Popping over to Naples

Q: How could anyone feel the need to take a weekend getaway when they live in Paris?

A: The getaway is in Italy.

Yesterday morning I woke up in Naples, Italy and fell asleep in Paris, France. From Thursday night to Monday morning I slept an average of four hours per night because I stayed up bonding with people in my hostel. I ate an entire pizza by myself everyday and had gelato at least once a day if not twice. The man running the hostel made us all dinner and referred to my friend and me as the Spice Girls. I trekked up an active volcano (and survived) and inspected the bodies of those caught in the eruption that devastated Pompeii in 79 AD.

The trip began with a long night of my travel partner/friend Catie and me curling up on the cold floor of the Paris Orly airport Thursday night with the hope of getting an hour or two of sleep. We arrived in Naples the next morning with sleepy eyes and rumbling tummies. All of our ailments were quickly forgotten as we devoted all of our attention to staying alive in our first cab ride of Italy. The driver, a fifty-some man who fulfilled every stereotype of an Italian, would either stop in the middle of the road to talk to a friend, slow down so a friend could walk alongside the car or lean out of the window to call to a friend. When he wasn’t catching up with old pals, he was zooming down the winding and busy roads in the center of Napoli. This first cab experience seemed to sum up the relationships you find in Naples. Everyone knows everyone else and their grandmother. Even though we only stayed for a few days, the people in Naples treated us like a friend that you would drive slowly to talk to. 

Over the next few days Catie and I found ourselves eating the best pizza in the world (literally...you can’t beat the birthplace of pizza) and visiting some of the most incredible places. For the sake of not writing too much and the fact that words cannot describe how beautiful everything was (despite popular belief, Naples is not just a gross and dirty place), I will just add some photos for all y'all to take a look at. 

**Sorry some of the photos are sideways...Something is wrong with the formatting and I can't figure out how to fix it!

(Our hostel “dad”, Giovanni)

(The view from atop Mount Vesuvius)

(Preserved body in Pompeii)

(National national archaeological museum)  

(Because I’m missing my pup)

(Catie won the staring contest, of course)

(Small street art <3)

(More street art)

(This isn’t any specific road, but almost every road looked like this: small, colorful, adorned with hanging laundry)

 

This is in a teeny-tiny chapel called Cappella Sansevero. It may be small, but it holds a few of the world's most incredible marble statues. We weren’t allowed to take photos, so enjoy these google images. (Read more about it in this blogger’s post: http://vivreaveclart.blogspot.fr/2012/12/nora-bunuels-travel-guides-vol-3.html)

 

(Veiled Christ by Guiseppe Sanmartino)

(The Ceiling of the chapel)