Aug 27 MON – Napoli – Day 2 [… in progress …]

[…in progress…]

We left our hotel after 11AM.  We walk down using narrow stairway, and later – a narrow street.  People’s living rooms and windows are opening directly into the street. While walking you are a witness to people’s lives, and they do not mind it. We ate our breakfast at a place that let us use their restroom yesterday on Via Foria (Caffetteria Vittoria – Via Foria, 64 – 11:35 – €11.50).

Naples main attraction is its Museo Archeologico Nazionale, where all the spoils from Pompeii are stored.  We bought tickets (2×8=€16 cash) to the Museo at 12 noon.  At information desk we got some bleak copies of the museum map, some small reservation ticket for frescoes section, and got a warning that secret Gabineto (Secret room) and certain frescoes rooms would be closing as 12:30.  We only made it to the secret “Erotic” room.  Although itms in this room where hidden from visitios for many years, there is nothing especially erotic about them.  At exactly 12:22 they turned off the lights and kicked everybody out.  We found frescoes rooms adjacent to exhibition room 75 already locked.

What is amazing (and visible) in this particular museum (but most likely true in all other historical museums in Italy) is that there is not enough space for all the statues, and bath tabs, and columns, and vases, and especially for various ancient building blocks.  Some, they manage to squeeze under the roof, but lots are still scattered on the ground in the museum yard.  Nothing identified, completely orphaned, and will be lost in a few more hundred years as stone garbage. There is just too much of civilization remains after 2,500 years of history.

First time we left the Museo at 14:00.  We walked through Via Toledo to Santa Lucia area through a huge Piazza Plebiscite – largest in Italy.  We ate our lunch around 15:30 with a view to Vesuvius from Via Nazario Sauro at restaurant Penelope (Via Palepoli, 26/34 – 15:39 – €18).

On the way back we even bought me a cap with Italian national colors for €4 near the Spanish castle (Castle Nuovo).  We also notice the designated parking place for all the trucks that clean the streets and collect the trash – the famous Napolitano trash.  The company is called – NaPulita.  This is a combination of words Napoli – Naples and Pulita – to clean in Italian.  According to travel guides, this company is controlled by locals, and is used as powerful tool to tip the balance in decision making.  But I can’t find anything about this company on the web.

On the way back to Museo area we visited a brightly lighted Galleria Umberto I (shopping gallery similar to that one in Milan), who is the second king of new modern Italy.  Here we ordered 2 freshly squeezed OJ(s), but no one from the staff was in a hurry to execute the order.  It is much easier to deliver a €0.90 coffee shots.

Second time we entered Museo around 17:15 and got a new frescoes reservation for 18:30.  However we still did not see the rooms that closed at 12:30.  But this time, we paid attention to the mosaics from Pompeii.  They are fantastic.  They are so refined and detailed.  From the distance, they look more like brightly colored fantastic rugs (is there such word – “gabelens” – meaning expensive rugs), then mosaics.  And many has a purely decorative and esthetic motive, but not religious at all.

Around 18:30 started back.  We began climbing back up to our hotel and even bought a quarter of a watermelon (€1.80) in one of the tiny shops on Via Giuseppe Piazzi, 46 (19:00). At the hotel, I grabbed our free hour of free Internet (19:53) and made them write us a note that it is actually free (to confront hostile morning-shift people at the checkout time, who told us that there is no such thing as free Internet in their hotel). It was indicated as €5 charge, and the free part was not mentioned in any of the brochures.  Little they knew that we would arm ourselves with a written free notice from friendly night shift people.  And it worked!

We ate in the hotel restaurant, found a €1 error in the bill (22:09 – €27.50).  We did not charge on the room and paid on the spot, not to complicate tomorrow tough fight with frond desk ladies.  And life was full of pleasant travel surprises, and tomorrow we were heading toward resorts of Sorrento and Capri and Amalfi Coast.

Navigate through the List

1. Italy 2012 August - Roma, Firenze, Napoli and between (2023/11/24)
2. Aug 10-11 FRI-SAT - A two-day flight to Rome (2023/11/28)
3. Aug 12 SUN - First steps in Rome - Pantheon (2023/12/04)
4. Aug 13 MON - Vatican (2023/12/08)
5. Aug 14 TUE - Colosseum (2023/12/12)
6. Aug 15 WED - Getting the car - Starting North - Viterbo (2023/12/16)
7. Aug 16 THU - Bagnoregio in Lazio, Orvieto in Umbria (2023/12/20)
8. Aug 17 FRI - Orvieto - Montepulciano - Siena (2023/12/24)
9. Aug 18 SAT - Siena - Villa Galileo - Firenze - Day 1 (2023/12/28)
10. Aug 19 SUN - Firenze - Day 2 - Uffizi Gallery (2024/01/04)
11. Aug 20 MON - Firenze (Day 3) - Collodi (2024/01/08)
12. Aug 21 TUE - From Pescia to Lucca (2024/01/12)
13. Aug 22 WED - Lucca (Toscana) - La Spezia (Liguria) (2024/01/16)
14. Aug 23 THU - Cinque Terra [... in progress ...] (2024/01/20)
15. Aug 24 FRI - Torre del Lago Puccini - Pisa and Agriturismo (2024/01/24)
16. Aug 25 SAT - Agriturismo in Pitigliano [... in progress ...] (2024/01/28)
17. Aug 26 SUN - Road to Napoli [... in progress ...] (2024/02/04)
18. Aug 27 MON - Napoli - Day 2 [... in progress ...] (2024/02/08)
19. Aug 28 TUE - From focused Napoli to heavenly Sorrento (2024/02/12)
20. Aug 29 WED - Capri - Day 1 [... in progress ...] (2024/02/16)
21. Aug 30 THU - Capri - Day 2 [... in progress ...] (2024/02/20)
22. Aug 31 FRI - La Dolce Far Niente [... in progress ...] (2024/02/24)
23. Sep 1 SAT - Mount Vesuvius [... in progress ...] (2024/02/28)
24. Sep 2 SUN - Last day in Rome [... in progress ...] (2024/03/04)
25. Sep 3 MON - From Rome back to Boston (2024/03/08)
26. Italy 2012 - Final Summary - Rules to Adopt and Follow <br> (2024/03/12)