Pompeii and Herculaneum: The Cities of the Dead

It was finally time to see what we had come to Naples for. Or what I had come to Naples for. We were there to see dead Romans. I’m not so sure my wife was as interested in dead Romans as I was, but after that day, she was.

Pompeii wasn’t the only city buried by the exploding debris and ash that flooded out of the crater of Mount Vesuvius. There were dozens of villages, though only a few have been excavated and are able to be visited. The crown jewel is of course Pompeii, but the real diamond in the tufa is Herculaneum.

The other major ruin which shouldn’t be missed by history buffs is Cuma, where the Roman Sibyl lived, but this history buff missed it due to not having enough time, Cuma being on the other side of Naples, and my just having a massive brain fart and not realizing Cuma was in effing Naples. I am clearly no oracle.

somebody to watch over me

How to get there

There are two ways to these sites. You can take the L2 metro (metro map here) in the direction of Salerno, which is faster and far more comfortable, but drops you off a little further away both places. Or you can take the Circumvesuviana from the main station in the direction of Sorrento, which is slower, much more rickety, but takes you right practically to the doorstep of both.

seeing my dreams at Pompei

And Circumvesuviana, man, that train is like the New York metro. All the signs are busted, there’s graffiti everywhere, the doors may or may not work, and the announcement voice seemed to have been one or two stops off, when it was working. It’s safe though, so have fun.

Ruins in Italian is “scavi”, and Herculaneum is “Ercolano”, so when you’re looking for the two sites, search for Scavi di Pompei and Scavi di Ercolano.

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Herculaneum

We took the Circumvesuviana and did the 5 minute walk downhill to get to the park. No stress there. At the gates were dudes trying to sell tours. No grazie, I’ve got my own little tour in my cell phone. And was I right! There’s quite a number of app based tours, complete with maps and GPS, that are available for both sites. Download those and save yourself some time and pain. You can skim through what interests you and find the really cool stuff.

view of Vesuvius and Herculaneum

Herculaneum was a small port village for rich people, way back in the day. So there’s huge villa after huge villa, all squeezed together, in what I imagine was a bit of a tourist destination even back then. The walls are all well preserved as are the frescoes on the walls and the mosaics on the floors. There was even preserved furniture, statues, weapons, kitchen supplies, and in several instances, loaves of bread. If you want to get the feeling of how Romans were living in the ancient times, this is the village to visit, as you can walk around inside the houses at your own leisure, take a deep breath of air, and really see yourself there.

taking in the air

preserved statue outside the suburban baths

public water well on the street

The common house had an entrance relaxation room, which was usually with a fountain in the middle and an open space in the roof to let the light in. The bedrooms and the kitchen would have doors from there, unless there was another indoor room for gathering. Even bigger houses would have open gardens lined with covered walks and statues, and the really wealthy would have their own bath (which I think was only the case in Pompeii). The rooms all had mosaic-tile covered floors and brightly painted walls illuminated with mythological scenes.

the middle fountain with an opening above

floor tiles

wall mosaic and frescoes

frescoes

interior fountain/pool

Some houses had their own access to an underground aquifer system, while others people had to send their slaves to fetch water from the public fountains, which were at every corner. There were also a few cafes. A cafe would usually have a small bar area, where there would be jars inset to the surface to store hot foods. In Pompeii, the cafe culture was nearly ridiculous, as just about every other building housed a public cafe.

the holes in the counter would be covered to store hot food

Herculaneum is a small site, so it’s hard to miss stuff, and everywhere you go is something amazing. So just take your time, but just make sure you end up at the boat houses.

Romans were classy people with classy art

The boat houses were once at the beach, but are now some 20 meters from the sea. The villagers had all rushed down there, taking cover from the falling ash and pumice and waves of heat, bringing with them their valuables, hoping that the sea and the subterranean shelter would protect them from the wrath of the gods.

the boathouses, were below that plaza in the back left, then there was the sea

It didn’t.

Now what’s left are skeletons reaching to the back of the boathouses, clearly crying out in terror as the probably the vapors and smoke suffocated many them before the heat shock gave them a quick and final resting place. As this was a late find, they left the skeletons as it were, no longer doing the archeological tradition of plaster casting the bones, as they did in Pompeii.

