Naples Day 1

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This morning I took the fast train from Rome to Naples. It really is fast, too. For awhile we paralleled the highway and we were zipping past traffic on the autostrada at a great rate (see picture). I arrived at Napoli Centrale train station and caught the Metro, ie subway, to the archeological museum. This museum contains all the art works that have been recovered from Pompeii and it also contains a large collection of sculpture that was excavated from the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. The latter is quite remarkable and would fit into an art museum anywhere (see picture). The former has a narrower fan base, but since I will be seeing Pompeii in person tomorrow, I count myself among those interested in the Pompeian frescoes, statues, and mosaics (see picture). After viewing the offerings at the museum, I walked to my hotel. I opted to keep my hotel room in Rome and left most of my clothes, etc there. I took an overnight bag (actually a backpack) to Naples and that worked out well - traveling light, you understand. I followed Rick Steves' recommended walk through Naples on my way to get dinner (see picture). Naples is my least favorite Italian city so far. It has a gritty, in-your-face urbanism that Rick finds intriguing and I find off-putting. Despite the supposedly high crime rate, I never felt unsafe in Naples, but I never found anything charming about it. OTOH, Naples is the home of pizza and I did have a very good pizza dinner at a famous restaurant called Da Michele Antica Pizza. A pizza margarita, beer, and liter of water only cost €8 (roughly $9), including tip (see picture). I even got to snap a photo of the the baker in action (see picture).

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