Monday, November 19th: We woke up early, ate breakfast, and then took the shuttle to the airport. For whatever reason, we waited in so many lines for a painfully long time, from the check-in counter all the way to the doors separating us from the tarmac. After a fairly quick 2 hour flight, we landed in Rome, took the bus into the main train station and bought tickets for the train to Naples. After boarding what we had deciphered was the right train/platform and eating our lunch of McDonald's, we panicked when an announcement was made that the train was departing for Milan. We hurried our butts back onto the platform and then to the ticket kiosk to see if we could fix our mistake. They simply exchanged our tickets for a train an hour later, and that was that. We were sure to ask a few people where the train was going before we boarded what we thought was our next train to Naples. We weren't about to make the same mistake twice. We finally arrived in rainy, overcast Naples around 5pm and took a taxi just outside of town to the Navy base, where we were staying. We decided to just call it a day and ate Subway (ugh) in our room. Considering the weather and that it gets extremely dark by 6pm, we figured we weren't missing out on much.
Tuesday, November 20th: We started off the morning by catching a bus into town and then riding the city sightseeing bus. We love those things. We fit in a pasta and wine lunch between two different routes/buses, and then walked to the National Archaeological Museum. We were totally bummed when we arrived and discovered they are closed on Tuesdays. We finished up the afternoon by meandering through the city. Around 4pm we decided to take the bus back to base and take a break in our room before going back out later that night for dinner. We had read that a place called Da Michele was the supposed to be the best pizza in Naples, and quite possibly the world, and were prepared to wait an hour or two before being seated. However, given that we were traveling during a very low season, we didn't have to wait at all and had hot pizza sitting in front of us within 10 minutes of sitting down. And boy, was it delicious! They only serve two kinds of pizza, margherita and marinara, and a few bottled drinks. And it was cheap! Two pizzas and a huge bottle of water was 11 euros for us. Just for comparison, we are used to paying about 30 euros at a good restaurant here in Germany for the two of us to eat dinner.
Us on the sightseeing bus
the harbor of Naples
Mount Vesuvius
castle
Dante Alighieri (Dante's Inferno)
This building reminded us of The Louvre and the architecture in Monaco & Nice.
Archaeological Museum
We stumbled across a sculpture workshop.
at Da Michele's
pic of Julia Roberts with the restaurant guys, Eat Pray Love was filmed here
Wednesday, November 21st: We got an early start, made it into the train station at the center of the city, then took the aboveground Metro about 45 minutes out to the ruins of Pompeii. It.was.awesome. We spent 5 hours walking around and didn't even see everything. My feet and legs were killing me by the end, but I think Nathan could have spent another 5 hours there. After seeing so many ancient ruins all over Europe, we were overwhelmed with the still-standing city of Pompeii. The roads, raised sidewalks, 2-story buildings, frescoes and mosaics were so impressive. We are used to walking around grass-covered "roads" and looking at 6-inch-high "walls." Afterwards, we traveled back into the city and went to the Archaeological Museum, which holds, among other things, artifacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum. We ate dinner again at Da Michele's. It's just so good!
Pompeii was buried in 13-20 feet of ash.
Vesuvius in the background
Pompeii's municipal court
the forum
greatly preserved frescoes
the baths
These are their contraptions that grind the grain. A long wooden pole would have protruded out of the holes in the middle, the grain poured in the top, and a donkey would have been attached to the pole, turning the whole thing as he walked around it, grinding up the grain, which would pour out the bottom and onto the surface below.
fireplace in the bakery
the House of Mysteries, below ground level
more greatly preserved frescoes in the House of Mysteries
peristyle in the middle of a house
This is their equivalent of a fast food restaurant. This counter, holding huge clay pots, opens right onto the road. The pots would have contained different foods. This was our first time seeing/hearing of these. So neat.
amphitheater
theatre
Archaeological Museum
dark blue glass vase, covered in white reliefs Homer
mosaic column
Loved the mosaics. They were probably my favorite part of the ruins.
Alexander the Great fighting Darius
This artifact traveled all over the world, transferred from collector to collector over the years, before ending up in the museum.
Thursday, November 22nd: We got another early start and hit the aboveground Metro again, this time taking it to Herculaneum, about 25 minutes away from Naples. Herculaneum was buried by the same volcano as Pompeii in 79 AD, but the site is not quite as popular. We spent another 3 hours exploring Herculaneum, which, unlike Pompeii, still contains original organic material, i.e. wood and food. After grabbing a very late lunch and taking the Metro back, we took the train to Rome, arriving there in the late evening. We had booked our hotel knowing that it was on the edge of the city, but we had no idea what we had coming. We took the Metro about 25 minutes out of the city center, and when we emerged, were not sure where exactly our hotel was located. We trekked, luggage and all, across a busy intersection to a restaurant. There weren't many buildings around. The waiter there told us our hotel was about 800 meters straight down the road, so we decided to continue trekking. Bad idea. The road we were on was extremely dark, with no sidewalks/shoulder, and two lanes of traffic zooming past. So, our trek ended up being a drag-your-luggage-through-the dirt-and-try-not-to-get-hit-by-speeding-cars adventure. Kids, don't try this at home. We finally realized we had walked way more than 800 meters and still hadn't found our hotel. We finally flagged down a lone taxi on a quiet street. And he drove us about 100 yards from where we were to our hotel. We never would have found it on our own though. It was off the road we had been traveling on and down a small, dark road. We were grateful to find our room was very nice. Nathan went to bed pretty early, but I stayed up and Skyped with my family, who were all over at my parents' house.
looking down on the archaeological site of Herculaneum
Vesuvius in the background
This used to be the edge of the shore, and these housed boats.
preserved wood
gorgeous mosaic
in the baths
This is the huge screw, still preserved under plastic, in the machine they used to press clothes. We learned they also used urine to bleach clothes. Disgusting.
Here you can see how Herculaneum was covered in 50-60 feet of ash, from the bottom of the dark green valley (where the shoreline used to be) up.
view of St. Peter's from the Vatican Museum
the ceilings that I added to our dream house : )
Hall of Maps
School of Athens
St. Peter's Square
St. Peter's Basilica
view of the square from the front of St. Peter's
love this shot
Swiss guards
Spanish Steps
birthday chocolates
Colosseum
Constantine's Arch
cross in honor of persecuted Christians
view of Palatine Hill from Colosseum
Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II
Trevi Fountain
We thew our coins into the fountain. The legend goes that if you do so, you will return to Rome one day. Hey, it worked for me once! I had to beg and plead with Nathan to throw one in with me. I told him he would regret it if I had to return to Rome one day without him ; ) I guess that's a threat, really...
Us at Trevi Fountain on my 27th birthday
Blast from the Past, part II: my friends and I at Trevi Fountain exactly 7 years ago on my 20th birthday
Denyce, Me, Lisa, Sarah
old Italian buildings
Pantheon
Trajan's Column
Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II, love this building lit up at night
Trevi Fountain at night, probably my favorite structure in Europe
Sunday, November 25th: We had a slow Sunday, as the only things we had left to see were Palatine Hill and Bocca della Verita (Mouth of Truth). We the afternoon and evening meandering around the city some more.
Palatine Hill
Arch of Septimus Severus
Arch of Titus
depicting the sacking of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD
Bocca della Verita
Monday, November 26th: We packed up and headed home, completely in love with the city of Rome! And still in awe of the sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