Pompeii

After a quick lunch in the modern town of Ercolano, we hopped back on the train and went to Pompeii.

Pompeii was a town of 11,000 at the time of eruption, strategically placed underneath an active volcano. To be sure, Vesuvius is still an active volcano, so all those towns around it continue to have amazing strategic placement, and are probably either cash crops or nightmares for insurance companies. It strikes me as exceedingly weird that Naples continues sprawling around the mountain, but then again, on the other side of Naples is another active volcano, so…

the main gates and the suburban baths

The town was first settled in the 7th century BC, and was taken by Rome in the 4th century BC. It’s got well-preserved roads, walls, and statues, a bathhouse, an amphitheater, a coliseum, and dozens of other things you’d see in a major Roman town. To put it short in the words of the esteemed Macklemore, this is freaking awesome.

the volcano Vesuvius looming in the background

While I was getting my groove on to Thrift Shop after entering the ruin complex, my wife was already getting tired of the Roman fun. She did get a short thrill from the skeletons, but all the walking was already starting to wear on her. “It’s all the same.”

“No, that’s the Temple of Apollo! And that’s the Temple of Jupiter! And over there is where they celebrated the cult of the Caesar,” I said as I jumped from one ruin with big columns to another ruin with big columns, like a cricket high on crack.

view in the forum

“And here, in the forum, here’s where a guy would stand and read off the daily news, keeping everyone up to date on what was happening in the Empire. There would also be outdoor markets here, and over in the Temple, you’d have to purchase animals, perhaps right here, to pass over to the priests to slaughter for sacrifice. Actually, did you know, the Ancient Jews really kind of had the same system as the Roman pagans and the Egyptian pagans, and, and, and—” I rattled off like a five year old in a toy store.

looking the other way in the forum

This was directly after leaving the entry hut, which is a must visit. They’ve got a huge map frieze, that lights up as a video shows you what it used to look like and tells you about the location. Even though I had a tour map app on my phone, just watching the video and getting the feel where everything was almost made it unnecessary. Except that the site was freaking huge, so a map really is a must, or you’ll get pretty lost pretty easily.

the big light up map of Pompeii

What were my favorite sites?

First, a map:

As we took the Circumvesuviana, we entered at the stop right next to the site, Pompei Scavi – Villa Dei Misteri. During peak season, I’d suggest buying your tickets in advance with GetYourGuide, and you’d pick up those tickets right at the upstairs of the train station. If you’re not in peak season, it won’t be a big wait, you can go up to the gate and buy your entry there. Again, with the Arte Card, you’ll get the tickets for either free or for half-price. A lot of websites I see claim they only take cash, but that’s an utter load. They gladly take your plastic there too these days. Anyhow, there’s also an ATM there, so if by chance they’re not taking your card, then you can get to the ATM. But I paid by card myself.

the basilica, which was used as a court

After entering the forum, you can continue past it toward the amphitheater, or go down the long way to the houses. You must see the houses. And see them first, because by the time you’ll get to the other side of the town, you’ll be too tired to see anything and want to head back, and of course you won’t want to miss the major sites. Where if you did it with the major sites first, you might be tempted to miss the houses, which you shouldn’t. If that makes any sense.

a random street

The neighborhood is easy to get lost in. It’s well-cobbled street after well-cobbled street, with massive walls and doors all up and down. It was really interesting to see the Roman setup, they had streets for horse carts, which had clearly dug into the stones over the centuries centuries ago, and raised pavements for people to walk, along with huge blocks spaced for the horse carts, but high enough to easily step across from the pavements.

a narrow street , the blocks in the middle were cross walks

inside a house

a shrine to the household gods

The Forum Baths

In the neighborhood, head to the Forum Baths. That’s the first amazing thing to see. The city of Pompeii had at least four public baths, and the Forum Baths, though they weren’t the biggest, are the most well-preserved. After an earthquake a few years before the eruption, they were also the last to be used. The baths served as places to talk business, meet up with friends, and to get clean, obviously.

the locker room

You’d first work up a little sweat in the hot room, and then alternate between the hot pools and the cold pools. The hot pools were kept hot by a system of tiles and fires underneath, which would be stoked by slaves. Not your African American variety here, but often a Gaul, German, or Greek would find their fates down below the pools of Roman men (and women). The bathhouses were separated, women got their own and men got their own, though that wasn’t always the case in all villages everywhere.

a wash basin

the warming room

Many of the larger villas had their own bathhouses, and the water was pumped in by an aqueduct and a clever system of canals and aquifers. Which also meant, most houses often had their own indoor water supply, but where they didn’t, there were public fountains on nearly every corner.

