Naples: Back Into the Lions Den

    .... Naples. Oh my. What can I say about Naples? I have never been to a dirtier city. A city where I felt so unsafe. Upon arriving, my friend and I were immediately confronted with the fact that our booking agent had booked us a hotel that was not within walking distance, so we had to take the bus and we would continue to for the next three days. That was one of the most unpleasant experiences I have ever had. Humans are not meant to live the way people are living in Naples; squished like sardines, and treated like trash by the people around them. I hated it there. 

   I know, I know I sound really harsh, but at this point in the trip I was already really overwhelmed by the previous mishaps and here I was stuck in this dirty city in a hotel that was completely cut off from anything else. We had come to Naples to visit Herculaneum and Pompeii, two archaeological sites that are outside the city. We couldn't just walk to them, and we couldn't walk to the train station either. I've never felt so trapped. We went to Herculaneum on our first day in Naples and had a terrible experience trying to get there. I called my sister and cried while my friend sat at the only nearby restaurant. Getting back was even worse. We had to walk through the town at night, find the train station, and hop on the only train back to Naples, a rickety, sketchy thing that took us to a station far out of our way. Then, we were stranded in Naples again, so I cried some more, and we finally decided to just get a taxi because we couldn't find our bus. Bye bye money. To top it off, that night I was online and found out that, for Rome, our booking agent had gotten us a hotel near the airport, which is forty minutes outside of the city! I couldn't even imagine trying to commute into the city every day. I didn't know what to do about Rome, and I wasn't even sure how we would get to Pompeii in the morning. That was my last straw and I had a panic attack. 

   I'm not going to go into a bunch of detail about how poor this experience was for me, because I don't really feel like talking about it, nor do I think you want to hear about it. But traveling alone is no joke, and I cannot say that I have gone away feeling empowered and inspired to do it again. I left this experience drained and unsure of myself, wishing it had gone differently. Italy has been a dream destination for years now, and I struggle with feeling jaded. As if the thrill of my first trip there was overshadowed by anxiety, a lack of appetite, and constantly having to deal with new issues. Even though I enjoyed many experiences and places, my memories are still tainted with the lingering anxiety I felt from the trip as a whole. 

   I'm not saying that my whole experience was bad. I'm so grateful I got to go, and I had some incredible experiences. But it also wasn't easy, and I was confronted with a lot of hard things. I just want to share all sides of my experience here. I know it doesn't sound that bad, but at the moment, it was really hard to keep calm and relinquish control when I didn't feel like I had any to begin with. 

  Anyways, thankfully, we called our booking agent and she found us a better hotel in Rome that was only seven minutes from the train station and seventeen from the Colosseum. We also got a full refund for the other hotel. Praise God! My friend found a bus that could take us to Mount Vesuvius in the morning and that night I went to bed exhausted from the tears, but hoping for a better tomorrow. 

Archaeological sites tend to have lots of resident kitties, which is 
fine with me. This was Herculaneum's resident kitty. He matched
the sun as it set over the Mediterranean. 

I never actually got to go to the ocean. :( Uh oh, I guess 
I just have to come back to the Mediterranean later. 

Herculaneum was a port city; one of the boats survived and could be preserved. As you can probably imagine, this was very exciting to me. 

These counters with pots are all over the ancient cities. 
Your first guess might be toilets, but these are designed to hold soup.
Yep, it's a fast-food joint. 

Standing in one of these villas after reading about them and writing stories set in them
for so many years was a surreal experience. Go figure, they look exactly as the textbooks 
described them. Each house. Textbook.

Smiling through the pain because this was my first Roman city. :) 

Look at these mosaics!!!!

Me, Herculaneum, and Mount Vesuvius

   Day two of Naples went better than day one. We still had issues trying to get from Mount Vesuvius to Pompeii because we didn't have cash, but God sorted things out, and I still got to have two incredible experiences that fulfilled the dreams of both Middle School me, and current me; Hike to the top of a volcano and visit the world best preserved ancient city.

The view from the top of Mount Vesuvius

It was hard to get a good picture of the crater, however, this
is the crater formed from Mount Vesuvius' most recent eruption. 
The first eruption in 79 AD blew the top off and now there are two peaks.
Although it is dormant, steam still rises from the crater. Also, the echo is incredible. :) 

Found a little cave

   After visiting the volcano, we went to Pompeii. We had a great tour guide who gave us a lot of useful information about the city. She was an archaeologist and I appreciated her attention to detail. Instead of focusing on general knowledge about Roman history, she focused on how people lived and how their lives and society were preserved by the volcano. 

Pompeii's resident kitty. No one else even bothered to pet him. 
I cannot even fathom passing up that opportunity. Oh, to be a cat living
in an ancient city, exploring wherever you please. 

If you look closely, you can see grooves in the road
at my feet. Those are from the frequent travel of chariots and carts.

The entrance to the city from the original port

   I was so excited to visit my first theater. I've always wanted to go to a traditional Greek/Roman theater and sit and read one of my favorite Greek plays. (Sadly, I didn't have the chance to do that on this trip.) I've always been fascinated with Greek theater design because their acoustics are incredible. The idea is that anybody who stands in the Choir (the area just below the stage) or on the stage itself and whispers will be heard by the person sitting in the uppermost row of the theater. I tried it. It didn't work. I think it WAS because a kid was screaming, also this was a Roman theater, not a Greek theater, and Roman theaters are notoriously of poorer design. 

Trying to pose for a cute photo

But being too excited to take it seriously. 

In the Forum (City center)

The Gymnasium!!!

Many of the frescoes have survived in Pompeii, meaning
that one does not have to imagine how beautiful these homes would 
have once been. 

These stepping stones were designed so that people could cross the street
without getting their feet covered in muck(to put it politely)
They were just wide enough that two horses side by side
could slip past and just tall enough that a chariot could pass over. 
today, this standard measurement (the width between two chariot wheels) is still 
used for train tracks. 

We watched the sun set over the Forum and the ocean in the distance. 
It descended over the heart of the city and sank between the two pillars that marked
the entrance. I think perhaps the Romans designed it to be so because it
was straight out of a storybook. 

   So at the end of the day, good things came from Naples, but that doesn't mean they came easily. At this point, I was praying Rome would be better, because it was that city that I'd spent half my life dreaming about, and I didn't think I could bear to be disappointed.