Pizza and Pompei

Trip Start Nov 15, 2004

Trip End Nov 10, 2005

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Flag of Italy Naples, Italy
Sunday, October 2, 2005

We trained it to Naples, the birthplace of pizza. Not quite what you'd expect, sometimes just mozarella and basil, but always delicious. We were warned to be careful in Naples (not of the pizza, of thieves) but found it quite a cool little city with a great vibe. It is though, the traditional home of the Mafia with plenty of people selling (seemingly) stolen goods on the streets and a strange lack (almost complete absence) of police. The city has numerous beautiful churches and is situated on the bay of Naples and shadowed by the volcano Vesuivius, which is famous for the massive eruption in 79 AD that buried Pompei.

We took a day trip to Pompei and were quite amazed. The town has been virtually frozen in time and complete villas, restuarants, public baths and theatres still remain. Many of the walls still show intricately painted frescoes and mosaics, and the plaster casts of the volcano's victims provide a chilling reminder of how sudden and devastating it really was.

We stayed only two days and then went to the other side of Italy, Bari and boarded a ferry to Greece.

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