20-22 April 2017
Rick Steves - a well known and followed travel writer - says this about Naples: "Naples is Italy in the extreme - its best (birthplace of pizza and Sophia Loren) and its worst (organized crime - the Mafia)...Naples has a brash and vibrant street life - 'Italy in your face'...Walking through this colorful old town is one of my favorite experiences anywhere in Europe."
We went into Naples with a lot of forewarning about its grittiness and overbearing nature. So we walked in (drove at first to parking) with much wariness (and apprehension?, yes, we think so). By the time we left, we felt it was an experience that we would have missed greatly if we hadn't done it. It actually grew on us in a good way (or was it that we were happy to have survived it unscathed...hmmmm). Really, the character of the people there and their pizza make all the difference.
We went into Naples with a lot of forewarning about its grittiness and overbearing nature. So we walked in (drove at first to parking) with much wariness (and apprehension?, yes, we think so). By the time we left, we felt it was an experience that we would have missed greatly if we hadn't done it. It actually grew on us in a good way (or was it that we were happy to have survived it unscathed...hmmmm). Really, the character of the people there and their pizza make all the difference.
This is NOT pizza !!
Still NOT pizza !?
Tim's dad, as a US Navy sailor, came into this port about 65 years ago aboard the USS Adirondack and served here 1952/1953. He also described the city's grittiness, and the legendary pizza. Apparently not a whole lot has changed in all those years.
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Naples Archaeological Museum - Rick Steves gives it his highest attraction rating. This sculpture, Toro Farnese, is of a Greek Myth scene and at 13 feet, it's the tallest ancient marble group ever found, and largest intact statue from antiquity. It's a 3rd century copy of a lost bronze Hellenistic (Greek) original, and carved from one piece of marble. Michelangelo did restoration work on it in the 16th century.
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The museum has many pieces from Pompeii, brought there to protect them.
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This father and son portrait was the only one found in Pompeii portraying real people, thought to actually have lived in Pompeii.
A study model of Pompeii.
 |  A celebration of seafood - perhaps from a fisherman's house in Pompeii. |
| Where is the pizza?!  | Release the pizza!  |
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Sailing and lounging in the shadow of Vesuvius.
How you enclose a city block and create a massive arcade.
"I decree there shall be pizza for all!"
Pizza here is not a masterpiece in looks, but a true masterpiece in taste.
And there was celebration in the streets...
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Another pizza place, one of the people's favorites in the city.
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And the people of the city were well fed, satisfied, and put in the digestive repose.
Pizza and a movie anyone?
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