This morning it was raining when we woke up, so we postponed our plans to visit Paestrum and Positano (towns along the Amalfi Coast), and took the train to Napoli instead. The train from Sorrento essentially took us right to the Museo Archeologico. Here we saw many large marble statues from the Farnese Collection, a scale model of Pompeii, and other artifacts from Pompeii. Everything was very impressive, especially the papyrus scrolls that were barely surviving. The funny thing about this museum was that nothing was humidity controlled (and there was no air conditioning), only a few items were stored in glass cases, and all the windows were wide open.
We left the museum and entered the complete chaos which is Napoli. Traffic was insane, everyone was honking their horns all over the place, there was the constant sound of sirens in the background, and people everywhere. This was true on the main roads and the narrow side streets. There are small shops along both sides of every road, and except on the main street, they are all selling ridiculous touristy things.
We left the museum and entered the complete chaos which is Napoli. Traffic was insane, everyone was honking their horns all over the place, there was the constant sound of sirens in the background, and people everywhere. This was true on the main roads and the narrow side streets. There are small shops along both sides of every road, and except on the main street, they are all selling ridiculous touristy things.
We then had the first best part of the day - we took a tour of the Napoli Sotterranea (underground tunnel system). Apparently, when the Greeks ran Napoli (Neapolis), they dug out stone from under the city, used the stone (tuff - volcanic rock) to build the cities, and then created an aqueduct system that ran through the tunnels that were left behind. The tunnels varied in size to create water pressure, and every house had a well that accessed a sistern near their home. When Cholera bacteria permeated into the water system, it was shut down. Then, in WWII, when Napoli was being heavily bombed, citizens moved underground (~40 meters below the surface) to survive. Not only were there tunnels, but there was also a Roman theater underground, that was built after the Greek aqueduct. The theater was only discovered in 1999 when archeologists recognized some arches in a random apartment. It seems that when the newer communities were built, they just plastered over and built walls around existing structures from the previous occupants, thus hiding things like an ENTIRE ROMAN THEATER for hundreds of years. It was an amazing experience and we got to walk through narrow tunnels less than 20 inches wide, and in some cases had to use candles to see our way. The last thing I'll say about this is that the Romans knew about building things to seismic code and basically built shear walls to protect against earthquakes by making square bricks out of the tuff and placing them on an angle to absorb vertical and horizontal forces caused by earthquakes (BUST OUT THAT P.E. STAMP!)After the underground tour we had a much better apprecitation for Napoli and continued our tour, visting some cathedrals, gallerias, the Spanish Quarter, and other sites. The city is just so crazy, and it was hard to see how people live in a place like this - it makes Manhattan seem pretty laid back and quiet. But it was very exciting, we didn't feel threatened or in danger, and we thought at the end of the day, it was a pretty cool place - definitely worth a visit.
We ended the day, naturally, with some pizza and gelato. The Neapolitan pizza was delicious and we each ate a 14-16" pizza. Yum!
Gelati Gusti per il Giorno (Gelato flavors of the day):
Mike - Stratiacella, Mulberry, e Citrus (chocolate chip, mulberry, and a citrus combination)
Aviva - Melone, Pesche, e Anguria (melon, peach, and watermelon)
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