Saturday morning came very early. I didn't sleep well Friday night and Kat had been out late with friends. We were up and out the door by 7:15 and made it to the train station by 8:06! Perfect timing for our 8:30 train to Napoli. Sara had a little more trouble getting to the station but still made it in time for a coffee at the bar. At 8:30 we hopped on our train and headed South. We stopped at the Termini station for a very very long time, then proceeded to go backwards. We apparently got on the wrong train and it took us right back to Ostiense where we started. Oy! So we got off and checked the board for the next train to Napoli. We ended up taking a train that was 2 hours later than our original but that was ok because getting to Naples by 1pm still gave us plenty of time. This was my first time on a train as far as I can recall and I am impressed with them. Simple, comfy, and they get you from point A to point B.
In Napoli the first thing we did was go to the information booth to get a map. Of course they didn't have any. They had just run out of maps but we could examine the poster/map on the wall and get our bearings. Thankfully just outside the station are tons of hotels and I popped in one and asked for a map which the nice Italian behind the desk gave me. So far the "scary dirty dangerous" city was extremely friendly! A couple confusing moments later Sara, Kat and I were headed off to the Duomo and Museo di San Gennaro to meet up with Sara's roommates who had caught an earlier train. When we met up our first task was to eat some lunch because we were starving! Sara's roommates had already eaten so they went to find locations from Breakfast at Tiffany's instead and we found the best little pizzeria! We found a space to sit down, they had tons of choices of pizza ranging from 4-8 euro (very inexpensive for the enormous size of each pizza) and brought our food out within 5 minutes of ordering. It was incredible! I had the artichoke heart pizza which won out as the best selection! Neapolitan crusts are more bread-like than Roman and I enjoyed the change of pace (but my heart still lies with Roman crusts). Lunch was great!!
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| Pizza! |
After lunch we walked right next door where the Sotterranea tours started. We tried to check out the price for a tour of underground Napoli but couldn't find an easy way to go on a tour. They took about 2 hours and there were other ways we wanted to spend our one day in Napoli. While we waiting though we got an amusing show, there were two little dogs fighting over a potted plant. One would urinate and then the other would sniff and urinate over it and then the first would go back, etc. This went on and on and on and everyone was laughing at the spectacle. After lunch we just wandered the streets looking at pizzerias and gift shops and lots of jewelry stores! We found a little nook of a shop on some random side street that had a great collection of earrings and wooden carvings. Kat bought a pair for 3 euro which is a good deal for how nice they are! We ran across Santa Chiara on our way down to the port and took a peek inside as far as the ticket counter. It is a beautiful church complex which according to the signs had a museum. The price to get in was a little steep considering we didn't know what we would be getting for it, but the garden area we could see from outside was just as breathtaking as the enormous building itself.
Continuing down the hill we finally reach the port! Sadly no matter how hard we tried we couldn't get very close to the water for a good picture, the cruise ships were in the way! It started to sprinkle on us so we stopped into a cafe and got a coke while admiring the view of Napoli and chatting among ourselves. After a while we wandered towards the Castel Nuovo which punctures the modern facade of Naples. It was strange seeing these two or three great stone structures rooted into the ground with modern hotels and skyscrapers around them! Rome and Naples have very different appearances. We started the climb back uphill on the opposite side of town from the train station peeking into stores and shops along the way. I bought a nice Christmas gift for a relative.
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| Sara and Kat taming their hair in the breeze |
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| Kat and I at the port |
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| Random small old closed church by the port |
We wound our way up to Piazza del Gesu where the Gesu Novo church is located. I sort of tricked Sara and Kat into this direction and then nudged them towards the decision of going inside. I would love to go to Napoli sometime and have the time and money to see every museum and Herculaneum, but that isn't possible right now so I wanted to get my fill of churches at least!! Gesu is a very Baroque church but so elaborate. I can not get over the intricate marble carvings!! The outside of the church looks a little goofy because the building used to be a palace and then never changed the front, but I like the contrast between the simple ordered outside and crazy gaudy inside. We spent a good 20 minutes or more in this church taking a short break from walking, or in my case admiring every nook and cranny. There were no pictures allowed inside so I pulled quite a few from the internet but to see every interesting feature there are many that look similar. Please put up with my detail orientated posts :)
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My favorite statue in the entire church!
Check out the veins on her arms!!!!!
Two walls of a chapel were COVERED with small angelic figures in gold and under-lit, overpowering |
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| The naive |
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| The exteria |
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| Facing the exit |
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| Looking up at the dome! |
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| Elaborate chapel |
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The Virgin has a light up halo of stars
Reminded me of Lady Liberty
Also note she is standing on a sphere of lapislazuli! |
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The organ pipes were above the entrances to the side chapels
and had beautiful green and yellow marble |
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| This gives a better idea of the aisles and size of the church |
After Gesu we were all feeling a little wiped out and decided to stroll back in the direction of the train station. We checked out some more stores and I bought a little something something plus a gift for mia cugina. We got turned around on our walk and stopped in a bar for ask the nice man for directions. He was very very very kind and showed us on the map where we were and gave us directions down to the station. Such a sweetheart, once again disproving the bad rep for Napoli. We walked to the station and checked train times, finding a couple earlier than our 9pm departure. We found a restaurant close to the station to sit down for dinner, but because we were all still stuffed from our delicious lunch we decided to split one pizza between the three of us. We got the eggplant pizza and it was incredible. The Neapolitans really win you over with the simpler pizzas. We looked into two more jewelry stores walking back to the station before catching a train at 8:20.
Since it wasn't our original train, when the man checked our tickets we had a little bit of explaining. Even though he wasn't pleased with us nothing came of the conversation and we all went back to napping or, in my nerdy case, listening to Freakonomics podcasts and playing solitaire on my ipod. At Termini Sara caught her bus home and Kat and I grabbed the 40. On the bus ride home we overheard a couple with heavy Southern accents sounding lost, so Kat and I tried our best to help them but they obviously didn't know anything about the bus system or where their hotel was. We did our best but we were tired, so I hope they made it back safely. Once we got off the bus we were almost immediately approached by two (German?) gentlemen who were asking for more directions from us. Thankfully they had a very simple problem... but didn't seem to believe our directions. "Go down the street on this side and you will see signs that say BUS STOP. It takes only 2 minutes or less." They seemed so confused. Oh well, again I hope they made it safely.
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