Naples, Pompeii and Herculaneum

According to the Lonely Planet, people either love or hate Naples. We have spoken to a couple of friends who didn't like it much at all, so we wondered how we would find it.

Via Tribunali

As it turns out, we like it very much. Okay, it could use a more regular rubbish collection and a few more street cleaners or residents who use rubbish bins a little more [Adrian: it's generally filthy]; and it does not feel terribly safe around the main railway station [Adrian: rats, dirty syringes, used condoms, and scoundrels]; but the old city is very cool in a grungy kind of way and the people are generally very friendly. There's a real intense gritty Italian character to it. The buildings are amazing; their glory is somewhat faded, which is interesting in its way, and the streets are often so narrow you get a strained neck trying to see the tops of buildings. And it is the home of pizza; that can't be a bad thing!

We are staying in the old city on the street behind the cathedral so popped our heads in for a peak (beautiful!) after dinner on our first night. The pizza was very good :).

The following morning we visited Santa Maria della Anime del Purgatorio; the church of the cult of the souls in purgatory. The cult's purpose was to take care of souls in purgatory; which they did by adopting a skull and praying to shorten its owner's time in purgatory in return for grace when their turn came. The gothic church was consecrated in 1638 and is one of the most fascinating places we have visited on our trip so far.

The underground Roman theatre

Later on in the day, we took it in turns to do the Naples Sottereanea tour, an hour and a half exploring the Roman and Greek city beneath present day Napoli. They had a law here that you could not build outside the city walls until about 1300AD, so the locals just built on top of the ancient stuff. Consequently there is a lot of history literally beneath your feet, and the tour takes you through some of it. Tis amazing to be viewing a Roman aquaduct several metres below street level, or a theatre literally below and in amongst apartments and shops; some even have windows overlooking a part of a ruin. They will not fully excavate the area as it is not reasonable to expropriate all of the houses.

Pompeii and Vesuvius

At at age six or seven at primary school in England I did a project on the AD 79 Vesuvius eruption and Pompeii. Visiting is something I never really imagined doing, so the opportunity to see it was very exciting.

Pompeii is a big place, so we needed time to explore and set off early to catch the train (early for us being about 8.45am!). As you to walk through the streets you can imagine how life might have been in Roman times. A real snap-shot of life almost 2000 years ago. The theatre is pretty complete and and there is a bakery that apparently produced 81 types of bread. When we explained to Eleanor that it was a city where people lived a long time ago, she concluded that they had all left to go to a hotel.

Herculaneum

Visiting Herculaneum had been recommended by a few people, so on our way back to Naples we stopped there. Wow! Herculaneum was also destroyed by the Vesuvius eruption; the difference being that rather than a shower of burning pumice and ash, it was drowned in 16 metres of mud. It is very well preserved, there are still murals and mosaics inside the houses it is easy to see why it was a holiday destination for the Romans. A very peaceful place. Eleanor preferred it to Pompeii and so did Adrian and I, although it was definitely worth seeing both.

The archeological museum

Today we had a lazy start. When we finally got moving we went to the archeological museum where many of the artefacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum are exhibited. In the afternoon we walked along the waterfront to the nearest playground. The playground is just what Eleanor and Leo wanted, so we had a lovely afternoon complete with an ice cream on our way back to our B&B.

It has been great to have a slightly longer stop in Naples, but we are ready to go now. Tomorrow we leave for Split, Croatia. Finally we visit the Balkans.