The Hood

It’s hard to say which house was the best in this part. We just kind of aimlessly walked around. I’d read the descriptions on my phone of whichever interested me, and though the houses were interesting, indeed none of them were as well preserved as Herculaneum. I got the most thrill in this area just walking around, imagining myself in ancient days, people dressed in white or red sheets running around about their daily business.

another street and crosswalk

Lupanare

Speaking of their daily business, the Lupanare was the town brothel. It had really tiny rooms with small beds, each room right next to each other, and above the rooms porno murals. Really cool building. It’s kind of weird going into this site, as they’ve tried to design it that you have to enter from a certain direction, that is, from the Forum. This traffic control is because it’s a small building, and I’m guessing the most popular. Because of that, we visited this last.

two stories of love

an item on the brothel menu

Villas

After the hood, we went down a really long street with villas. Most of the villas were pretty largely intact and you could walk through, and many had their own vineyards. It wasn’t bad to be rich back then. Like now, I guess.

a winery (recreation) in the back of a villa

The Amphitheater

This was the biggest attraction. All the really big events would happen here, from major gladiatorial games to Pink Floyd concerts. Yes, Pink Floyd concerts. They played a “show without an audience” there once and filmed the whole thing. Now there’s a kind of Floyd exhibition going on in the halls.

approaching the amphitheater

This arena is also where they’d bring in wild animals and the always crowd-pleasing Christians.

someone would prefer lions to more walking!

The Grand Theater

On the way back, it’s easy to hit the Grand Theater, which also hosted gladiatorial combat, but was mostly used for acting and music concerts. It’s actually still used for that as well, with occasional operas or plays being held there. It’s a pretty massive space, easily holding a couple of thousand of people, and steeply shaped like an IMAX.

gladiators, poets, and thespians all in one show

Just imagine, what took us some 70 years of theater technology to finally innovate, they were doing 2000 years ago.

Temple of Isis

This could be a really cool spot, but it was closed with ongoing excavations, so I guess a reason to go back.

Fun fact

Pompeiians loved dicks. During the various digs, they found little (and big) dick statues everywhere. Neapolitans also like dicks and started a collection of found Pompeiian dicks at the University of Naples. They were apparently a little embarrassed by this dick fetish, so they kept the collection a secret until recently.

what to draw on an ancient wall?

Also what amazed me at Herculaneum was the sheer amount of modern dick graffiti, which just goes to show that it wasn't just the ancient Romans who've got the fetish. From what I could tell by the languages on the walls, it's mostly Russians who love penises.

Plaster casts

At first when they found skeletons in the tufa, they’d carefully try to chip away only a little bit of tufa and then extract the skeletons. After which they’d fill it up with plaster, remove the tufa and voila, you’ve the shape of a person. This is still sometimes practiced, and sometimes it’s just left as a skeleton now—as in Herculaneum. The original skeletons have been carried off to a museum near you.

I see no skeletons!

Stay tuned next week when we head off to the dark underground city far beneath Naples! If you liked this blog, share it with a friend.

#history #ruins #touristicsites #Rome #traveltips

Ischia: An island, a castle, and vampires

We simply walked up and bought a ticket.

Our timing with the mainland castles wasn’t that great, so hopefully it would be better with the off-land castles. We were headed to Ischia.

“I thought you said this would be cheaper,” my wife asked me when we finally settled on the back of the boat.

“I thought it was, at least, the website said it was cheaper,” I replied, staring at my ticket quizzically, trying to take in with my best gander the 18-euro price tag that was on the ticket. That was theoretically almost the there and back price.

