The train ride to Naples(Napoli) was nice. It included the usual vineyards and wineries but also had some picturesque waterfront towns. It was a comforting feeling to see the ocean, as we had been landlocked for close to a month.
We arrived in Naples and it was quite dirty, I heard somewhere that the garbage picker-uppers went on strike a while ago and it is pretty evident when you walk around a bit. Okay it wasn't REALLY dirty, but it was comparable to some places in Asia. I think it was just a big shock coming from Rome, Florence and Venice, especially the latter two. We ate dinner at a little sidewalk restaurant and ironically enough, the dishes were dirty. It was a good dinner though, I had a tasty pasta with olives, capers and tomato sauce.
The next morning we headed out to the train station at 8am to get on the train to Pompeii. Once we arrived we bought a book for navigation and info, before getting tickets and entering the site. Wow! Pompeii was amazing, one of the coolest things I have seen! Pompeii was a thriving Ancient Roman city, that got coved in volcanic ash, in 79AD. The ash did a very good job of preserving the city, because 2000 years later there is still very clear evidence of civilization. Like I said the city was completely buried by ash, so in 1741 they slowly but surely started to uncover the lost city. Still to this very day there are many big restoration projects underway. We wandered around the ruin for about 3 hours, peeking into houses, temples and public buildings. Some areas contained incredibly intact floor mosaics and wall frescos. We went and saw the huge amphitheatre which was used for a similar purpose as the Colosseum in Rome. It wasn't as big or complex as the Colosseum, but it was looking pretty good, considering it survived a volcano erupting on top of it. And it could sit an audience of around 20,000. The most moving part of the whole site were without a doubt the bodies. They made some sort of plaster mould around the buried skeletons where the flesh used to be and then pulled them out of the rock and ash. The bodies were all making gestures that they were covering their faces from the falling ash. It was kinda eerie seeing the bodies on display. After a great time in Pompeii, we went to go have lunch and a birthday gelato. Haha, ooops I forgot to mention that it was my birthday! I'm 14 now! We then hopped on the train back to Naples.
That evening after we were rested up, we headed down to the waterfront to check it out. Wow, is all I have to say! It was honestly like a totally different city. It was all clean and there was a nice walkway and a pedestrian area and a harbour and a castle...I could just keep going on and on. All in all it was gorgeous and a great place to spend the evening. We went up the castle/fort thing and got a great view of the surrounding area. Once our appetites were getting big we sat down at an atmospheric sidewalk restaurant called Regina Margherita. We had a big plate of mixed cheeses to share and my dad and I split a seafood pasta and a pizza with buffalo mozzarella. While my mom had a pasta with tomato sauce. We also ordered some wine and I got a bit because it was my birthday. The wine and cheese tasted absolutely supreme together, an unrivalled combo that's for sure. The dinner was spectacular and huge, we had to bring half of the pizza and some cheese back to the hotel with us. The location of the restaurant was great, it was fun to watch all the people walk, run and bicycle by and the view of the castle/fort and harbour were nice. We hauled ourselves back to the hotel stuffed and happy. I had a great day, I couldn't have asked for a more special birthday.
The next morning we woke up still full from dinner and got on the bus to the airport. Unfortunately our flight to Munich was delayed by an hour and a half so we had a lot of waiting.
The next morning we headed out to the train station at 8am to get on the train to Pompeii. Once we arrived we bought a book for navigation and info, before getting tickets and entering the site. Wow! Pompeii was amazing, one of the coolest things I have seen! Pompeii was a thriving Ancient Roman city, that got coved in volcanic ash, in 79AD. The ash did a very good job of preserving the city, because 2000 years later there is still very clear evidence of civilization. Like I said the city was completely buried by ash, so in 1741 they slowly but surely started to uncover the lost city. Still to this very day there are many big restoration projects underway. We wandered around the ruin for about 3 hours, peeking into houses, temples and public buildings. Some areas contained incredibly intact floor mosaics and wall frescos. We went and saw the huge amphitheatre which was used for a similar purpose as the Colosseum in Rome. It wasn't as big or complex as the Colosseum, but it was looking pretty good, considering it survived a volcano erupting on top of it. And it could sit an audience of around 20,000. The most moving part of the whole site were without a doubt the bodies. They made some sort of plaster mould around the buried skeletons where the flesh used to be and then pulled them out of the rock and ash. The bodies were all making gestures that they were covering their faces from the falling ash. It was kinda eerie seeing the bodies on display. After a great time in Pompeii, we went to go have lunch and a birthday gelato. Haha, ooops I forgot to mention that it was my birthday! I'm 14 now! We then hopped on the train back to Naples.
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