Arriving at 9 am on a sunday, Naples is draped in laundry. I can hardly see the buildings for all the sheets and clothing hanging from balconies and clotheslines.
For all the warnings about how dangerous and scummy Naples is, I was expecting much worse. It's packed, busy and crossing the street is a death-defying stunt, but it's gorgeous.
On my first day, I met Giuseppe, who lives in a town outside of Naples and came into the city to vote. We spend the whole day walking in the historic city center, through alleyways, around fountains and up hills to enjoy the views.
This is a marketplace - unfortunately closed when I was there.
One of the old city gates:
That's Vesuvius off in the distance, shrouded in clouds, silent but still intimidating...
Piazza Dante:
The craziest antique shops, stocked full of religious paraphernalia:
There are food shops like this all over the place - I wish I was living in Italy for some length of time so I could really enjoy them...
Giuseppe's english isn't much better than my Italian so there were long moments of silence between us, but it was never awkward.
Caffe latte and seaside sunset, then the double kiss and my first Ciao Bella.
The next day I went to Pompeii.
The people here are so considerate with tourists - well, the men are anyway. After overhearing me ask the bus driver if he stops at the train station, a shockingly attractive man asked me where I was going and escorted me (gently taking my arm when venturing into traffic) directly to the door of the train to Pompeii, and wished me a good trip. I'm pretty sure he had been headed in the opposite direction. Amazing.
So, first impressions? Pompeii is massive!
These are walls enclosing the city:
The Basilica: for administering justice and negotiating business.
The main forum with the Temple of Jupiter at the end.
The theatre.
The Lupanere: the best organized brothel in Pompeii (Lupa in Latin means prostitute), simply because the building was designed specifically for that purpose. There are eve paintings depicting different positions for "the erotic games."
The baths were amazing - so much detail still visible, so extravagantly designed...
Casts of the victims were made by pouring plaster into the cavity left by the gradual decomposition of a body in the bed of ashes:
The temple of Apollo:
I love how there are still pieces of decorative marble scattered around after 2500 years, an big earthquake (69 AD) and, oh yeah, that massive volcanic eruption that covered the entire city in molten lava and ash (79 AD).
Napoli was short and sweet but I'm so excited about Rome...
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