From the train station in Naples, we hopped in a cab to our hotel, and it was immediately apparent that we were about to experience a totally different side of Italy. We'd heard rumors (from mafia movies, etc.) about the crime in Naples, but we'd also heard a lot of good things about the food and the sights. To start our visit off on an appropriate note, our taxi driver wasn't exactly sure where our B&B was, so ended up speeding backwards through a one-way street, honking to get pedestrians out of our path, so Italian! The streets of central Naples are pretty much the opposite of those in Rome: dingy, narrow, and covered in graffiti. Don't get me wrong though, Naples has its charms, and by the end of our three days there we were all starting to fall in love with the place.
Our B&B only had a few rooms, and the staff set up the terrace for breakfast (tea and croissant for me!) each morning. Here's the terrace with lots of plants:
On our first afternoon in Naples, we started walking around to see some of the churches and other interesting buildings nearby. We were happy to discover that there were very few other tourists around, a welcome break from our experience in Rome. We heard that most visitors stay in Rome, and do a day trip from Rome to Pompeii, passing through the main train station in Naples, but don't bother with seeing the city itself. Here's WP and Ben in one of the very long and narrow thoroughfares in central Naples:
From the main square we walked down towards the water, and got to see some pretty awesome castles built by some of Naples' many foreign rulers (Greek, Byzantine, Lombard, Spanish, Austrian, French, you name it). Here are the boys with the Tyrrhenian Sea (a branch of the Mediterranean) behind them:
And me with a castle:
Dinner the first night in Naples we ordered three pizzas, the first of about twelve that we ate in total during the three days we were there. I rarely like to eat the same thing for so many meals in a row, but the pizza in Naples was the best pizza I've ever had. When something is that good you have to take advantage of it before it's gone! One of my favorite orders was the Pizza Margherita DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata, or Controlled Denomination of Origin, a regional food quality assurance label used throughout Europe.) The DOC is a basic pizza that is made up of the finest local mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, local basil and of course, the best local olive oil. This pizza is a showcase for all the region's greatest food treats (even the crust is perfectly cooked), and luckily, a version of this was available at most pizzerias we visited.
On our second day in Naples, we visited a few museums, including the National Archaeological Museum, which had some amazing Roman statues, busts, and frescoes. They even had a "14-years and older" room with some of the more scandalous Roman statues and paintings. I gotta tell you, I'm not sure 14-year old kids are ready for some of what the Romans were into (in one of the funnier moments of the trip, one American teenage boy with his mom was looking through the collection and yelling "WHY??? WHY???"). But overall, the museum was pretty interesting. Afterwards we sat down for some afternoon coffee in this lovely arcade:
On our second day, one of the best churches we visited was Sansevero Chapel. The chapel houses a famous statue, the "Veiled Christ". The veil over the figure looks so delicate and sheer, but is carved of stone, in a true masterpiece of sculpture. Downstairs in this same church, there are two figures built several hundred years ago, called "Anatomical Machines" whose skeletons have been encased with hardened veins and arteries to show how the body works. The veins and arteries are colored red and blue, and originally it was thought that a metallic substance was injected into the living subjects, but now they think that the veins could have been reconstructed using wire and beeswax. One of the figures is a man and the other a pregnant woman, though her baby who was also encased was stolen a long time ago. It is one of the creepier things I've ever seen, but definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Naples. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside the chapel, but if you're interested in checking out the Veiled Christ, go here, or see the Anatomical Machines here.
After our museum and church visits down in the city, we continued our walk toward one of the hills in Naples, and took a funicular (cable car) up to the top. Just to give you an idea of what Naples looks like, here are a few pictures I snapped as we approached the funicular station. The photo on the right is a side-street from which you can expect to see zooming motorcycles and lots of laundry hanging out to dry. There were a ton of streets like this little one, some ending in dead-ends and some connecting to other little alleys. Whenever we passed streets like these me and Will were reminded of being in crowded Morocco, with countless motorcycles and people everywhere living in close quarters. Part of the reason for the different feel to the historic center is that it was laid out originally by the ancient Greeks, on a tight grid system (very rare in Europe until the 19th/20th centuries otherwise). The Greeks called this colony Neapolis, or "new city," which is the source of its name today, although now it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in Europe.
