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Published: June 29th 2017
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Geo: 40.84, 14.2529
People say Napoli is one of the worlds prettiest cities. It not. In fact, its probably not in the prettiest 723,576. By third world standards, it might come in as average. Its dirty, really dirty. Buildings are in disrepair, stained, and delapitated really. It lacks class, real culture and credibility in my opinion. Parts of it are poor, and that's one thing, but others just seem lazy or careless, like they couldn't be bothered using bins, and just chucked the remainder of their half eaten pizza slice at the wall. Theres more garbage strewn about than grass here.
Our objective and ultimate destination for the day was the ruins of the Roman City Pompeii, laid waste by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, some thousands of years ago. We got there, but not before a couple of disappointing stops on the way. First the tourist factory, or crap factory, or sucker emporium or cash collection office. Call it what you will, it consisted of ordinary looking jewelery for sale at exuberent prices. The goods here were 'Traditional Italian' shells, imported from Central America. Before even seeing the price, it didn't seem an impressive quality. Then, I note you could be a
animal figure the size of your thumb for €850. Tempting, but not really. Every bus from the cruise was forced to stop here. Ugh.
Eventually when we escaped that place, we headed towards Mount Vesuvius, an active volcano. It sounded exciting! Not really. It took a good hour to make the slow winding bus drive up its dusty slopes. What an eyesore. Arid, dusty, poorly maintained roads, decorated with unimpressive artwork, some plastered in graffiti. There must have been 50 dwellings, hotels, cafes and restaurants here. Of those, 30 must have been completely delapitated and out of business, rooves collapsed, garbage ridden, broken furniture strewn about. Another 10 were half way there. At a restaurant, the front windows were broken, and there was a couch hanging out one, with garbage and possible excrement on the front steps whilst a woman casually swept the patio? The other 10 were barely in working order but didn't make you want to stop. At the top, there was a half hour hike to the summit with 'guided tour'. This involved a boring steep climb with view of barren mountainside and dirty city below. The 'guide' met us at the top, made us wait 10 minutes,
walked 20 metres, sat, and rambled for 5 minutes. You could see into the main crater at the top which was ok. There, a souvenir store selling junk, whilst a guy shouted, 'wine?caffe?food?' translating to 'I want your money. Give me and take my garbage.' Of course he succeeded with many suckers. Not us though.
Back on the bus, and finally on our way to Pompeii. We were late, so we missed our proposed lunch stop. Instead we had snacks at a cheap dirty market. Our tour of Pompeii was absolutely excellent. Probably one of the best and most fascinating Roman ruins Ive ever seen. It was a large city, still not completely excavated, a third remaining untouched, hidden beneath the earth. The city is largely as it was at the time it was destroyed by the volcanic eruption 2000 years ago. It was like travelling back in time. Original store signs can be seen, original paintwork on homes, graffiti scratched in the walls, art and beds of a brothel, columns, monuments, baths, laundry rooms, wine bars and most amazingly, human remains. Bones, and complete body casts that outline the position, action, clothing and even facial expression of Pompeii residents when
they died.
Before re boarding the ship, Nat and I ventured into Napoli to find and sample their legendary local pizza. Story has it, Naples invented pizza and its supposed to be the best. It was pretty good, but not jaw dropping, and of course the friendly restaurant owner even ripped us off a little (even considering service charge).
Back on the boat we hit the gym before dinner. Ah Italy, exactly how I remember it.
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