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Published: February 13th 2008
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Alright, so a few more fast-paced days have passed in Italy. We left Rome a couple days ago and took a train down to Naples. After getting settled in to our hostel we headed out for a little bit of sightseeing our first day. Naples is the birthplace of pizza as we know it and it is known as the home of the best pizza in the world now. So first we headed off to one of the highest recommended pizza place in the city and it was just delicious. The typical "margharita" pizza here is made with tomato sauce, some basil leaves, and then some thick blobs of mozzerella cheese (not like our mozerrella cheese) that don't cover the whole pizza but that are delicious, and some olive oil is mixed in for extra nutrition. Anyways, after some pizza we took a tour of the Naples Underground. The city started out in the hands of the Greek a long time ago. Apparently due to the large city wall that people didn't want to build outside of, when the Romans took over, they built over the top of a lot of the Greek city and then the same happened when
Naples became a Christian city so there are a lot of openings underground. Many of these were used to create underground passages, the backstage area for theaters, bomb shelters during WWII, and some huge aquaducts. So we wandered around with a guide through these passages for a while and then came to a part in which the passages became very narrow, I had to put my arms out in front of me as far as they could go so my shoulders would fit (couldn't turn sideways due to backpack) and the only light was that of the candles each of us were carrying. We did this for a while and came to a large underground pool which looked pretty awesome in our candlelight. And oh ya, Suzy and Hannah took a day triip down to Naples and were on our tour too. Due to much tiredness I went to bed quite early that night.
The next day was time for our trip down to Pompeii. For those who don't know, Pompeii is an old Roman city which was covered in ash from a volcanic eruption and therefore hasn't been modified in any way in almost 2000 years and
Pompeii center
This was the Temple of Jupiter and that is Mt. Vesuvius in the background much of it was preserved better than ruins normally would be. We all paid for audioguides which are like remote controls which have numbered recordings so as you follow the map of Pompeii around you push whatever number you are near and it gives you information about that house/area/etc. This was well worth it because Pompeii is very large and the amount of detailed information known about it is pretty incredible. I spent about 6 hours in the ruins wandering through old houses, temples, amphitheaters, graveyards, and arenas. With the help of the audioguide's information and a lot of imaginative straining, you could put a lot of things back the way they were in your mind and get a pretty good glimpse of what life was like 2000 years ago. During the archeological digging, they came across some cavities in the hardened ash that had bones in the bottoms of them. The head archeologist realized that these must have been formed around bodies so he ordered a complete hault to the digging and had a plaster created to fill in the cavities. This was the invention of the current plaster cast and it created a number of plaster bodies of
Pompeii
Plaster casts of victims the victims of the eruption that are detailed down to the teeth and the facial hair - very weird but very cool. And oh ya, Suzy and Hannah took another day trip from Rome down to Pompeii (about 3 hours) that day and I ran into them at the ruins and we explored together for a while (not sure who's stalking who but Italy is beginning to feel small). That was about it for that day other than some wandering the city at night and trying not to freeze, it has been very cold here even in the middle of the day. Now we are going to spend today wandering around Naples waiting for our overnight train to take us to Palermo in Sicily.
OK, well I'm back from my wandering of the city and my feet definitely hurt. Anyways, we went to the train station and found out that our Eurail passes get us a seat on the night train but it costs 30 euro to upgrade to a bed - we'll sleep well tonight but probably try to sleep in regular seats from now on. We then split up and wandered around the city looking for
Pompeii
"The Mule Driver" was found next to his mule cathedrals and castles. Most of the churches were closed for visiting between noon and 4pm which is when we were near them so I only went into one and settled for seeing a number of others from the outside. Then I went to the 2 main castles in Naples, going into and climbing to the top of one of them which was pretty cool, especially for being planted in the middle of a city. Along the way I got some gelatto from a place that is supposed to have some of the best fruit flavored ice cream in the world - made with real fruit juice. It was certainly the best that I've ever had but that's as far as I'll claim. I'm now uploading my pictures then it will be off to find some food and head to the train station. Alright, I'll write again soon from Sicily.
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Karen Motenko-Neal
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history buff
You seem so happy in Italy. I love the photo of you in Pompeii. And, I love the photo of the museum with the two encased plaster forms of bodies. Your history lesson is wonderfully articulate. Thank you.