Day 156: Naples - the black sheep?

People described Naples as the black sheep of Italian cities. Its reputation is often related to poverty, organized crime and the garbage strike, which thankfully ended this summer. In Wikitravel, there is a list of 13 warnings for tourists at the end of the Naples page. When we arrived in Naples, we immediately felt the difference between Rome and Naples. The graffiti in Rome was nothing compared to the ones in Naples. When we asked for direction to our b&b, most people would turn away without saying much. One lady at a store immediately locked her door when Katy tried to ask for direction. Not friendly at all.

not sure what this means - someone covered the head with a garbage bag

We came to Naples to visit Pompeii, which was an amazing experience. The entire town was buried under the volcanic ash from Mt. Vesuvius in 79AD. It was such an extraordinary feeling to walk through the town and imagine how people used to live two thousands years ago. There were restaurants, bakeries and brothels. Yes, 25 brothels in total. I guess the word's oldest profession was very much in demand two thousands years ago. There were also a few corpses that had turned into stone. Some houses were very nice with spacious atrium and wall-size fresco paintings.

a basic room in a brothel - it was so smallsome paintings that survived the eruption

a fountain in a backyard

a restaurant

floor tile of a dog

'the house of the mysteries'

'the mule man' - found next to his mule

a stone dog

We learned that pizza was born in Naples. So a visit to Naples must include a visit to a pizzeria. So we went to two of the oldest pizzerias, Da Michelle and Trianon. At Da Michelle, they serve only two types of authentic pizzas - margherita (tomato, basil and mozzarella) or marinara (tomato, garlic, oregano). We tried both types. They were pretty good. Da Michelle was especially packed with locals during lunch and dinner services. Go there early to avoid the long queue.