Pompeii & Napoli
Trip Start
Jul 09, 2007
1
17
18
Trip End
Jul 31, 2007
Napoli, Italy
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Between our late hotel departure, the hydrofoil ride, and the long drive from Sorrento to Pompeii, we arrived right before it closed. We spent a very rushed couple hours touring a small part of the remarkably well preserved city. It's not as well preserved in detail as Herculaneum, but - in scope - wow - Pompeii is HUGE and much more of it has been excavated. We wandered the same streets that ancient Romans did in 79 AD. One thing that was remarkable was the engineering thought that went into the city.
For example, since the roads would have been pretty dirty - what with horses and such - they built elevated cross walks across the street that were made up of individual stepping stones. Carts could still roll through the streets through the space between stepping stones, yet the citizens could cross the streets without soiling their togas. After touring Pompeii for as long as they would let us (and we could have stayed much longer) we drove on to Napoli.
Now, by this time, we'd been driving in Italy for a few weeks. The agressive driving, scooters zipping between lanes, and narrow roads take a little getting used to, but - since Sid drives pretty agressively to begin with, there were generally no problems (except for occasionally getting lost). However, nothing can prepare you for the chaos that is driving in Napoli. We saw a woman on the back of a scooter holding onto her boyfriend with one hand and using her other arm to hold her daughter OFF THE SIDE of the scooter (kid's legs hanging in mid air within a loose shoelace of having her feet caught in the rear wheelspokes) - all while the scooter weaved quickly in and out of traffic. No helmets. Amazing (and not in a good way).
After some difficulty finding our hotel (what else is new?), we wandered the streets and stumbled upon a castle where they were having a performance of some sort in the castle courtyard. Of course you needed to buy tickets for the event. But, despite asking the ticket window what was going on, we couldn't understand what the event actually was as they spoke no English. Apparently, the ticket window was amused by our non-Italian speaking curiousity and ended up letting us in for free. The entire performance - a musical play of some sort - was in Italian and we had NO IDEA what was going on. Since we were clueless and hungry, we thanked the ticket window and ducked out at intermission for dinner. We ended up going to one of the oldest Pizzerias in the world - Pizzeria Brandi. It was established in 1780 and is where the "Pizza Margherita" was invented. In 1889, the pizzeria's owner baked three different pizzas for the visit of King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Savoy. The Queen's favorite was a pizza evoking the colors of the Italian flag - green (basil leaves), white (mozzarella), and red (tomatoes). This combination was named Pizza Margherita in her honor. It was Yummy.
The next morning, we ate breakfast and went where all roads in Italy lead....Rome.