Ferries

After a more rigid search on ye ole Google, I found that there are actually two boats that go to Ischia. One was a super-fast hydrofoil, and the other a slow boat. The hydrofoil was set to take 1 hour, while the regular ferry typically took 1.5 hours. Not a big difference, and to be honest, 7 euros wasn’t a big difference in cost either. But it is when you are two people and really trying to stretch your eurocents.

view of Naples from the ferry

There are two main ferry lines (and a bunch of others), and all have an updated schedule here. And though you can buy it online, we had no problem in the off-season buying it when we wanted to go, but the ferries were nearly full even then, so if you’re going on-season, I would highly suggest buying online. The Caremar and Medinar lines are the slow ferries that cost 11 euro 30, and the Alilaura line is high speed and costs 17 euro 60. The slow ferries also take cars for quite a bit more.

It’s important to note that even though we had an Arte Card, which covers all the public mass transit options in Campania, it doesn’t cover any of the ferries, as they’re all private. It weirdly does cover the public buses on Ischia though.

a little further from Naples

The hydrofoil, which we had accidentally gotten on, was something else to ride. I just thought, a fast boat, can’t be that different of a ride. But this thing, though almost as large as the regular ferries, took off at a race car speed and was literally flying over the waves, coming down in great splashes, so that anyone outside could, if the winds were right, get quite wet from the ride. Luckily we had moved inside, as the roaring wind caused by such a speed made it a bit too cold to hang around deck.

Mount Vesuvius looming about in beautiful smog

Ischia

Like the rest of Campania, Ischia exists because of volcanoes. It’s almost 20 square miles of pure mountain madness, centering around Mount Epomeo, which is a giant volcanic horst—in other words, it’s a block pushed up by volcanic activity underneath.

approaching Ischia

Ischia is no stranger to eruptions and earthquakes, and the first Greek settlers there had to abandon it for the mainland and settle Cuma, which was where the main Roman oracle lived. Fun fact—the oracle would get high on volcanic gases in order to mutter things that would be "interpreted" by priests as prophecy. For T.S. Eliot fans, she appears in my favorite poem, “The Waste Land” which opens with a line from the Satyricon (I've translated it from the Latin for you):

I saw with my own eyes the Sibyl of Cumae hanging in a jar, and when the boys asked: What do you want? She responded, I want to die.

What a beautiful island! When we got off, it was already evident that the docks, as most docks are of tiny islands across the globe, was an incredibly lovely place. The gently lapping waves, the salty breeze, and at night it was even more charming. But perhaps it was charming because of the lack of tourists, which was not a bad thing at all. I couldn’t imagine the summer though, it must be a mad house.

a street in Ischia

We started walking towards the castle we had seen, Castle Aragonese, which was the goal of the trip. We passed it on the way, the thing was enormous and perched on a gigantic rock in the sea—not on our island but on its own island!

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We walked through the old town of Ischia—if you’ve more time, check out Sant’Angelo, an old style village wondrously free of cars—but Ischia was not wondrously free of cars. Some areas, the only way to go was a street without pavement, with cars and scooters zipping by.

It was a weird thought to wrap around my head. Such a small island with so many cars!

Ischia did not lack cars

Even weirder was that though we had arrived at a bit after 3:00, the island was, besides all the cars, a ghost town. Nothing was open. None of the shops or cafes. No people about. I get that it wasn’t tourist season, but it was still the weekend. Did people here just not work?

another empty Ischia street

Castello Aragonese

The true highlight of the island. There are several overlooks in Ischia lined with (closed) bars and beaches, looking out to the castle. It must be quite a hopping place in the summer. Quite expensive too, from the looks of it of the (closed) boutique shops.

Castle Aragonese from a nearby beach

The origins of the castle date back to 474 BC, if you can imagine seeing something around from that long ago. As a major strategic site throughout history, it was duly maintained, and in the 15th century, the then ruler connected it to the mainland via the currently standing bridge. At the islands peak, 2000 families were living in the castle, including a Catholic convent, a Greek Orthodox abbey, a bishop and a seminary, 13 churches, a prince and a military garrison. It was quite an active castle, in perhaps the most religious way possible.

