Napoli

We are up and going today! We walked down to the main square and took the bus down to the harbor where we get on a jetboat for Nables. It's a 40 minute ride in relative quiet before being thrown out into the streets of Naples. After visiting there last year, we generally tell others that it is the armpit of Italy (if not Europe)! Even in our tour book for Italy, it only provides two sights to visit in Naples. And the author says don't even bother staying the night there. Sorrento is so easy to get to you should go there!

We decided on a cab to get to the Archeological Museum--Rick Steves says it should only be about 5 Euros. So we hopped in and the young man doesn't seem to know where it is. He asks a few other cabbies and then we show him the map in our book-"ohhhh, OK", he says. So we plunge into traffic and after about 20 minutes, he says we're there. So the fare is 7.80 and I hand him a ten. "No change", he says. Rightttttttttt. So he drives us a little closer and I give him a ten.

It is said that this museum has more artifacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum than Pompeii and Herculaneum! The ruling King of wherever wanted all the best pieces in his palace. So when the excavation began 300 years ago, most of the good stuff was taken from the sites. It is now housed in the museum. Many items were ruined as they removed them which is sad in itself. They survived the volcano but didn't survive greedy men.

There are lots of statues and things that survived. But one of the best exhibits was the mosiacs. These were normally floors and we saw lots of them at the sites when we visited them, but they had some of the best on display in the museum. Some of them were so fine and detailed, it was amazing. When there were doing general colors the tiles would be little larger--about a quarter inch square. Around fine details, the tiles were very small--maybe one eigth of an inch. You had to look closely with glasses on to see these tiny tiles. It was so incredible. The largest ,"Alexander the Great" ,was large enough to fill a living room wall and was in perfect condition. But in their haste to remove it, they knocked quite a few of the tiles off.

There were vases, glass pitchers, jewelry and other items on display. It isn't a well known museum so many tourists don't frequent it. It was worth the trip over there, but now that we have seen it we don't need to visit Naples again.

We walked down to the port, about a mile and a half through Napoli traffic which is every man or woman for themselves! We made it to the port in time for the 3:00 boat, and left Naples for the calm and quiet Sorrento.

We are leaving here tomorrow and will travel south to a small Amalfi town called Minori. We aren't sure of what accomadtions will greet us, and if we have internet or not. We do know that there are 120 stairs to our apartment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great.

FYI: Many British visit Sorrento. I asked why and they said it is a cheap vacation from London for them. The best I could equate it too is........ well I was going to say Mexico but there is no equivalent. Print this post