Travel Journal:

European Fun - Pizza Captial of the World


Pizza Captial of the World 2006-07-27
 
Naples is an extremely dirty and hectic city. It has exactly three things going for it: excellent pizza, proximity to Pompeii, and a museum of artifacts found in Pompeii.

Its vehicle and pedestrian traffic is the best example of Naples hectic vibe. It bears quite a resemblance to that of Amsterdam, but is not so pleasant here. In both places one must confidentially, but slowly walk out into the street despite the fast moving vehicles coming at you. In Amsterdam somehow it all just flows like clockwork, and everyone seems in good spirits about the situation. Not so in Naples- its more of an actually reality game of frogger. Vehicles speed up rather than slow down, and what would be bicyclists in Amsterdam are motor-bikers in Naples. Its an aggressive war between vehicles and pedestrians.

The city is dirty enough, with trash and cigarette butts everywhere, construction, and run down buildings, to feel like one huge ghetto. There is apparently a lot of mafia activity here, and over a hundred people were shot in 2004. Plenty of petty crime as well for the tourist to look out for.

At least the museum is quite impressive, with huge sculptures, intricate mosaics, functionally modern silverwares, and dishes, painting, etc. all of which were preserved from the Pompeii site. There was an interesting room called the Secret Room, which exhibits "erotic art" as they call it. I think the mosaics were the most impressive. Many were very large, and made with the smallest chips perhaps 2 or 3 mm across.

Tomorrow we head to the actual Pompeii site where we will see the preserved foundation of the city, the walls, and a stadium.
 
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