The bridge and the castle

When we finally arrived, it was already closed. That castle was my whole purpose of going there! I would have never thought that it would have closed so early, so I was a bit crushed. The official time of closing was “sunset”, which apparently meant different things to different people. Here it meant 4:00 pm in winter.

looking back at the village from the castle

After dark

We sat there in my unhappy gloom, on the bridge, for some time, listening to all birds and the children playing. The bridge seemed to be the favorite hangout for the locals too, where young couples would come out, drink wine, and listen to bad music played off their iPhones. Older men tended to pass their time fishing.

some folk hanging out

We finally decided to get moving and head back to the ferry. As we wandered through the village, we noticed that things were beginning to stir. As the sun went down and the streetlamps came on, shops started turning on their own lights and opening their doors. People started appearing on the streets. Old men appeared at tables, playing chess and smoking, kids playing football, mothers pushing baby strollers. It was a city of veritable vampires!

view of the bridge from the castle

The harbor was now a perfectly romantic place, and we finished the evening with a meal at a restaurant on the second floor of one of the buildings on the boardwalk. I thought it would be super expensive, but a liter of wine and a shrimp spaghetti with homemade noodles for the each of us was only 20 euro. It’s possible it’s only that affordable in the off-season, as I imagine during tourist season they switch menus and make it double. That's just a thought though.

the harbor at night

If we had had some more time, we would have hopped on the bus and seen more of the island, but alas, it wasn't ours to have. We also would have gone to the Castiglione Theme Park, but also couldn't make it for that.

Come back next week as we head out to see the ancient Roman ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Subscribe and don't miss it!

#ischia #islands #castles #churches #touristicsites #history #traveltips

Naples: The City of Broken ATMs

The plane to Naples was short and cheap. As such, you can’t really expect much and should pack your sandwich. This is the eternal rule of budget traveling—always bring your own sandwich. In the airport, it’s always best to never buy a sandwich from a restaurant, those cost some fifteen times the price of a regular sandwich. Luckily in Prague, there is a place called Relay, and also Costa, and they sell prepackaged sandwiches at prepackaged prices. Still probably a bit more than what you should be paying for a soggy piece of bread and some old lettuce, but at least you’re not hungry.

When we got off at Naples, we immediately went to the tourist counter. There supposedly was our transit pass, the Arte Card, would be waiting. The pass for the transit was really quite a deal. 32 euros for three days on any train in Campania, the entry to the first two museums for free, and all the others half off. Not a bad find and for the museum goer, easily pays itself back.

“That job belongs to my colleague,” the guy at the desk explained. “She comes at 9:00.”

“Erm. What time is it now?” I asked.

“8:00.”

A quick glance to my wife. “How much is the bus?”

“5 euro. Over there. You can also get an Arte Card at the train station if you don’t want to wait.”

We left the airport, fumbled out some cash, and made it to the bus. The ride to the main station only took about 15 minutes, and there wasn’t much to see. Just a lot of concrete buildings with balconies, sights that brought me back to the Black Sea riviera. Georgians are often comparing themselves to Italians and here I was beginning to think that maybe the comparison was accurate. Especially as we stepped out at the train station.

“This really does look like the Georgian train station too,” my wife said as we looked around, trying to orient ourselves. From what I remembered of the map, the hotel should be over there, past what appeared to be Little Africa, composed of tables and tables of cheap stuff for sale. The buildings were the color of Italian brand cigarette smoke and the traffic was moving about wildly and with little direction from road signs and paint.

I always knew Italy was a bit annoying on the driving side. So that wasn’t a surprise. Maybe this nagging feeling, this feeling of vague regret at coming here, was only because it was 8 in the morning, we got up at 4, and I played a show the night before. Or maybe it was because this part of Naples was just that ugly.

I shrugged. “I’m sure it’s not all like this. Ah, maybe that desk is open and we can get the card?”

We found the tourist desk at the train station. “That job belongs to my colleague. And they come at 9:00.”

“Erm. What time is it?”

“8:20.”

“Huh.”

We went to find the hotel.

It wasn’t far from the train station, which is to say, it wasn’t far enough from the train station. Two guys were discussing some situation in low tones, standing outside our door, sharing cigarettes. We passed them. The door was metal, there were buzzers on one end, a stack of concrete sacks just inside the door. We had to enter the elevator and pay 10 euro cents to get to the 6th floor. As we slid the coin into the slot, I said, “Dang, you’re right, this really is like Georgia.” I wondered just how many lifts in Naples operated like this, with coin slots.

