Today Matt and I walked our butts off, and for those who know me well I have a rather larger posterior, so we walked a lot. It was an amazing day!
The room that we have has amazing black out windows so neither one of us knew that it was past eight when we awoke. As we slowly got ready for the day, Matt and I mapped out a plan for the day; the National Archaeological Museum of Naples was high on my list. We started out at the fantastic continental breakfast at the UNA Hotel and then started walking towards the museum.
Naples, as in Crete, is difficult to navigate; their street signs are almost non-existent so Matt and I walked north a few blocks further out of our way, but finally made it to the Museum. The Museum is more impressive than words can say…the pictures below hopefully will do it some justice. If you ever find yourself close to Naples it would be a shame if you missed this exhibit. There were more marble and bronze statues, mosaics, Vesuvian paintings, coins, gems, and other fantastic pieces; much of which came from excavation sites in Pompeii. Also, there was a huge reproduction of the remains of Pompeii, made between 1861 and 1864 of plywood, cork, plaster, and paper. It isn’t the entire site, since more has been excavated since 1864, but the level of detail is amazing. The artist created tiny watercolors on the miniature walls, representing the artwork as it was found in Pompeii (some of which has been lost since, making this the only copy). Very cool!
Matt and I walked the massive museum for hours. When we finally left it was past lunch time and I was definitely hungry and once again we tried to find a McDonalds. After walking for a ways we finally found one; it was closed. We have an uncanny ability to find international McDonalds that are closed for renovation. We ventured down a street on our way to Castel Nuovo (New Castle)and ran upon a little street cafe. Matt had spaghetti with tuna and spicy sauce, I ate linguini with mussels and artichokes, both were great. After being on our feet for five hours it felt good to sit and enjoy the serenity around us.
After lunch we took pictures of Castel Nuovo. At this point the area was becoming cleaner more touristy, so we felt a bit braver and brought out the SLR camera for pictures. I (Matt now) am incredibly grateful that Andrea gave me this Nikon D40 for my birthday; it takes amazing pictures. Castel Nuovo is comprised of massive towers (look like chess rooks, see below) and was built in 1282, enlarged in the 15th century, and today houses the Naples city council.
We continued down Via San Carlo towards Palazzo Reale, a huge estate built in 1602. The Teatro San Carlo, Italy’s largest opera house, is also nearby, just off the Piazza del Plebiscito, which is huge. We continued down Via Santa Lucia to Castel dell’Ovo (Egg Castle), Naples’ oldest castle, built between the 9th and 16th centuries. The name is either derived from the egg-like shape of the castle, or the story that it was built on top of an egg. The story was, if the egg broke, Naples would fall.
At this point we’d been walking for an eternity, and we were ready to get off our feet. Also, we wanted to know what it felt like to be in a car in Naples, so we caught a taxi down by Castel dell’Ovo and cabbed it back to Piazza Garibaldi (our hotel). You see, driving in Naples is a free for all, a complete charlie-foxtrot. Cars go every which way, and if a scooter isn’t satisfied with traffic conditions, they use the sidewalk. On top of that, people on foot cross where they want, when they want. On top of all that, everything moves very quickly. It’s like an obscenely large, high-stakes game of Frogger. Andrea does a little prayer every time. The drive did not disappoint; it was winding, confusing; the thrill we hoped for.
We ordered room service (turkey sandwich today, to split since we’re still pretty full from our late lunch), typed up our adventures, and read for a bit. We also watched more CNN, so we’re very up to date on U.S. politics and tropical storms.
matt & andrea 