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Published: August 29th 2008
The city of Naples’ name comes from the ancient Greek name, Neopolitana, or “New City”. This new city is about 3000 years old. Chelsea and I have spent 2 wonderful days with Rosario Palumbo, and his wife Rosa. Rosario is the cousin of my Grandma Evie’s brother’s wife, Ersilia. He and his wife are wonderful hosts and tour guides and have made the last 2 days for Chelsea and I very fun, interesting, and relaxing.
Our first day started with a 3 hour tour of Pompei, destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. It is an amazing intact Roman city, with streets, buildings, shops, a town square, houses of worship, 2 theaters, and much more. We were fascinated by how you could really get a feeling for ancient Roman life through exploring these ruins.
After a great home cooked lunch and a siesta, the four of us hit the town. Rosario showed us the main core of Naples, the Piazza (town square) the marina, and many other sites. We had a late, great dinner of delicious (even if the place was touristy) real pizza. The restaurant was positioned at a marina with a very old castle on one side,
and gently floating boats on the other. Very romantic!
Today we explored the Archeological Museum that houses all of the artifacts recovered from Pompei. There were statues, frescoes, mosaics, pottery, glassware, and all sorts of household items. It definitely helped to complete the picture of life in ancient Rome.
After the museum Rosario and Rosa met us for a walking tour or old Naples, or Spacanapoli (spelling?). This is the area of town that my great aunt Ersilia is from, and where my great uncle Norman met her when he was supposed to be fighting WWII. I guess I shouldn’t tease him too much though, if it wasn’t for him romancing Ersilia I would have nobody to stay with in Naples! The old town was very intense, very narrow streets with Vespas shooting by at high speed, Italians yelling at each other from across the street, and a reputation for aggressive pickpockets. We survived though, and have the great pictures to prove it!
Our tour of old Naples concluded with authentic, non-touristy, Neapolitan pizza! It was sooooo goooood! I had the traditional Margarita with marinara, mozzarella, and basil, while Chelsea had the traditional Marinara, with sauce and
garlic. The crust was so good, and we had a Peroni beer to go with it, so I was in heaven!
Back in the car after lunch Rosario drove us around to as many interesting and picturesque sights he could in the time we had left. We saw many beautiful panorama views from mountains, and he took us to a sleeping, but still gurgling volcano. He bought our tickets and we walked right into the crater! We saw mud bubbling at over 300 degrees! There were steam vents all over, mostly small ones but 1 very large one. They spew sulfuric steam and leave yellow residue on the rocks nearby. The Romans and Greeks both used the place for worshipping their gods and building steam saunas.
After the volcano we cooled down at Rosario’s and Rosa’s county club. It was a great place with pools, tennis, a bar and restaurant, camping, etc. We enjoyed some mint flavored granitas and relaxed by the pool. A few more picturesque stops later and we were back home in their condo in Naples.
Now we are packing and getting ready for Tunisia! We are both not sure what to expect from
the 25 hour ferry ride, or from the country itself. There is so much to see, Roman ruins, the Mediterranean beaches, and of course the Sahara desert. We have no idea if we will have internet access, so this may be the last post till we get home. If it is, we love you all and can’t wait to share more of our adventures with you, and hear about your lives and what we have missed in the last 2 months.
Bye bye!
Chelsea and David
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edmonds mom
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Be safe waiting for that ferry and try to ride a camel for us in Tunisa. (Look out though. We hear camels spit!) We love you!