Pizza, Pompei and Insanity

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In the movie Roman Holiday Audrey Hepburn rides a scooter around Rome.

She does this because if she went to Naples she would be dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The south of Italy is the relaxed part of the country it is where people live "La Dolce Vita". This translates to "the sweet life". Naples however may be an exception to this Naples is the home of Pizza and also the home of chaotic insanity. No one stops for red lights when they are driving, no one stops for pedestrians when they are driving, no one pays any attention to the speed limit, no one does anything except be crazy.

Naples is also an interesting place to visit as it is the home of the Mafia known as the Cammora. Peter said he had watched the godfather and knew how it all worked and was sure they would want him to join them. The mafia are a big problem in Italy but especially in Naples where over 100 people a year are murdered in mafia violence. A more pressing problem for the locals is the fact that the mafia is contracted to remove all the towns rubbish, but instead of doing so they prefer to let it sit in the side of the road and in some areas it has been 8 years since it was last collected. So the rubbish just piles up and the locals wander around and the town gets dirtier and dirtier and the mafia keeps the money.

Following our culinary tour to the home of Bolognase sauce and seeing as though we were in the home of pizza, we wandered around the town searching high and low for pizza and found a small resturant that had a little courtyard over looking a 500 year old church. The pizza was brilliant, it only really comes in 2 flavours - marianara (tomato and garlic) and margherita (tomato and cheese). It is nearly impossible to explain how something that has so few ingredients tastes so good. But here goes - MAGIC!!!! Its all a trick they use mirrors and lasers and other stuff and thats how its done. There is no other plausible explanation.

Following our exploration into pizza we decided to undertake an exploration of a more archaeolgical nature with a trip to Pompei. In the year -----AD the nearby Mt Vesuvius erupted burying Pompei and all its residents under a mountain of ash. This resulted in the town and its residents being wiped out and only a few people survived the eruption. What was left however was a perfectly preserved roman city, the ruins of Pompei are amazing not just because of thier size but because if the way everything is preserved. You can walk through the city streets and into houses and see how people lived nearly 2000 years ago. One of the most impressive things that has been preserved is the frescoes that cover the walls of peoples houses. Rather than have paintings the romans simply painted the walls and many of these are still almost perfectly preserved after 2000 years. Visiting Pompei you really get a feel for how people would have live and also how they died, one part of the ruins known as the garden of the fugitives contains plaster moulds of the dead bodies that were found here. They were trying to shelter from the falling ash and they were so well preserved that you can even see the looks on thier faces.

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Photos

Mould of a dead child.
This is in the garden of the fugitives.

The VESPA!!!
The locals choice instrument of death, move over mad max!!!

The famous dog.
Overcome by ash this dog is now one of Pompeis most famous residents

Mt Vesuvius
The reason why Pompei is famous, we kept an eye on it all day just to be safe.

The colloseum
Peter waited for the gladiators but was 2000 years to late.

Entrance to the Colloseum
Pompei had its own gladiators and even roof to keep the sun off the crowd.

Roman frescoes
Still preserved after thousands of years