When you think of Naples, think pizza. This is the birthplace of pizza and all I can say is……..out of this world delicious!!! Our first night here we went out to a small pizzarria recommended by the front desk at the hotel and it had to have been the best pizza we’ve ever had. Even Jim, who is not the biggest pizza fan, was oohing and ahhing over it. Yes, the food is definitely the best reason to come here……..because the rest of Naples is a cess pool. Sorry folks, I calls it like I sees it. Well, maybe I’m being a little harsh - we did, afterall, really enjoy the Museo Archeologico Nazionale (National Archeology Museum) which has some absolutely blow your socks off sculptures from ancient Rome, many of which were recovered from Pompeii and Herculaneum. The rest of Naples, though, is a huge (3.2 million people) city with absolutely insane traffic and noise coming at you from all directions. Our hotel was in the old part of Naples, which all sounds wonderful because it’s just as you’d expect it to be - very narrow old buildings with laundry hanging off the balconies and all sorts of shops and vendors everywhere - but these streets, which are really just alleys, also have to accommodate cars and scooters which are constantly whizzing by. I guess it’s just another part of everyday life here because you’re walking along with the crowd and then you’ll either hear the engine coming up behind you or the honking (lots of honking) and people just move to the sides to let the car or scooter through. Crazy, right???? The other unfortunate thing we saw everywhere was trash. Oftentimes you couldn’t even see the dumpster for all the bags of trash overflowing from them. I guess this is an ongoing problem for Naples from what I’ve read in the travel book. Really unfortunate, though, because this city could be so pretty if it weren’t for all the trash and litter. It’s REALLY trashy (and not in the good way, as Jim would say)…..sad, sad, sad.
The other REALLY worthwhile reason to visit here is that it’s a good home base to visit the ruins of either Herculaneum or Pompeii, which were both obliterated by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79. From here, there are regional trains that run all the time to both cities, with Herculaneum about 20 minutes south and Pompeii 40 minutes south. Pompeii is the much larger sight of the two, so we decided to head down there. It couldn’t have been easier - we just walked from the train station in Pompeii to the entrance of the ruins, about a block away. The site covers about 44 hectares (109 acres, but we didn‘t walk all of it J). Again we lucked out, both with the weather which was perfect and the lack of crowds - we were often all by ourselves as we explored the ruins. It really is phenomenal how well preserved the city is and how much they have been able to excavate over the years. The plaster casts of the people who were overcome by the volcanic flow are particularly moving.
We leave here tomorrow morning on a 7 a.m. train to Pisa which will be about a 5 hour train ride north. We get to see the Leaning Tower! We’ll spend one night there, and then head on to Lucca for one night,which is supposed to be one of the most picturesque towns in Tuscany. From there we’ll head on to Florence for 4 nights, after which we’re planning on visiting Bologna which is also supposed to be a really interesting town. The best part of all is the largest city is Florence with just over 300,000 people. Yippee! Hopefully the traffic, noise and trash will not be as insane as what we’ve dealt with in Rome and Naples.
By the time you get read this post we’ll already be in Pisa since our internet connection is really, really slow tonight in Naples so I’ll have to wait until we get to Pisa to get this posted.
The other REALLY worthwhile reason to visit here is that it’s a good home base to visit the ruins of either Herculaneum or Pompeii, which were both obliterated by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79. From here, there are regional trains that run all the time to both cities, with Herculaneum about 20 minutes south and Pompeii 40 minutes south. Pompeii is the much larger sight of the two, so we decided to head down there. It couldn’t have been easier - we just walked from the train station in Pompeii to the entrance of the ruins, about a block away. The site covers about 44 hectares (109 acres, but we didn‘t walk all of it J). Again we lucked out, both with the weather which was perfect and the lack of crowds - we were often all by ourselves as we explored the ruins. It really is phenomenal how well preserved the city is and how much they have been able to excavate over the years. The plaster casts of the people who were overcome by the volcanic flow are particularly moving.
We leave here tomorrow morning on a 7 a.m. train to Pisa which will be about a 5 hour train ride north. We get to see the Leaning Tower! We’ll spend one night there, and then head on to Lucca for one night,which is supposed to be one of the most picturesque towns in Tuscany. From there we’ll head on to Florence for 4 nights, after which we’re planning on visiting Bologna which is also supposed to be a really interesting town. The best part of all is the largest city is Florence with just over 300,000 people. Yippee! Hopefully the traffic, noise and trash will not be as insane as what we’ve dealt with in Rome and Naples.
By the time you get read this post we’ll already be in Pisa since our internet connection is really, really slow tonight in Naples so I’ll have to wait until we get to Pisa to get this posted.
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