Napoli

September 3rd to 6th

We left Rome after a week and took a slow train out of town, saving ourselves one and a half bottles of reasonable red wine. Destination Campania, and in particular Napoli. Most people we know drive straight past this city aiming for the Amalfi coast. We thought we'd avoid that part of Italy, mainly due to the cost, and head instead for the city that was a decent contender for the capital of Italy when formed. Personally I think that would have been good to reduce the power of the Church, but I'm not sure whether the spirit of Naples would be a good one to lead the country. Hal surpassed herself finding a three star hotel with wireless internet for just over our budget price. We settled in, and then headed out to find out what this city was all about.

Let me leave you in no doubt: these people are insane. Simply seeing how they act on the roads was lesson enough. Scooters going everywhere, mostly with two people and rarely with helmets. I wouldn't mind so much if they had some semblence of caution. The streets were also filthy, with rubbish everywhere. Apparently the local mafia control rubbish collection and make a mint by simply dumping it in the countryside. It would seem they weren't feeling like it recently, however it was better than a few months earlier when no collections had been made for weeks, and people were vomitting in the street from the fumes of burning refuse. After roaming the streets and getting ripped off in a bar for a couple of drinks, we settled down for what seemed like a cheap meal that got more expensive. Take note that in some places in Italy they will list prices, then the cover charge per person (coperto), and then may charge a surcharge of 10 to 15 percent. Rude if you ask me, but this seemed common in Naples.

Over the next couple of days, while visiting the nearby ancient sites, we returned to Naples for food, rest and some kind of Napoli punishment. The seafood in general is excellent and we did manage three very good evening meals. We also managed to have excellent pizza at Da Michele while some stunned looking Japanese occupied nearby tables. And we got to walk past the stalls of Piazza Garibaldi (of course), where people constantly tried to sell you computers, mobile phones, clothing and porn. The thing I liked the most was the way the Napolese got so involved in the Three Card trick, with up to three guys working bets of 50 euros a time. Either cards or bells with a pea underneath, the betting was intense for a game that I thought most people knew was a trick.

The city itself is quite impressive. Old stone buildings dominate. The city itself is built up a plateau edge that requires four fenicular railways to climb it, open until seemingly random times. The old town also includes a number of impressive buildings with a Galleria and Theatre older than La Scala in Milan. The Galleria was also impressive at night, as the young lads of the region looked like they were having a fairly intense game of football in it when we wandered through. As mentioned, the streets are chaos, full of stores and fishmongers, and all adjacent to the glittering waters of the Bay of Naples. I would and I wouldn't like to live here. The location, the buildings, and the food are all excellent. If only the people would bugger off.

Herculaneum and Pompeii

September 4th and 5th

Closer to Napoli than Pompeii, this mini version of the latter was covered by volcanic numpty rather than ash at the same time (69 BC from memory, 79 AD from the book - there was also an earthquake in 63 AD). They've uncovered three fifths of the town from what we could work out, most of which is able to be visited. Of course the really impressive bits have been taken to museums, mainly in Napoli, but you get a very good feel of the town. And of course Hal wanted to visit every point in the place. There are some lovely houses throughout and the gentle pace compared to Pompeii gave us ample opportunity to come to grips with the Roman lifestyle through their pieced-together buildings and to waste an exhorbitant number of pixels on photos that we probably won't look at again. It was an interesting experience to be wandering the streets with wheel ruts, stepping stones and lead pipes still in place.

Pompeii is further from Napoli and larger in size. It is actually huge. More than half the town is shut off from visitors but there is a wealth of, again, rich people's houses, bars, shops and streets to wander around. Obviously two of the more popular locations are the ampitheatre, which must have been a bugger to uncover, and the brothel with pictures showing options and prices. There seemed to be an endless stream of Japanese tourists at the latter, but that could have just been a confluence of tour groups. That is one thing with Pompeii, as you would expect oh discerning reader, that the place is crawling with tourists.

Both places are worth visiting. Which is better? Both. I'd recommend visiting one and then the Amalfi Coast for a few days and then the other. The museums in Napoli might also enhance the experience, but after two straight days we opted for a walk in the sun.

Summary

Rating time! So again here are my purely scientifically bogus and mathematically deviated ratings of each town: