I heart Naples

Done with Rome and onto Naples! I have to say...even though we did some really neat things...saw some amazing history and culture, I didnt fall in love with Rome. It was a great city though, beutiful but huge and hot and I think I would need a lot more time there to really appreciate it. Naples on the other hand is huge, messy, crowded, crazy, totally over-run and over populated, really dirty and everything that people have said that it would be. It was love at first sight for me. Traffic is the nost INCREDIBLE thing I have ever seen...and I have seen some pretty bad traffic in Mexico etc. There are scooters everywhere and they squeeze through traffic anywhere they can fit, going up onto sidwalks, ripping through red lights etc. We saw one man on a scooter with a 6 month baby on his knee...neither one of them wearing a helmet...and another women driving with two kids behind her, two infront and a dog sitting at her feet! Seriously who needs a family SUV when you have a tiny scooter that can fit 6. You wont get anywhere walking unless your seriously ballsy. You basically have to walk out into the most rediculous traffic with confidence and just hope (or pray) that the cars will stop. They usually do, or they sweerve around you. Our first night here we walked into the OldTown section to just stroll and explore, which was amazing. For the first time since in a long time, we walked for almost two hours without seeing a single other tourist. There were just Italian people doing their own buisness, playing soccer in squares, washing streets, having coffee, yelling at each other...all with cigarettes having out the corner of their mouths. I just love how all the buildings are crammed together, with churches squeezed between...it just feels so much more real and authentic. I went for a solo walk through the streets to take some pictures but I ended up putting my camera away after 5 minutes for two reasons...1. With my big camera in a poor area I felt like I was screaming 'Im a wealthy tourist!!! please Mug Me' and 2. I felt like an intruder...like it was rude to take pictures of these people who were just living their lives. Despite Naples bad reputation...we havent once felt like its dangerous walking around here (we havent even bothered putting our money belts on)

YESTERDAY! We travelled to Pompeii to see the ruins and then hiked up Mt. Vesuvius (the volcanoe that did Pompeii in). The ruins were neat but much bigger then I was expecting..it was quite the treck around. I think I liked hiking up Vesuvius more. It gives you a beautiful beautiful view of all of Naples and the Almalfi coast...although none of my pictures turned out because of the smog from Naples. TODAY! We did a tour of the underground tunnels in Naples. It was incredible...basically Naples is three cities ontop of each other. Way back, people werent allowed to build outside the city walls so eventually the buildings begin to be stacked up...we went through a trap doorin the bottom of someones house...into the old greek and roman theatre. These people literally build an entire neighborhood ontop of these ancient buildings. You can see old pillars built INTO the walls of normal apartments! So after we saw the theatre...we walked 40m underground into the old aqueducts that were turned into bomb sheltars during world war 2. Very cold and very neat!

Final monumental moment of Naples...the PIZZA. We went to 'the best pizza place in Naples' today for lunch...and it lived up to my expectations. For 7 Euro you get the LARGEST most AMAZING pizza imaginable. It was literally hanging off the sides of this huge plate and they serve it to you burning hot and uncut, so its this messy production of trying to cut it and not burn your mouth and stuff your face ALL at the same time. Brief side note speaking of expectations...Italian men have so far not lived up to their reputation of being dirty cat calling pricks. Actually in comparision to Spanish men they are perfect perfect gentlemen plus very lovely to look at...