Forza Partenopei/Azzuri

Naples! It's interesting how many people told me this place smells terrible, is an awful place to stay, and isn't worth visiting. I could careless about the beach resorts along the Amalfi, and was more excited to see Roman ruins. That was my reason for going to Naples. The train to Naples isn't bad, it's only like an hour longer then going to Rome. Once I got to the station I went to a tourist office to get a Naples museum pass thing. When I found out the trains would be on strike the next day, except for the fast trains. It was was too late to do Pompeii and Herculaneum, so I had to settle for only Pompeii. A lot of people on the Circumvesuvania were either going to Pompeii or to Sorrento. It kind of sucked that the train was delayed by like 20 minutes. once I got to Pompeii it looked pretty awesome just seeing ruins from the exterior. They don't really give maps out so I had a basic map of Pompeii in my Italy book, so that kind of sucked. I walked pretty much all the areas you could walk too from seeing the Forum, Theaters, Brothel, Amphitheater, and the Villa of the Mysteries. I didn't see the garden with all the plastered people, but I did see a decent amount of plastered people so that was cool enough. What sucks is a lot of the excavated artifacts aren't actually in their original places. It was also random to see stray dogs all over the site. The brothel was interesting since those looked like the most uncomfortable beds ever. I loved just walking around and seeing well preserved homes though. And the Villa of the Mysteries was kind of a disappointment, except for the one room with all the original artwork in it. After getting back to Naples, finding my hotel was a bitch without access to a map. They luckily had huge city map things on the street, but I got lost trying to find my hotel since google maps gave me very shitty walking directions to my hotel. It was actually really really easy to get too. Then I had some authentic Napolitan style pizza at a nearby restaurant and I wasn't disappointed. I also only spoke very basic Italian words to the guy, who thought I spoke Italiano. That was interesting, but I survived the ordeal.

The next day I had an excellent breakfast at the hotel, and got to eat some Naples pastries. I then took the metro to the Archaeological Museum. The Farnese collection of Roman statues here was amazing. Their collection of excavated Pompeii artifacts from bronzes, to floor pieces, to mosaics, to paintings was also amazing. They also had the famous Alexander the Great mosaic that has graced my history book cover before. This is any ancient Rome's fan dream museum visit. They also had a room dedicated to erotic Roman art that was opened, and I gotta say, those Romans were weird. Especially Pan raping the goat or whatever that was. After this museum I cruised down the main drag Via Toledo to the harbor. It was neat seeing all the main streets, the insane traffic, and all the different cops patrolling. I loved the Palazzo Real at the end, and the San Franciscan church across from it. I didn't care to see the Palace though because it was French Bourbon. I then walked by the Castel Nuovo, since this was King Alfonse of Spain's residence. This castle was pretty immense to look at, they had a great view of the harbor! It was interesting seeing a European Union and a Spain flag over the castle. Then I just took a long way down Corso Umberto back to the train station, ate some more Naples pizza and got to the insanely packed train station. Because of all the strikes, all the trains were docked in Naples. I think only my train was running to Rome/Florence/Milan. But I was thankful to make it back to Florence.

Naples was an alright city, it's worth a visit. It wasn't that hot, and if you get hot, go walk by the harbor. The trash problem is there, but they at least have trash piles, that you can avoid walking by. It doesn't smell that bad, only when by trash piles. But I did see immigrants trying to sell either stolen goods, or broken shoes straight from the trash. That was interesting to see. I could really do without the immigrants trying to sell that crap. I enjoyed Naples, the people were very friendly and the food was excellent. Just the traffic is insane, but I got good at jaywalking the streets 30 minutes into it.