Weekend in Naples Part 2: Buses, Art, Pizza,

Wrong South, but you get the idea

          In order to accurately write about the places I've been, I feel it's necessary to touch on the negative experiences as well as the positive ones, which brings me to Neapolitan transportation. The public transportation in Naples kinda sucks and it's really the only way to get around the region without a car or paying a ridiculous amount of money for a taxi. The trains are old, dingy and graffitied on the outside and look like they haven’t changed in 20-30 years on the inside. Both the trains and buses are dirty and a little scary. I felt like washing my hands and taking a shower after spending all day on the Metro. I admit I don’t like buses in general and I hate feeling dirty, so I might have a lower tolerance for this than some people, but I think the rest of group felt the same way. And that’s not to mention the sketchy people we were crammed in with. There was at least one instance of someone trying to pickpocket us and there were a lot of—let’s say, suspicious-looking people. I kept a tight grasp on my babies (my wallet and phone) the whole time.

The Italian teenagers we shared an uncomfortable bus ride with

On one bus ride, we were crammed in like sardines with a ton of rowdy Italian teenagers going out on a Saturday night (the drinking age is much lower here), which was, as you can imagine, unpleasant, especially considering that when the bus showed up, we had to literally run to the bus and push and shove our way through the door just to get on the bus. Thankfully, they only rode a few stops while we had to take it much farther.

            The one good story I have about public transportation is during the train ride from our hostel to Sorrento. At one of the stops, a group of musicians boards and played traditional music in the middle of the car. There was a saxophonist, a couple percussionists, a trumpeter, and an accordion player, I think. It reminded me of a mariachi band, but playing more Italian-style music. It made the train ride just that much better.

The metro station in Portici, where our hostel was

         The transportation is reflective of the different flavor Naples has compared to Rome. It reminds you that Italy has only been a unified country for 150 years and there are still clear regional differences. Naples has historically been a poorer, working class community and this shows. Once you get out of Napoli, the region reminds me more of how I imagined Eastern Europe than Italy.  There are also many older, dingy and falling down-looking buildings covered graffiti. There was also a lot of agricultural land, which I wasn’t expecting. I remember seeing a goat hanging out in someone’s backyard and saying, “Look, it’s a goat!” but no one really cared and the locals all looked at me weird.

Downtown Napoli

         On the final day, we decided to explore the city of Napoli. The different vibe the region has is also seen in the city. It was colorful and vibrant and definitely different than Rome. The shop employees seemed less likely to speak English and there are less upscale, touristy restaurants. Though it has its fair share of tourists, it's less glossy and Westernized and therefore seemed to show a more unadulterated view of Italian culture.

         I was totally fine with this though. Before I came here, when I pictured “Italy” in my head, the image I had looked a hell of a lot more like Napoli than Rome. Rome feels like a lot of other big cities I’ve been too, with certainly some differences, but Napoli, and really southern Italy in general, is where it hit me that I was unmistakably in another country. Don't get me wrong, I love Rome so far and I really liked Napoli, but they're different. I feel like I would've experienced much more culture shock had I gone to Napoli first.

        Since we were all carrying our heavy bags, we didn’t get to see the much of the city, but I really liked what I saw.

        We visited the Archeological Museum there because it was free for the day. It’s apparently one of the largest collections of Roman and Greek artifacts in the world. There is room after room of huge classical statues and art ranging from frescos to mosaics and it’s all amazing. My favorite thing there were the classical statues, for two reasons. First, holy crap, man. How do you go from a slab of marble to an insanely detailed and beautiful piece of art? Often times the sculptors didn’t go as far as the pupils in the eyes, but otherwise, everything else was so detailed, they might as well have just been marble melted over the actual people like in the cheesy 50s horror movie, House of Wax. I sometimes just stopped and stared at the statues and marveled at how intricate they all are. To create even one of them must have taken years of extremely hard work and a lot more patience and dedication than I have for art. Second, the faces are often amusingly expressive. Take these examples:

That was one of my favorite parts about the museum and general: the goofy quirks the artwork had. You can show me a picture of the Mona Lisa 100 times but I’d much rather see insane art like this: 

Like, what the hell is even going on here? There’s white and black people, that’s fairly obvious. But but one is riding a croc and another is killing a hippo and the hippo’s eating another one and then there’s just this dead body laying there. Oh, and everyone's head is disproportionally large. This painting is pure chaos. I looked and laughed at this thing for a couple minutes just trying to figure out what was going on. Needless to say, this was probably my favorite piece of art in the museum. 

Pizzaria Donna Sophia's Bella Napoli pizza

         Pizza was invented in Naples, so naturally we had to get a lot of it while we were there. Neapolitan pizza is wetter and the toppings are more liquid-y than in America. The best pizza we had was in Napoli, just before we left. I ordered a pizza with ham, fresh tomatoes, arugula, and local cheese. This thing has to be one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had. The tomatoes especially were delicious. These were  some of the ripest, sweetest, juiciest tomatoes I've ever had. I at the whole thing, probably against better judgment, and left Napoli extremely satisfied.

       Overall, the places we went and things we saw were amazing, but getting there and getting around were less than amazing. Still a good trip in my book.