The Streets of Napoli

Last night I met Hannah from TN. She graduated from nursing school in December and is taking 6 months to travel and enjoy life before starting her 2 year fellowship at a hospital near DC. She has been working her way through northern Italy where it has been cold, rainy and snowy at times. Until she showed up at the hostel in Napoli, it had been 11 days since she was able to speak English to anyone who could understand her. Needless to say she was eager for some company. We decided to spend today walking around the city and seeing some of the major sights.

Our wanderings took us down south to the shore and the ports along the bay. We followed the harbor for a while until we turned north to head back into the city. When we found a main street we also found a rally of some kind. People were playing loud music from a van and walking behind it with tons of red flags. As we went further along the road we caught up with the gathering point where a man was shouting Italian at a podium. What is it with me and finding rallies and demonstrations wherever I go??

We worked our way west toward Vomero, a small town on top of a large hill in the NW corner of Napoli. There are two funiculars that take you up the slope where there is a castle and two museums amidst the town. We happened across some lovely views of the city and bay along with a park in the middle of town. Navigating up there was really challenging. Our handy map from the hostel didn't detail that there was even a city on top until we arrived. Fortunately there were street side area maps that gave us a clue about where we were. For the trip down we opted to take the Via Pedamentina, a walkway back down to the rest of Napoli. I'm glad we didn't walk up this way because all the steps are slanted downhill and the steps are about 2 feet long making for a very awkward time walking. Most of it was littered with broken glass thrown off from the top of Vomero. There were some really cool doorways, a bed and breakfast and some small shops amidst the local housing. We had excellent views down into Napoli.


For lunch, we stopped at Da Michele, one of the most famous pizza restaurants in Napoli. I ate the whole thing!!

Most of the day had been sunny until about halfway through our venture in Vomero when it started to get very cold and hail upon us. Back down in Napoli it was still sunny, but cool. As the sun dropped the rain started up again. To try and get out of the cold we headed for the National Archeological Museum in the north part of the city. Sadly the building is quite drafty and while we were out of the wind, there was no heat to speak of in the building. Strangely parts of the 2nd floor were much colder than the first. Inside we were treated to ancient pottery, bronze work, gladiator memorabilia, treasures and paintings from Pompeii and statues galore. Probably the coolest part we saw was the sundial room upstairs. In the far SW corner is a tiny hole in the ceiling that shines a beam of light at noon onto a marble zodiac calendar on the floor.

From the museum we made our way back to the hostel and chilled out after a long day of walking. Once again people were cooking in the kitchen for a group. They invited Hannah and I to chow down if we were interested. The evening's meal included salad, fried anchovies (fresh, whole and bones in), boiled artichokes with vinaigrette sauce and pasta with veal, tomatoes and garlic. All of it was most delicious and stuffed us silly. I'm grateful for some free, fresh cooked food. I slept great last night and look forward to another night of good sleep.