Yesterday I took the train (business class silent carriage - why haven't I always done that!!) to Naples. I haven't been before because I always got scared off by everyone telling me how terrible it is there, there is petty theft and pick pockets everywhere, people ride past on bikes and cut the strap of handbags etc etc. It is filthy with rubbish everywhere etc.
bigger and better seats, and peace and quiet
I saw none of that.
Naples is cleaner than Rome. There is no dog piss all over the place. There is no dog/human shit all over the place. I didn't see one person sleeping in the street. No-one was spitting. There was no rubbish anywhere except in bins, unlike Rome where there is rubbish everywhere. Rome has gone to the pack, Naples has cleaned up its act.
As for the pick pockets, tourists walk around with a sign on their heads saying "my phone/wallet/purse/money is sticking out of my pocket, all ready for you to help yourself".
I met my guide at the station, then we got the metro into the city centre. She showed me some of the main sites, the main squares, told me some history, told me some of their superstitions, then we went through the artisan area where there were little shops everywhere, many were selling Christmas nativity figurines and tuff, apparently they are making them all year getting ready for Christmas but they also make other figurines of famous Napoli people and stuff to go into the nativity scenes. They were like dolls house furniture and things you would put into a dolls house.
the crowds of people walking through the artisan area
streets were clean, no rubbish anywhere
He was singing to the crowd lined up outside the pizzeria waiting to get inside
After that we went in search of somewhere to have pizza, she took me to a place where the locals sit, eat, drink beer, and sound like they are yelling at each other but they are just passionately speaking about whatever they are speaking about! I loved it!
Napoli pizza beats Roma pizza hands down1
After lunch she took me to a couple of churches and told me about the legends and myths attached to them, like the church with the bronze skulls - in the 1700s the plague hit Naples and bodies were piled up in the streets because they ran out of places to put them. Apparently one night a woman was asleep and the ghosts visited her and told her to take care of the bodies and if she did she would be rewarded, so she managed to get the church to move the bodies into the basement of the church, then the ghost visited her and gave her the lottery numbers! Now, people walk past the skulls out the front of the church and rub them - they are shiny from all the rubbing - so they can win the lottery!
She gave me one of the red horns - apparently they are good luck but they must be given to you, you cannot buy your own.
Pulcinello - the sad clown
rub the skull for luck
Doll hospital inside an old palace
street art in Naploi
inside the main church
I walked through Termini and went to the toilet then back through the Coin Shop and bought a bag that I had seen in the morning, got into the bus, walked past the post office that was still open at 7pm, got a box and will fill it today to post home.
I want to go to Castel Sant'Angelo today, my last museum in Rome. I have wanted to go into the Castel since I went to Hadriann'as villa last time, the castel is a mosoleum he built for himself and has been a jail, a hideout for popes amongst other things so that will be my last museum, then I will come back, pack up my crap that is spread everywhere and get ready for Venice tomorrow.
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