From the top of the hill there was a spectacular view of the city and of Mount Vesuvius!
We visited a combination monastery and maritime museum on top of the hill (don't ask me why they decided to bring boats all the way up a giant hill); inside the museum there were some terraces with awesome views of the water, Mount Vesuvius, and the nearby island of Capri.
The interior of the monastery is no longer lived in by monks, but has been preserved as an art gallery with all of the original religious paraphernalia intact in between exhibits. Here's WP in the courtyard, making a new friend:
On our last day in Southern Italy, we made the trek out to Pompeii. The 45-minute train ride from Naples was very crowded with tourists, and I managed to strike up a conversation with some Spanish girls from Valencia. It was nice to be able to speak Spanish again, and they even took me for a Latin American because of my "weird" (i.e. not Spain Spanish) accent, haha. In a way, I'm happy to know that when we get back to California (or are traveling in Mexico), I won't sound weird to Spanish-speakers at home!
Pompeii was really cool to see. We had a good time wandering the streets and were impressed by all the detailed tile work and mosaics that survived the volcano eruption.
Some of the more interesting buildings we saw were the bathhouses, with lots of open tub areas and intricate carvings in the walls.
I can't remember whether or not this little fresco was in a bathhouse, but it is just beautiful! I can't believe so much detail and color has survived the last 2000 years.
In many of the normal houses around Pompeii, the ovens have survived. Here's WP making the pizza, mamma mía!
This photo really has nothing to do with the ruins, but who can resist a little pile of puppies?! There were six altogether; they were so adorable:
These columns are the remains of a temple:
This photo is a good example of a lot of the courtyards we saw throughout the town. The groundskeepers have them landscaped and it really makes it easier to imagine what this might have looked like when it was being used by the Romans:
The amphitheater was really impressive, though this photo will never do it justice. The walls are intact all the way around and grass and red poppies have started growing where there used to be seats.
Later on in the day we saw the theater, which doesn't go all the way around like the amphitheater (as Will pointed out when we were there, amphi means two, or on both sides in this case, don't know why I never put that together), but is half open and faces a stage.
After some more walking around to see the houses and courtyards, we learned a little more about the devastation that occurred all those years ago. Apparently within a matter of minutes, a thick cloud of ash descended on the city, and combined with some toxic and extremely hot gases, it killed a lot of people immediately.
We even got to see some bodies of people who were encased by the ash. It was so weird to see the expressions on their faces (and mine)!
That evening, after washing off the Pompeii dust, we put on our fancy clothes (and attitudes) for a night at the symphony. Ben's parents, Mathea and Peter, surprised us with tickets to see Berlioz's Simfonie Fantastique at Naples' most renowned venue, the Teatro San Carlo! Before heading to the theater, we went to a famous cafe and bar across the street called Gambrinus.
The bar is right next to that awesome church we saw on the first day, so Ben took some pictures of me and WP toasting our prosecco in front of the piazza:
The inside of Teatro San Carlo was incredible! Private boxes lined the circumference of the room, and each one was outfitted with dark red velvet curtains and cushioned seats.
The boxes had nothing on our seats though! We were right up front next to the violins, with an incredible view of the conductor and musicians. At times during the show we could even hear the conductor exhaling sharply and see his extremely expressive face as he led the group in a fabulous performance.
Here's the painted ceiling and some of the seats. So incredible!
This photo shows the curtain and ceiling above the stage. Everything was very beautiful in gold and red velvet. That small screen hanging in the middle was used during the second act, which was not the Berlioz piece, but a different performance that included the orchestra, a choir, and spoken word. The screen was used during the choir's songs (which were in French), to translate the words to Italian. The whole group together was pretty amazing, though parts of the spoken word went over my head, since the actor was speaking Italian.
The performance was very exciting and we were so impressed with the quality of the musicians and the theater. Mathea and Peter, thank you again for making our last night in Naples so memorable!
After the show we headed through the city one last time and made our way back to the hotel. The next day we got on the train back to Rome and from there to Penne. Coming soon, another post about Penne, the lovely little hill town in the Abruzzo region where I've had plenty of time to blog! Here's a little taste of how beautiful things are around here. Ciao!
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