them from the site and put them in museums. The museum also had a lot of sculptures, but we liked the mosaics and frescoes the best.

All too soon, it was time to head back to our hotel to check out, pick up our stuff, and head back to Rome. (Ask Gary about the argument we saw between two drivers) We got back to Rome about 3:30, just in time to stand in line for more train tickets--we're heading to Pisa on Friday. Or maybe it was just in time to get some more gelato--which we did. Or maybe it was just in time to be able to talk to Aubrey via Skype--which we also did (and since he had the webcam on we could also see him and the dog). We also were able to go to the Jewish ghetto for artichokes--but that's another post for another day.

Everyone's top favorites of Naples:
Maren: Pizza and Pompeii
Carson: Leaving and Pompeii
AnneMarie: Pompeii and National Archeological Museum
Gary: Observing the crazy traffic and mosaics in museum

Everyone's least favorite part of Naples:
M--traffic
C--being pickpocketed
AM--NOISE
G--crowded buses