Napoli

 

We said goodbye to Tuscania and headed in the car toward Naples. We arrived mid-afternoon after probably one of the most harrowing driving/riding experiences in city traffic that I have ever experienced. Last summer, we drove all through Northern Italy with no issues - through Milan, Verona, the outskirts of Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome... no problems! But Naples, these drivers are just insane. I don't recommend it unless you really want your nerves on their very last edge. So many scooters, cars driving in non existent lanes using parts of sidewalks, pedestrians galore, buses... so, so much! All that to say, we made it to the parking garage and our hotel unscathed. 

We planned to use Naples primarily as a landing spot to see other things in the area. We stayed in Naples for three nights. I am glad we primarily used it only as a home base, because honestly, Naples just isn't that great of a city. There are some interesting architecture features but they are mixed in with more modern (like mid- 20th century) buildings and a ton of graffiti. If the graffiti "artist" can reach it, they've covered it! I've seen lots of graffiti in other destinations but nothing like Naples. 

Our place had a beautiful private and peaceful courtyard entrance and tall windows that opened and overlooked the street. After settling in, we walked around the area, tried not to get plowed over by scooters, and took in the scenery. My oldest one of three loves all things scary so when she saw a sign for a Middle Ages Museum, we stopped to check it out. We anticipated learning about some of the darker history of the Middle Ages, but were met with a museum of nothing but torture devices! Disturbing to say the least! 

The inner courtyard of our place in Naples.

I took a photo of this building because it was so unusual. It was the front of what looked like a church behind it. It was as if they added a newer front to an old building and I saw nothing like it anywhere else.

We ate dinner at Tandem - a local popular restaurant that received good reviews and is famous for their ragu. We got an interesting tutorial on pasta noodles and the two main types of ragu were tasty! I have had better pasta though. 

The next morning, we headed for Pompeii. While I have a general knowledge of Pompeii, I've never really researched it thoroughly or read much about it. I guess I was expecting the ruins to be much more minimal due to the fact that an entire city was wiped out by one of the most massive volcano eruptions in history. However, since the city was basically covered by the lava of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD, many parts of the structures were intact, just buried. The site was oddly interesting but also gravely sobering to imagine the event. The area was also much, much larger than I thought it would be. The ruins are divided into regions containing everything from small homes to homes of the aristocracy, burial tombs to bakeries as well as taverns, other businesses, a forum and an ampitheatre dated even before the Roman Coliseum. The excavation of Pompeii is still ongoing today. They have found victims, household items, wares, animal remains, personalized items and more. In the excavations, they are only allowed to remove debris and dust and carefully clean items. They are not allowed to restore painted areas by adding color. They are only allowed to add items if they are found in the debris and their original location can determined. The exception is they can cover areas with roofing to protect what has been excavated. It really is such a large area that I can't even begin to imagine the painstaking process it has taken over many, many years to uncover what we saw.

Interestingly, there was another city very nearby called Herculaneum that was obliterated as well. However, it was never completely excavated and now an entirely new city, Ercolano, sits atop a buried city. Our Nutter Butter studied Ancient Roman history as one of her classes this semester. It was great to hear her insight as she pointed out various items and examples and shared stories with us while visiting Pompeii.

I couldn't believe the amount of mosaic tiled areas that were still in place.

This was seen frequently in areas that were stores or taverns - it was the surface of the still standing countertops for service.

Most of the more elaborate homes or homes of the aristocracy had these courtyards with openings in the top to allow rain to enter, collect in the area underneath which then drained into a tank for water storage. Victims' remains were found in this home - one clutching coins and the other jewelry.

The was the back yard area of an elaborate home which would have had views out to the sea.

Under this colonnade area (which was a complete squared area) was a tunnel that was used for walking and exercise during the heat of the summer. Since the tunnel was underground, it was much, much cooler.

This is Willie (pronounced WEE-lie). He's a local.

I just couldn't believe how much of the painted walls remained.

Entrance to a home of the aristocracy - it says Welcome.

Once of the most elaborate homes in the ruins. It was called the Wedding Silver Casa because they found a piece of the couple's 25th anniversary silver in the home engraved with their inscriptions.

