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Published: October 4th 2009
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I awoke, much to my dismay, to the sounds of flatulence and snoring. Oh the joys of sleeping in hostels! I don't know who the noises were coming from but they kept me awake entirely too early. I decided I had enough of that nonsense and got up to shower and get ready for my day. My last day in Rome, I headed to Naples on the train. I had quite an admirer in the market at the hostel. From the first day I was there he would seek me out to give me advice and just chat. You must be thinking, "How nice?! A cute Italian!" You are mistaken, my friend. He is a 40 year old American with bad teeth who decided he liked Rome too much to leave. I packed my things, which isn't much, and said goodbye to Rome.
When Tessa and I arrived at the train station we bought our tickets and headed to the platform. It was about an hour wait to board the train to Naples. We are both on a budget so the slowest/least expensive train was 3 hours and only 10 euro. We claimed our seats so that we would have
room to stretch out but that didn't last long. There were two Italian men that wanted to sit next to us. We threw our packs up on the rack and let them keep us company. Tessa fell asleep with her I-pod playing while I read a book and occasionally stared out the window. When the train made it around a sweeping corner there was water that emerged from no where, it seemed. The Italian to my left was excited and started speaking to me and pointing towards the water. I have no clue what he said and I told him politely that I speak English. He was then excited about that and tried to tell me in his best mangled English that I need to eat pizza in Napoli (Naples). The two men departed the train a few stops before Napoli and left us with nothing more than a wink and "Ciao!"
When we found the hostel we got our bags up to the room & into lockers then decided to explore. The water was close but difficult to get to. The winding streets have so many dead ends and train tracks to cross it is almost impossible. We
finally made it to the dock with the help of the cutest old Italian man. He only spoke Italian but got us where we needed to go. The waterfront in Napoli is not so impressive, I think Sorrento will be better.
Both Tessa and I started to get hungry and decided to find a place to eat pizza. Napoli is where pizza originated. There was a quint little place just off an alley that we stumbled upon. Nobody spoke English but we knew just what we wanted. I ordered a liter of water (acqua) and a Diavola pizza (salami, cheese, basil). The whole meal cost me only 7 euro. The pizza was huge, about 13" across, and I ate the whole thing!!! Next stop, gelato. We noticed a little shop in the town center so we decided to give it a try. A small gelato should have only cost 1.30 euro, the lady tried to charge us each twice that. We quickly corrected her & didn't get ripped off. We headed back to the hostel with a very successful day under our belts.
As we settled in to the common room to watch Braveheart there was a ruckus outside. First noise then flashes of light, Fireworks! We all ran outside to see what the commotion was. Once the fireworks subdued there was a band playing and a funeral procession. It was a sight to see. The people were all dressed in black following a car around the circle as the band was playing on the church steps. I am retiring to my bed for the night. Tomorrow, who knows what will happen in Italy!?
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