Pompeii and Naples

After our day in Rome it was time for another day trip. We headed to the train station for our early morning high speed train to Naples. We had a tour booked for Pompeii. This time the automatic seat assignments had us all sitting together in one row. 

Our journey went smoothly and once in Naples we were able to navigate our way to the local Circumvesuviana train to the Pompeii site. That train was about 40 minutes long. We weren't sure the timing would work out to get there for the 10 AM tour but we managed to make it. 

Our tour guide Daniela led our group for about 2 hours through the Unesco world heritage site. 

There happen to be residents in Pompeii to this day! They are cats.

She was a wealth of knowledge and has a degree in Archeology so she shared so much information and interetsing stories about what it was like to live in Pompeii and how it was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The city was buried under 13-20 ft of ash and mostly forgotten about after that until the late 16th century. 

People that were buried in the ash likely died of smoke inhalation. They were covered with ash and then as the bodied decomposed the empty space was left where there bodies lay. Archeologists were able to fill those holes with plaster cast thus resulting in the forms we see today. 

Many of the artifacts have been removed and are in the archeology museum in Naples. 

The buildings that remain were dug out of the ash and have been restored. Some have been rebuilt to reflect what they would have looked like at the time of the eruption. 

It's like walking back in time. Seeing how they lived. 

Even the bread baking ovens are still intact. They even had  loaves of bread in the oven when they city was covered in ash. 

The cobble roads were marked by tracks from the wheels of all the carts pulled by animals. They even had stones lined up to be able to cross the road so you didn't step in mud or animal droppings. So much modern engineering.

It was a clear gorgeous day but it was very cold with the breeze from the sea. 

The amphitheater that was used for theater performances. 

You can see Mount Vesuvius in the distance. It is still an active volcano.

After our tour we were ready to train back to Naples to have a look and get some Pizza! From the train you could catch glimpses of the Amalfi coast and the island of Capri. That will definitely have to be another trip.

In Naples we knew we had to find authentic pizza since this is where it was INVENTED! We made our way to L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele. Made famous in the movie Eat, Pray, Love but also famous before that in it's own right. We waited outside for an hour to get a table.

To say it was crowded would be an understatement. It was kind of the whole point of making the stop in Naples so we decided to wait it out. 

Once you get a table inside you walk past the HUGE pizza oven. 

 They only serve Margherita pizza or Marinara pizza with no cheese. We all opted for the Margherita! 

It was worth all the wait, as the menu says it is a meal that is earned with the time waiting. The crust was unbelievable although the sauce a little runny. It all tasted so fresh.

After our pizza feast we wandered the streets of Naples for hours well into the evening. 

They have these crowded streets along Via dei Tribunali known for their nativity scenes. You go there to buy pieces to create your own scene at home. They have everything you can think of and can get very intricate. It was SO CROWDED on a Saturday night. It seemed the holiday season had kicked off and everyone in Naples was out. 

We happened upon the Pulcinella statue which is said to be good luck to rub her nose. Gemma was skeptical after we rubbed the statue toe in Edinburgh for good luck and then the internet crashed and we almost didn't get to fly to Dublin.  Alex wasn't going to buy into the fears. 

We were all tired from so much walking so we stopped in this church to have a rest. It was so beautiful. We saw small walking tours come through and point out important pieces of artwork. After our rest we walked through the streets back to the train station. 

We found Naples to be very crowded and easily had the most graffiti of any city I have traveled to. I had read that in reviews and other than the pizza and maybe a trip to the archeological museum which we didn't have time for I would say skip a stop in this city. 

We arrived to the train station to a fair amount of crowds. Several of the trains were delayed due to a power outage at a station leading to Naples. Gemma immediately blamed the statue Alex rubbed for good luck. We did manage to get on our train with only a 20 minute delay so we count ourselves very lucky! We were not really interested in an overnight in Naples. 

Pantheon and Vatican

We planned a quiet Friday morning after the day trip to Florence since we didn't arrive back to the flat until late. 

Alex and I were up the next morning and left the children to sleep while we grabbed a cappuccino. This is the entry to our building!

 

Once everyone was up for the day we walked over to the Pantheon and got tickets to look inside. 

That wide angle lens shot! It is so impressive how it was built and has a hole in the ceiling!!

It is fascinating to learn how all these buildings were made so long ago and for pagan gods and then rebranded when Christianity came along to be temples or places of worship. 

It has been so well preserved and not fallen to ruins like so many of the other ancient Roman buildings of that time period. It has been in constant use and repair since it was built. 

We walked all through the city to make our way to the area of the Vatican City.

We had entrance to the Vatican museums later that day so we walked through the streets and stopped for a nice lunch at Cucina del Teatro. We shared Caprese salad and burratta followed by a lemon fish, Pasta with truffles. Gemma claimed the fish as her own. We all enjoyed the meal. Then walked to cross the Tiber river passing Castel Sant'Angelo. 

We made it to the entrance to the Vatican. We had booked tickets through their site and also a guided tour. 

Our guide Daniela was very knowledgeable. Without the guide we would have not really absorbed or appreciated all the art and history within the large museum. 

The dome of St Peters Basilica. 

She pointed out so many interesting pieces of art that were used by Michelangelo in his study and practice for his own art. This sculpture Laocoon and his Sons is believed to have influenced him and used in his painting on the Sistine Chapel of the Creation of Adam. 

There is also a dome much like the one in the Pantheon that was likely inspired by the architecture in the Pantheon. 

Gemma said that her 7th grade history class studied this piece of art called "School of Athens" by Raphael. 

There is also an entire hall of tapestries. It is amazing how detailed they are and how long ago they were created. Such skill and the time it must have taken. This is a tapestry of a map of Italy. 

We made it to the Sistine Chapel which is where our tour ended. They don't let you take pictures inside. We were able to enjoy the chapel for a while and they have benches around the outside you can sit and look up and take it all in. 

I guess the five gift shops we encountered on the way out give you plenty of chance to buy professional photos. After the Sistine Chapel we had to wind our way out of the maze of the Vatican museums. We made it to the famous spiral ramp. 

Then outside we walked around the perimeter of the Vatican to the St Peters Basilica Square. We didn't book entry into the church but enjoyed seeing the outside and square. Reminiscing how I saw Pope John Paul II while visiting Rome in 1998!

It was pretty to walk back through the lit up streets to our neighborhood. We made an important stop at Giolitti which had claimed our #1 position for gelato. 

Walking an average of 8 miles a day on cobble stone roads means you get to have gelato every day.