Graffiti of a ship - the excavators are not allowed to even repair the graffiti.

A roadway - you can see the grooves of possible wheels.

Most of the buildings were covered with a plaster or stucco material; however, that is mainly gone and only the internal structure of the stonework remains.

One of the largest bakeries we saw. The cone shaped items to the middle left of the photo were mills. A long wooden rod was inserted into the top and donkeys were attached to the rod and walked in a circle to grind the wheat. At one of the bakeries, they excavated the remains of a donkey.

Bakery ovens

Bakery pots used to store grains

The amphitheatre

After Pompeii we actually headed to Mt. Vesuvius National Park. It was our first National Park visit outside of the United States. There is a small parking area and park office that requires visitors to register in order to hike or bike the area. You can actually hike to the top, which we did not. They have created a very large and wide paved path that reaches about 14 km up the side of the volcano and the rest of the path is natural. We hiked up for about an hour stopping to take in beautiful views of the city and water below. Then we headed back down and back toward Naples. 

Mt. Vesuvius with the clouds on top

Capri - those are sailboats in the foreground

The ruins of Pompeii are in the small green area just to the right of the middle of the photo.

In the middle of the photo across the water (Gulf of Naples), you can see Sorrento.

These purplish pinkish flowers were everywhere up the side of Mt. Vesuvius.

I love this photo, but I sure was missing my not-so-little guy in the middle. :-(

Closer view of ruins of Pompeii area, now in the middle of the city that grew around them. The greener area in the middle contains all of the ruins.

Our day had been long and busy and full of walking so once back at our place, we picked up food from Puok - supposedly the most famous burger place in Naples. I must say, they were VERY good! The city was also full of excitement for the Naples soccer team playing that evening at home. So many people in the streets and fireworks galore to cheer on their team. It was a good night to stay in!

If you look closely, you can see the fireworks in between the buildings down the street.

The next morning, we had tickets on the ferry to Procida, a small island off the coast of Naples. From the Naples port, it's about an hour's ride. It was also a pretty ride. Truly, Naples looks better from the water than it does up close! 

Naples ports

Procida was beautiful! After arriving, we grabbed a taxi to our beach destination. Let's just say we made our way down the narrowest, mirror-scraping roads I have ever seen! Our driver grew up on Procida so I guess we had to trust he knew what he was doing! There are several beaches and we had decided on a particular one so we could have access to services while there. We lounged on the almost black volcanic sand by the Tyrrhenian Sea and enjoyed the sunshine! One find on a stroll down the beach was beautiful sea glass. I have never before found sea glass. It was fun to collect and see the various shades of greens and whites and their various shapes and stages of smoothness. The coastline was beautiful and natural. The water was frigid in my opinion, but the girls didn't mind!

I spy with my little eye... something green!

View from our beach chairs

Mt. Vesuvius in the distance on the left.  A poor, distressed, listing boat on the right. 

After some time at the beach we headed back toward the other end of the 4 square km island and took in some stunning views. The view from Santa Margherita Nuovo Church was incredible. The church sat hilltop and the area overlooked Marina Corricella. Just so beautiful!

I couldn't capture the view in one photo so this photo starts the series...

Just stunning!

 

Marina Corricella
You can see the area of Santa Margherita Nuovo Church in the upper right corner of the photo.

We made our way back toward the port and grabbed a small bite to eat. The tomatoes on my bruschetta were so, so delicious! Eventually it was time to leave this beautiful island and head back to Naples on the ferry. Once back, we cleaned up and made our way out for some Neopolitan Pizza - after all, Naples is supposed to be the birthplace of pizza. Mine had a variety of cheeses, caramelized onions and crispy bacon. It was good, but not as good as the Tuscania pizza if I'm being honest!

The next morning it was time to leave. Before doing do, I did a little bit of donut research. The donut wasn't bad for an international donut. It was a very fresh yeast donut with a light coating of a very fine granulated sugar. They just don't do them like America though. We said goodbye to Naples and it's crazy traffic. I wasn't sad for two reasons - 1) Naples, the city proper, hasn't been my favorite and 2) I am super excited about our next stop!