Napoli {day 2}

good morning, Naaaaaa-poli! after a breakfast of leftover pizza, we checked out of our hotel and headed across the street to the train station to start our full day of exploration. we planned to follow Rick Steves' walking tour of Naples, which begins at the National Archaeological Museum, 1.3 miles away from our hotel. to save some time and energy, we decided to take the metro, which is connected to the Napoli Centrale station by a surprisingly sleek and modern promenade. we got our caffeine fix at a little cafe in the station -- after a doppio espresso, i felt ready for anything! we rode four stops to Cavour station, where we were greeted by this impressive statue (i didn't realize its significance until we saw the original in the museum!). 

our first order of business upon emerging from the metro station was to get the girls some breakfast. Nick took Greta into a promising-looking bakery to get a croissant and emerged with a huge stuffed pastry the girls split. Greta grinned and said, "Mommy, it was ALL treats!" 

we then crossed the street to the archaeological museum. this entire street is beautiful. 

spot the horse's head?

the entrance room is full of huge sculptures and this enormous horse's head, cast in bronze. 

the Farnese Collection occupies most of the ground floor. the sculptures here were excavated from Rome by Alessandro Farnese (who became Pope Paul III). later, the sculptures came into the possession of Charles, the Bourbon king of Naples (the son of a Farnese). 

this was originally from the Baths of Caracalla in Rome

the expression and detail in the faces is remarkable

blurry, but i'm including it because this statue was just so enormous!

if you look in Vespasian's ear, you can see how the inside of his skull is hollowed out

this beautiful little garden was worth the price of admission (€12 per adult, free for the kids, in case you were wondering). 

we continued along until we reached the Toro Farnese, which was carved out of a single piece of marble. the sense of movement and urgency in the sculpture is astounding, and i'm afraid it doesn't come across too well in my pictures. Michelangelo sculpted some pieces of it (including the dog and the face of the woman in the back). here's the story behind the sculpture, as per Rick Steves: "King Lycus was bewitched by Dirce. He abandoned his pregnant wife, Antiope (standing regally in the background). The single mom gave birth to twin boys. When they grew up, they killed their deadbeat dad and tied Dirce to the horns of a bull to be bashed against a mountain. Captured in marble, the action is thrilling: cape flailing, dog snarling, hooves in the air. You can almost hear the bull snorting. And in the back, Antiope oversees this harsh ancient justice with satisfaction." (from Rick Steves Italy 2018, p. 968)

Michelangelo carved this dog

i just love the look on Antiope's face. a dish served cold, indeed.

next we discovered the inspiration for the statue in the metro station: the Farnese Hercules, which depicts Hercules after completing his Eleventh Labour and emerging victorious with the golden apples of the gods. he's leaning on his club which is covered with the skin of a lion he killed in the First Labour. his face is sculpted in the moment when he learns he has to return the apples and travel down to hell. 

"you've GOT to be kidding me."

Greta's favorite part of the museum was the Farnese gem collection. the showpiece in this room was the Farnese Cup, used in ceremonies and rituals, which is carved on both the inside and the outside. 

the original Snooki hair-do on #155

the Farnese cup; the seated figure on the right is thought to be Cleopatra

next, we headed upstairs to view the Pompeiian artifacts, including mosaics, frescoes, and household objects. one room is devoted to objects from a single villa, the House of the Faun (which still stands in Pompeii -- covering an entire city block). this Greek bronze statue dates from the fourth century B.C. 

the wall is covered with a second-century B.C. copy of an original Greek fresco that decorated a floor in the House of the Faun, depicting the Battle of Alexander. Alexander is seen on the left, about to defeat King Darius of Persia (in the chariot). 

the damage to this fresco was incurred while in transit to the museum

throughout the museum, the huge windows were open to let fresh breezes through. it was surreal to see this ancient fresco in front of me, then turn to the right and see Greta looking out the window at Neapolitan laundry drying in the sun. 