The hotel at least, the B&B Sweet Sleep, was a pleasant surprise. The man checked us in and offered us breakfast, which was a nice buffet of all sorts of omelettes, muffins, and most importantly, coffee. We then went over and looked at the terrace, which had a really magnificent view of the city, with church domes towering up from the apartment blocks in every direction. I looked at my wife. We both quickly agreed that this would have to be taken advantage of, wine would be had at night up here.

perfect spot for a bottle of wine

“Where’s the jacuzzi?” my wife asked about the advertised bonus in the hotel. We looked at the blue tiled tub with a fountain in the middle of the terrace. I shrugged. “Is it hot?” she asked.

I dipped my fingers in. It was icey. “Yes, it’s scalding. We’ll definitely be sitting in here tonight.”

First order of business then. As our room wouldn’t be ready until afternoon, it was time to get the Arte Card and walk. We could come back to the hotel when it was time to check-in and maybe take a nap to freshen up.

When we went back to the train station, the Arte Card colleague was finally there. We picked up our little paper tickets and followed the instructions of their use.

“You only have to validate it once,” she said. “And it’s good for everything.” She pronounced every single syllable plus one in that comical, musical Italian way. “Ev-er-y-thing-uh”.

It was time to wander around in the generally correct direction and find the street, Via dei Tribunali and then continue on what seemed like a plan of sorts. To walk there, then walk back, check in and have a nap.

Via dei Tribunali

The dei Tribunali is on of the main avenues for the old town, stretching frm Castel Capuano to the Via S. Sebastiano, which then continues, with some twists and turns, into the sea. The area around the Castel Capuano is not so impressive. Mainly more modern looking concrete blocks, though modern in the Neapolitan sense meant about 200 years old. The Castel itself seemed pretty bland and we opted not to go inside.

The Castel is probably the oldest thing in the neighborhood. The castle was built back in the 12th century and once was connected to the city walls, and was built as a palace for the son of the first King of Naples, Roger II of Sicily. Now serving as the first historical monument from the train station, it kind of fails to impress. It only further made us wonder what we were doing there.

“Pompeii,” I reminded my wife. “And pizza.” Yes, pizza was from Naples, we couldn’t forget that.

a wide street in Naples's old town

The via is wide enough to be a comfortable one way road, but it was a two way road, and as the main road in the old town, also was filled with pedestrians. The buildings on either side were five or six storey and served as walls themselves, huge, looming, and dark. Even when there was still plenty of daylight left, it would be dark in the city by just afternoon. But then, I suppose that was by design. We were there in January and it wasn’t at all cold. I couldn’t imagine summer, when those tall buildings with narrow streets served as shade and air conditioning.

Like in all Italian cities, you have to be quick. Those zooming little scooters and smart cars wait for no man and apparently have the complete right of way. If you don’t move fast enough, you will be the target of a string of curses spat off by some young hipster guinea on a Vespa, cigarette hanging out, talking on his smartphone, cursing at you in-between sentences to his mother. “Mama, pauso, hey figlio di puttana, outta my way, cabbage!”

a square on the Tribunali

Pio Monte della Misericordia

We made it to our first sight to see, the Pio Monte della Misericordia. This was when I realized I hadn’t brought a card for my camera. “There must be a shop somewhere that has them, we’ll look later, let’s go in.” 7 euros to enter the church, but we had our little arte card, which made it “free”. I started checking off the euros we had “saved”. As long as we got over 32, we were justified.

On the outside of it, there wasn’t much to see of the church. Squeezed inbetween two buildings on either side, and with only a few steps until you’re on the other side of the road, and of course dodging scooters all the while, you couldn’t really take in the place or know how big it was.

The 17th century chapel was connected to a larger building, which was a Hospital for the Incurables, not a place you wanted to end up in medieval Naples. Now it’s an art museum, famous for Caravaggio’s 7 Works of Mercy hanging over the main altar. On the side is an infinitely more interesting frieze of Caravaggio’s 7 Works of Mercy. If I were Caravaggio, I would be a bit miffed that someone one upped me with my own work.

Caravaggio's 7 Plague Bearers

The brothers who ran the little hospital wanted a fine piece of work to represent what they did. What they got was some real piece of darkness, which looks less like divine works of mercy, and more like people running in fear from plague bearers. But I suppose all art is up for interpretation.

