Season’s Greetings from Italy Part 2: Napoli and Pompeii

I won’t lie. I did not experience ‘love at first sight’ in Napoli as I did with Florence (and later Rome). In fact, I wasn’t too fond of Napoli at all in the beginning. Napoli, known as “Naples” to most Americans, is a coastal city facing the Tyrrhenian Sea. Because it’s near water, the city experiences milder weather in winter than other regions in Italy. As I prefer hot to cold any day, I assumed that I would love Napoli right away.

However, the amount of trash, broken-down vehicles, poverty, and urban-y vibe I got from Napoli initially had me doubt how much I’d like the city. Apparently, the garbage disposal company in Napoli sometimes goes on strike and refuses to collect trash. With the winter wind blowing, this creates quite the mess. In fact, I started comparing Napoli to the streets of Bangkok.

To be fair to Napoli though, I had just come from Florence- a small, artsy city that had to keep up appearances for the sake of tourists. Napoli, however, is a larger city with much less people that come to visit. Additionally, I had booked our Airbnb a good 45-minute walk from the city center. This meant that we were located in a more residential and less up-kept area.

On the bright side though, this meant that we experienced a more authentic view of the city. In fact, once I looked past the trash, I started to notice some more endearing sights:

People chatted with friends in the streets; laundry was hung from one building to another; cooking food could be smelled when passing an open kitchen window. On one street, I watched as a lady from a third floor balcony placed money in a basket and lowered it with a rope to street level. A man then came by, took out the money, replaced it with 2 loaves of bread, and yelled “Grazie!” back up at the woman.

While we are on the topic of yelling, let me just state for the record that (from what I saw) the stereotype of Italians is true- they are a loud and expressive people. They shout at one another, play loud music, and gesture wildly. Several times, I witnessed people yelling and moving with their hands in exaggerated motions; I was pretty certain that I was about to see someone get slapped. But nope, the next second those perceived angry signals were followed by a lot of smiling and belly-laughing.

As a rather reserved person, I don’t think I could live with true Italians for a long period of time (I am part Italian, mind you…)

Anyway. Although our Airbnb was located a bit far from the city center, we still ended up loving it. The owner, Ralph, decorated the place with his own art and the apartment definitely gave off homey vibes. Perfect because we had been staying at a 20-person dorm hostel in Florence. Plus, Kelsey’s boyfriend met up with us in Napoli, so we had enough space for him to stay with us as well.

Since our train from Florence was so early, we had the entire day to explore Napoli. First, we visited Castel Sant’Elmo:

You can get a tour of the castle, but I was playing my favorite game where I try to be as cheap as possible- pictures from the outside sufficed.

Next, we took a walk through what we collectively agreed to be the most ‘bougie’ mall we’d ever seen. And yet, not bougie enough for there not to be a McDonald’s…

After, we started walking to the coastline. We passed by the Teatro San Carlo- the world’s oldest opera house- and then the Royal Palace at Piazza del Plebiscito.

At this point, we were pretty close to the Lungomare. As someone who grew up by and loves the beach, I practically skipped/ran the rest of the way to see the seafront views. This coastline, however, was even more beautiful to me as you could see Mt. Vesuvius (the volcano that destroyed the ancient city of Pompeii) in the distance. Unfortunately, pictures could not capture just how large this mountain loomed.

After staring/drooling at this view for an extended period of time, we then walked 10 minutes down the Lungomare to visit Castel dell’Ovo:

I liked visiting this castle a bit more than the Castel Sant’Elmo because it was free to walk through (and free is me), jutted out into the water, and gave a perfect view from its high walls of the sun setting.

As the Czech Republic is a landlocked country, this was my first time being by a large body of water since August. I hadn’t realized how much I had missed the sea.

By this time, we were ready for some dinner! Now, while Napoli might not be known as much for its historical art, its historical food is its claim to fame. In fact, Napoli is the birthplace of the pizza. Admittedly, I am not a pizza person. Pizza (at least back in the United States) is usually too greasy for my liking. However, I was not about to pass up on pizza from the original source.