speaking of Greta, she was getting a little antsy at this point and asking to go home (meaning back to Rome) ... which was not auspicious given that it was only 10:30 AM. so i gave her my phone to take pictures, and she actually captured some good ones. plus, it was interesting to see the museum through the eyes of a four-year-old. here's some of her best shots: 

and then there's this one ... we won't be winning any parenting awards for taking our kids into the "Secret Room", containing erotic art from Pompeii. Greta said, "those are some big dinosaur bones!" and we hurried her along before she realized what was actually going on. 

the top floor of the museum is built around the Salone Meridiana, the great hall of the original university that flourished here in the 1600-1700s. the building then became the royal museum in 1777. in 1791, they built this sundial which still works via the pinhole of light in the upper right corner of the hall. 

at noon, the ray of sun falls along the middle line to tell the time of year

we then saw rooms upon rooms of various objects from Pompeii, including musical instruments, cookware, personal belongings, and the famous Blue Vase. there were also more frescoes from Pompeiian villas, and one small room with a model of gladiator helmet for kids to touch. 

a rare depiction of Mt. Vesuvius before it erupted

musical instruments

as we walked along the hallways, we had a beautiful view down into the garden. as luck would have it, the museum had a special outdoor exhibit featuring Star Wars characters -- talk about time travel. 

finally, we saw one of the highlights of the museum (for me, anyway). it took a while to find them because this room wasn't labeled clearly from the outside, and Rick Steves' directions were a little vague. after walking around in circles and almost giving up hope, i finally discovered La Villa dei Papiri -- the room holding artifacts from Herculaneum. specifically, these were items belonging to Julius Caesar's father-in-law, who was so well-read that he had a library containing two thousand Egyptian papyrus scrolls. two of these were found, badly burned but still intact, in the 1750s. they are preserved here behind glass, and being in the same room with them gave me goosebumps. 

the scrolls were rolled up when found ... it was someone's white-knuckled job to unfurl them without the fibers disintegrating

our last stop in the museum was to see the Doriforo statue, which apparently was one of the most well-known figures in antiquity as it displayed the ideal body of an athlete carrying a spear (doriforo literally means "spear-carrier"). it's remarkable for its time (the original was cast in bronze in the fifth century B.C.) because the figure is balancing on one foot. 

whew! the museum was breathtaking, but just the first stop on our little tour of Naples. we crossed the street to view the Galleria Principe di Napoli -- a nineteenth-century shopping mall that now stands mostly empty. it was gated off, so we just took a peek inside and continued down the hill, past the Academy of Fine Arts and along the back of the Bellini Theater. 

Academy of Fine Arts

Bellini Theater

we rounded the corner to find ourselves in Piazza Bellini, named for the opera composer Vincenzo Bellini. the fifth-century B.C. ruins of ancient Naples (named Neapolis -- "the new city") can be seen here in this little park. the buildings around this piazza still bear family crests, as they used to be palaces. 

remnants of a tower in the city wall

family crest or not, graffiti artists will still make their mark

we then walked through the Port'Alba gate and down the little alley lined with books, to reach the Piazza Dante. 

looking back up toward the Port'Alba gate

Dante

by this time, we were ready for lunch. hoping to avoid the touristy restaurants around the Piazza Dante, we looked up one of Rick Steves' recommendations and backtracked close to the Piazza Bellini to find La Cantina di Via Sapienza, which is only open for lunch. annnnnd it turns out, they were closed for summer vacation (as are many restaurants and businesses in Italy during the month of August). so sad, because it looked like it would have been a great place to get authentic Neapolitan food. 

a little shrine on the street corner

so we ended up at one of those touristy restaurants after all. it was a delicious meal but the chef's promises to "make a special plate for the kids" and "make you a platter with the meat and the vegetables" turned out to be costly (€53 for lunch, yikes). the girls devoured the spaghetti and polpettine (tiny meatballs) ... and i know it was fresh because we walked through the kitchen to get to the restroom, and he was just putting a pot of water on the stove to boil for their pasta.  

