Bay of Naples

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Naples is not that impressive, at least from our first glance perspective. As soon as we landed on the marina from Capri ferry ride, we had to walk across a city to our designated hostel, including through one of those LONG tunnels that were loud, smell and not pedestrian friendly. Walking by several pictures of people with flowers around them, all of the sudden it occurred to me; I do not want to have my picture added to the pile, so we better paid more attention to these crazy Italian drivers who were zooming by within only inches from us.

Reaching the Bay of Naples area by dusk, we still need to walk for at least another two miles to get into a secluded area where the HI-Hostel International Naples is located. We would use our memberships to guarantee a spot, but unfortunately the hostel is full and since we didn’t have any reservations, the hostel staff wasn’t too helpful to find us some other alternatives for the night. After scrambling through more expensive hotels around the Bay of Naples, finally one hotel staff suggested us to find a room that suits our €60 budget at the Garibaldi Napoli Centrale train station. Around 11 pm, we found Hotel Sayonara, a dirty hotel that all of us finally agreed on staying for the night.

No wonder it is called ‘sayonara’ (or ‘goodbye’ in Japanese). It is a common sense that the area around train stations, especially of those in Italy, is unsafe. Lots of sketchy people are walking around the Garibaldi Napoli Centrale, bums and homeless are colonizing public benches, and many cockroaches are spotted in the streets of Naples. Inside the hotel is not any better; there is only one communal bathroom for the whole hotel, with clean water in question. As soon as I walked back into our room, Ryan and Jason were ready to barricade ourselves in with stacking up our room furniture against the door; it is that scary in here.

Bay of Naples in the daylight is so much better compared to our scary night the night before, and I have to admit that we started our Naples journey with a wrong foot. An embankment structure consists of many huge concrete blocks is now covering the beach, but many people are still using them to experience the water. In a distance, Mt. Vesuvius is sitting in what seems to be a dormant volcano, waiting as a constant reminder that it might blow up unexpectedly anytime and can cover Naples, just like it did on Pompeii in the first century AD. Yachts are docking in the bay, while owners are probably busy with many well established businesses along the coastline, including many fancy restaurants facing the Bay. Unfortunately our American clothing style of shorts, graphic t-shirts, sneakers, and daypacks dictates our financial status of conservative backpackers, and fancy Italian restaurants wouldn’t too impressed with us, so we had to pay a small fortune for our food without receiving any good service.

Il Museo di Antropologia di Napoli is housing most of Pompeii’s remains and artifacts. For €9 entrance fee, the nicely designed museum offers an ultimate display and experience on how ancient life in Pompeii was conducted before the destruction. The whole city was frozen in time, buried under heavy ash during the Mt. Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD. Throughout the museum, several frescoes, lots of pottery, jewelry, casts of dying people and many illustrations on what Pompeii experienced on its last hours are arranged in an order that no one would get bored browsing through. The museum has a Secret Room, where they display the most valuables items and jewelry that no random tourists have access on viewing them, but during our visit, there was an important group of dressed up visitors that has a VIP pass to access the Room. From the impression of the guards making fun of them in their back, it seems that the group was government agents that are a joke in Italy. Just like a FBI mobster of Italy visiting a museum in Napoli.

If there is something funny about Naples, it must be the public park. Naples has several lush green public parks that invite people to use, but there is a little glitch - nobody can touch the green grass, especially by sitting on it. As soon as we stepped out from the concrete sidewalk to the green pasture, a park attendant on a bike approached us and started to bark in Italian, trying to keep us away from his precious grass. So here we are, sitting on a bench, watching the same park attendant yelling at almost everybody as people start to wonder away to the green. I would never realize that people watching in Naples is very entertaining - putting characters on locals, guessing their background by observing the clothes they wear and the gestures they do, and enjoying the weather.

This is life in Italy.

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Photos

Pompeii mosaic
Details of a mosaic recovered in Pompeii, Il Museo di Antropologia di Napoli.

Remains of Pompeii residents
Pompeii residents, Il Museo di Antropologia di Napoli.

Galleria Umberto I
Ryan and Jason are taking a break in Galleria Umberto I, Napoli.

Bay of Naples
The Bay of Naples with Mt. Visuvius in the background.