Upstairs was a bit more interesting, full of works by a bunch of really talented guys I’ve never heard of. Walking around was nice itself, because those brothers had some really nice administration offices, with a beautiful view of a little piazza on some lost side of the building. How big was the complex? There was no telling, but it seemed fairly large, and either it was like the TARDIS or many of the buildings around that looked different were actually part of it.

interrupting a bit of a gathering

When we first stepped in, there was some sort of gathering going on. People in suits standing around, along with a smattering of tourists, listening to a person translating French speakers for the Italian audience. Then a person played violin, which made for the perfect ambience.

Less money mo problems

We decided maybe somewhere on this street would be an electronics shop.

We found one. They only took cash. I only had card. But there was an ATM right down the street.

The ATM was broken.

So was the next one we found. And the next. Naples: the City of Broken ATMs.

Finally, after walking down a street with dozens of musical instrument shops, we found a bank. The bank had three ATMs. One was broken. The Italians kept making fun of the broken ATM. I assume, because they were pointing at it, talking, and laughing.

But whatever, I finally had some cash, and we decided on a change of course. Since we were already pretty far from going back to the hotel, we decided to see a few more things in the neighborhood and then head on towards the coast.

We headed over to the much more pedestrian friendly Via San Biagio Dei Librai, which is equally as monument filled as the Via dei Tribunali.

Piazza del Gesu Nuovo

The crown jewel of the piazza of course is the church for which its named. Though on the square itself, one might not even realize they're looking at a church when they're looking at it. It's not that big from the front, and has a weird, flat, unadorned look to it. But again, like so many other buildings along the narrow streets of Naples, it has the TARDIS effect going for it.

the interior is not at all opulent

It got that weird facade since when it was being built, it was originally being built as a palace. But due to corruption charges of the family building it, they had to sell it off at a discounted rate to the Jesuits, who built their church, but used the original facade.

the outside of the church

As soon as you pass through its doors, you pass into an illustrious chamber of gold and celestial heights. Seriously, you can step out of the building, and back in, several times and not even be really sure how the architecture is working there, as the ceiling seems far higher up than what the outside cues you into.

a view of the piazza outside

We ended up taking quite some time. It certainly beat the church down the street with the sign, "Church not for tourists".

Via Toledo

Eventually, our wanderings took us to this pedestrian street packed with high dollar restaurants and dining options. We came to realize that Naples wasn't all dirty walls and falling apart buildings, only the best part was.

don't forget sunglasses in Naples

Here all the fashionistas strut around in-between hooligans and tourists, dodging stoic policemen with heavy duty vehicles and assault rifles. The reality of the refugee and terrorist situation was at full force at this outdoor mall. But the feeling wasn't too oppressive, the policemen smiled and seemed friendly enough, with the occasional tourist snapping a pic with them.

Next to the via Toleda is the Quartier Spagnoli, which is what every tour book says is the heart of residential Naples, with laundry hanging over the streets and scooters going by. That's an utter load, and we didn't really know what we were looking at, so wandered by it. If it is a residential quarter, I can't imagine what the residents feel like seeing yet another guy with a camera walking around taking pictures of their laundry.

past those flags are laundry lines

Interesting story behind it though, it was settled to house the Spanish garrisons in the 16th century. As they were foreigners, they could be cruel and brutal to the local populace without feeling bad. Until recently, it was known as the place to go to for hookers and thugs, but now it's just big for hipsters and tourists looking for "the real Naples".

definitely more "castle" than most

From there, we went down to Castel Nuovo, a 13th century castle that basically is the epitome of what every American thinks of when they hear the word "castle". I was excited to take the tour of the interior, where they explain the defenses of the castle, but we were stopped by a police in dress uniform saying, "No enter." And he pointed to some nicely dressed people coming out. Oh, there must be a delegation.

there was a draw bridge there

We waited. And waited. And waited.

Finally, I asked, "Is it going to be open at all today?"

"No, no open todaya," he said.

"Oh," I said.

So we left and got on a boat instead.

Tune back in next week when we see some castles and discover a seemingly abandoned island.

#history #churches #touristicsites #hotels #traveltips