by this point it was 2:30 PM and we decided to lop off a section of Rick Steves' tour so we would have time to see inside the churches along the way. so we headed down the Via Toledo (originally a military road built by the Spanish) towards the Piazza Sette Settembre. again, quoting from Rick Steves: "This square represents the event that precipitated Naples' swift decline. On September 7, 1860, from the white marble balcony of the Neoclassical building overlooking the square, the famous revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi celebrated his conquest of Napes. He declared Italy united and Victor Emmanuel II its first king. And a decade later, that declaration became reality when Rome also fell to unification forces. It was the start of a glorious new era for Italy, Rome, and the Italian people. But not for Naples. Naples' treasury was confiscated to subsidize the industrial explansion of the north, and its bureaucrats were transferred to the new capital in Rome. Within a few decades, Naples went from being a thriving cultural and political capital to a provincial town, with its economy in shambles and its dialect considered backward."

Piazza Sette Settembre

throughout our visit, i had the distinct sense that Naples was the rebellious, creative, loud-mouthed younger brother to cosmopolitan Rome. learning more about her history, it makes perfect sense. but part of the beauty of Naples is her hubris -- there's no pretension, no whitewashing, no keeping-up-with-the-Joneses. it's loud and crowded and exciting. by this point we were getting used to Vespas whizzing past, people calling out to their neighbors from their balconies, and cobblestones that would take out your ankle if you weren't careful. 

we turned onto the Spaccanapoli, the narrow street that "splits Naples" as its name attests. it runs straight from the base of the San Martino hill on the western side, all the way across to the train station in the east. this used to be the main road in the ancient Neapolis. eventually we reached the Piazza Gesu Nuovo, named for the Jesuit church. unfortunately, both the Church of Gesu Nuovo and the Church of Santa Chiara across the street were closed between 1 PM and 4:30 PM (rookie mistake in not checking the hours so we could plan better!). we'll have to come back ... 

looking back towards the San Martino hill

monument in the Piazza Gesu Nuovo

the Gesu Nuovo church

Santa Chiara bell tower

we passed by the Statue of the Nile in the center of old Naples, in what used to be the Egyptian quarter. 

then we walked for about ten minutes to arrive at the Duomo, built in the 1300s. after all the Baroque architecture in Rome, it was a breath of fresh air to see a Gothic cathedral. the Duomo is huge, and both of its side chapels could be churches themselves. in fact, the Chapel of St. Restituta is built on the site of the original early Christian church. 

we first explored the Chapel of St. Restituta, which was originally built in the fourth century. the highlight of this chapel was being able to see the fifth-century baptismal font, in a small room off to the side (they charge €2 per adult to see it and it's worth every cent). there are beautiful mosaics on the ceiling. it was surreal to stand in a place where Christians worshiped 1500 years ago. 

quite the side chapel

the ceiling

Madonna del Principio, a mosaic from the 1300s

we then walked down to the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte, which was most likely built by Severo, Bishop of Naples, in the second half of the fourth century. according to the brochure, "the newly baptized would raise up their faces and admire the extraordinary mosaics which introduced them to a mystic and holy world."

unreal.

mosaic ceiling

moved by this experience, we walked back into the main church and went down into the crypt under the main altar to see the relics of St. Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples. the Miracle of the Blood occurs a few times per year, when St. Gennaro's dried blood (stored in two small vials) liquefies. 

this statue is of a bishop who took St. Gennaro's relics from a nearby town and brought them back to Naples

finally, we made our way to the second side chapel, the Chapel of San Gennaro. there was another small, incredibly beautiful chapel near the crypt, but it was gated off. the Chapel of San Gennaro is filled with silver statues of many saints -- a unique sight. 

the little secret chapel

Chapel of San Gennaro

Mary Victrix

St. Lucy (holding a platter with her eyeballs -- Catholicism is not for the faint of heart)

i would have liked to visit Pio Monte della Misericordia, a small church which holds a beautiful Caravaggio painting, The Seven Works of Mercy, but it had closed at 2:30 PM. it was now a little after 4:30 PM and we decided that we should head back to the hotel where we had left our little suitcase and get to the train station in plenty of time to catch our train. so we had a leisurely walk back in the general direction of the hotel, going up and down alleys, and soaking up every bit of Naples. 

