Naples

As mentioned before, I caught a train to Naples at 7:45 am Sunday. What I have not mentioned yet, is that the majority of the people I have happened to ask for directions or information of some sort speak very little or no English. So, initially when arriving to my hostel, it took me 30 minutes to find it...and it was only 100 meters away from where I got off the metro. This was because I assumed to look for street SIGNS. To my dismay, there were none (that I could see...), so I started going down each of the roads (there were 5 streets connecting to the Piazza Bologna where my metro stop is). Starting asking people where via Livorno (street where the hostel was) was, and struck out the three times. Finally, a women coming out of a shoe shop (which, there are A LOT of here) pointed me in the right direction...which of course, was the only street I had not been down. As I learned later from my friend at the hostel, the street names can be found on the buildings the majority of the time. Some districts have typical street signs, some do not. Also applies for piazzas. Anyway, so I was on this train, and the conductor needed to tell me something and of course with what little Italian I know (which...is almost nothing, since I took Spanish) only one person sharing the seats with me spoke a little English enough to tell me what he was saying. Apparently, my ticket dropped me off in the downstairs portion of the Naples train station, and I needed to exit in the first car, not the car I was in...which was all the way in the back. I arrived in Naples, and the first thing that happened was some guy started to hit on me, it was a rejected attempted especially since he spoke zero English as well. I have not said anything in Rome with men yet, as there really were not any incidents besides prolonged or exaggerated "checking out", and a few comments. Naples, on the other hand, is a different story. For one, the men are much more aggressive, at ANY age. I had guys my grandfather's age hitting on me. Naples (Napoli, as it is referred to here) is also a VERY dirty and smelly city in comparison to Roma. Garbage disposal is a major problem. I felt quite a bit less safe here on my own. I asked for directions to this pizza place that I had wanted to try, that was recommended highly in my guide book (Lonely planet). A very nice middle aged man, Antonio, walked me there, and unfortunately it was closed! And as I slowly began to realize, since Antonio spoke very little English, is that none of the pizza places opened till much later since it was domingo, or Sunday! I, was very disappointed. So instead, we went to a bar and got caffès. And then he showed me to the next thing I had wanted to see while I was there, the National Archaeology Museum, which houses one of the most important collections of Graeco-Roman artefacts. It also has many mosaics from Pompei and some from Herculaneum. And hey, lets face it, I mainly went there for the Secret Room, which is where most of the erotica items consisting of mosaics, frescoes, and sculptures from Pompei and Herculanuem are.

I had to then hurry back to the train station, and get my ticket to Pompei. On my way back to the train station, I picked up a little pizza from a small restaurant, it was not the best I have had, since again, most places were closed. The guy who sold me the pizza asked for my number, I said no.
I also made the mistake of making eye contact AND smiling at a guy, ended up following me and I told him I was leaving...so he left me alone.

Finally, I get on the train to Pompei...byebye smelly Napoli (yes, it did smell due to all the garbage), still very upset about not getting a pizza...

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