Initially, we had planned to go to Pizzeria da Michele. This stone-oven restaurant has been serving the first two traditional pizzas (Margherita and Marinara) since 1870 and was made famous from its appearance in Julia Robert’s Eat, Pray, Love.

Unfortunately, many people consider this a ‘To Do’ on there Napoli Bucket List. This meant that the outside line crowd looked like this:

Nope. Sorry. I could not. This was the day that our step count clocked in around 31,000 steps and I had no energy to wait in a crowd for 2 hours+.

But hey, this was Napoli. The original pizza must be in every restaurant, right?

Well, yes… but unfortunately, restaurants don’t often open in Italy until at least 7pm. After searching high and low (no exaggeration here- Napoli is hilly!), we found a place that was serving and I ordered my Margherita pizza. And this is what came out:

Turns out, this restaurant specialized in Pizza Frittas that were nicknamed “Mt. Vesuvius” due to the hot air that erupted when you pierced into these bad boys. Did not exactly reach “the expectation,” but it was still pretty darn good. And honestly, I was too tired and hungry to care at this point. Plus, I was excited for the next day where we would be taking a day trip to…

Pompeii

Pardon my nerdy-ness for a bit, but going to Pompeii was one of the things I was most excited for for this trip. Thanks to 4 years of Latin in high school, I was pretty familiar with the story of Pompeii:

In 79 A.D, Mt. Vesuvius erupted, killing people in the nearby Roman city of Pompeii (and Herculaneum) and burying their bodies in layers of ash. In the 19th century, archaeologists discovered human cavities in the ash where the bodies had decomposed. By pouring in plaster, the archaeologists were able to form casts to show what the people of Pompeii did in their last moments.

Pompeii is about 45 minutes from Napoli. Since Kelsey’s boyfriend has an International Driver’s License, we were able to rent a car and drive there.

Fair warning: the line to get into Pompeii can be long- plan to get there early! Fortunately, the ruins expand out, so even with a crowd, you have the chance to explore Pompeii without feeling like someone is hot on your heels the whole time. Which is important because you could spend all day at Pompeii. Heck, you could spend several.

For me, the coolest part was being able to see how these ancient people lived; thanks to the preservation from the ash, you were literally peeking into these peoples’ past lives.

It was a very long day of ruin-exploring. Luckily, it was sunny and the temperature warmed up throughout the day. At one point, we found a grassy area- probably once an old court yard- and just laid down to relax and take in the ruins.

Although I may be a biased nerd, I definitely recommend visiting Pompeii and/or Herculaneum if you’re in Napoli. It’s a bit of an eerie experience, but will make you appreciate how fragile we are- especially when placed beside an active volcano.

That night, I finally got my first taste of a traditional Napoli pizza. Recommended by our Airbnb host, we went to a restaurant outside the touristy area that served authentic food. The food was so good that we went back the following night for more pizza and eggplant parmesan:

The traditional stone-oven pizzas are Marinara (tomato sauce and garlic cloves) and Margherita (tomato sauce, a sprinkle of cheese, and basil). And that’s it. No super fancy toppings or stuffed crusts. When you order a pizza, you each get your own individual pie that you’re supposed to cut into with a fork and knife. And, thanks to the lack of grease and the basic ingredients, I did not feel sick or guilty about eating a whole pie. I’m going to miss Italian pizza…

The last day in Napoli was spent looking through stores and eating more food. I tried one more Napolitano delicacy- the sfogliatelle. If you are in Napoli, you MUST try this dessert (you’ll see it everywhere!)

This pastry has crisp, flaky layers and is filled with a citrusy ricotta. Move over cannoli.(Just kidding though, there’s enough love for both of them).

And with that, we were finished with Napoli! Stay tuned, next up- Rome!