Greta had been asking for a fan all day -- we finally let her pick this one and almost
a week later, she still uses it all the time. 

the Naples version of an obituary: the funeral details are printed on paper and pasted all over the city

along the Via Vicaria Vecchia, which is known for being a hub for the Mafia ... a little beyond this street, we saw someone drive past in a huge sleek black convertible, definitely Mafia material

new baby boy in this house!

this must be part of a float -- it was just sitting out on the street

so many shrines!

at the end of this street, you can just barely make out the guy in the white t-shirt.
he's sitting at a table playing poker with his friends while this car tries to shimmy through.
classic Napoli. 

finally, we arrived at the train station. several of the departing trains were delayed up to 60 minutes because of "a train failure up the line", but ours was listed to depart on time, at 6:05 PM. i asked Nick if we should get food for the girls here in the station, but we had had such a late lunch that we both thought we could just wait and eat once we arrived at home (probably around 7:45 by the time we caught the bus back home from Termini station in Rome). we got settled in our seats, excited to be back in Rome in just an hour's time. and then they announced a 15-minute delay ... and then a 30-minute delay. i decided to go back into the station and get some sandwiches to tide the girls over, but it looked like the closest place to buy substantial food would be downstairs near the metro station. i didn't want to get too far away from the train in case they did leave, so i hurried back to the platform where there were a few large vending machines. at this point, we didn't have any small bills left. i had only €1.40 in change, just enough to buy a bag full of mini Twix -- and when it fell, a sandwich came with it! 

the train did leave about 5 minutes after i got back on board, with no warning whatsoever -- i'm so glad i didn't go further afield in search of food! it was amazing to travel so quickly. looking out at the hills, it didn't seem like we were going that fast, but then we would catch a glimpse of a closer telephone pole streaking past the window and get a sense of our actual speed. 

ciao, Napoli!

i think it was Cece's guardian angel who made sure that sandwich dropped

we arrived at Termini at 8 PM. the travel saga continued, as i realized i didn't have any bus tickets for the journey home. the automatic ticket machines only take small bills, but i figured i could use my credit card. i left Nick and Greta waiting by the station while i descended into the metro to purchase tickets (which are valid for any form of mass transit -- thank you, Rome!). annnnd of course none of the machines would take a card, so back up into the train station i went to try to find something to buy to break my €50 note. i finally found some overpriced hair conditioner, successfully bought the tickets, and came back up from the metro station to find ... no Nick and Greta. looking around, i thought i spied Nick walking off in the other direction across the parking lot, so i hurried after him, but then i couldn't see him anymore. this is really when it would be handy to have a working cell phone ... i just stayed put for about ten minutes, figuring he would come back to where we had split up. maybe Greta needed to use the bathroom or something. when he still hadn't come back, i thought maybe i misunderstood where we were going to meet each other, and walked out towards where the buses depart. and there he was! 

this whole experience at Termini was like an immediate reverse culture shock coming from Naples. it was a bit bizarre, as Rome is like any big city and certainly has its share of litter and crazy drivers, but the train station was so well lit, traffic proceeded at a normal pace and stopped on a dime for pedestrians, and i felt completely safe (while still obviously staying alert). the sidewalks were huge and clean, and -- what's that? very little graffiti! 

anyway, we got seats on the bus (hooray!) and made it safely back home -- later than planned, but all together. we had a marvelous time in Naples and someday soon, i hope, we'll go back!