Napoli / Pompeii / Ischia

Naples is a city people generally have quite strong opinions about - they love its energy, its craziness and chaos and its position right on the Bay of Naples, or they hate its violence, dirtiness and traffic mayhem. We found it to be pretty enjoyable - wouldn't say I hate it, but wouldn't say I love it either.

01 Great Neapolitan parking skills

The train station was probably the dirtiest station I've been to, including bus stations in Sth America, it was horrendous. Full of scammers, homeless bums, disgusting toilets, seedy criminals, all looking around with uncomfortable follow-the-tourist eyes. This definitely felt different to the rest of Italy - it's Mafia country down here, and the people are a lot poorer, with much less opportunities than their brothers up north. However, having spoken to a local who worked at the hostel (great guy called Errico), the Neapolitan people are very proud of their city and their region, and they believe that if Naples can get enough attention from the European and Italian governments, and the Mafia can have their power diminished, this city could become as much of a tourist magnet as the nearby Amalfi Coast and island of Capri.

02 Cam and I at castle in Naples

Anyway we didn't actually spend much time in Naples sightseeing - we headed off to an island called Ischia, the volcano Mt. Vesuvius, and the incomparable ruins at Pompeii. In Naples itself we did have allegedly the most authentic Margherita pizza in the world, at a place called Da Michele, which was pretty damn good, and with a queue to match. On the walls were poems written about the Margherita, I thought that was cool. The ingredients of all the pizzas we had in Naples were just so good, that must be what makes them the best. I think you need some kind of certification to make a "traditional" margherita here - they're very proud of them.

Ischia was meant to have better beaches, lower prices, and a less uppity attitude than nearby Capri (where all the movie stars and glitterati hang out). So we went there for our first beach experience in Europe, unfortunately it wasn't a great one - the water was really dirty and full of dead jellyfish, the sand wasn't sand at all - it was grey rocks, and there were large fat German tourists EVERYWHERE. Apparently they come here for the thermal spas or something, but they are not a sight you want to see on a Mediterranean beach. I expected to see fit, tanned, Italian bodies and got fat, white, German ones!

03 The travelling freak show on Mt. Vesuvius

Vesuvius is a big, active, volcano that overlooks the whole Bay of Naples. We got the bus up to a point and climbed for about 20 mins to reach the crater, which was pretty huge and had some great views (No red hot lava like in the Chilean one though!) An old guy who runs a tourist shop halfway up explained to us that he had worked as a chairlift operator for over 30 years, but about 12 years ago the chairlift broke and hasn't been fixed since - and he said "I am the victim". He had some cool stories, and spoke in about 6 languages, but no doubt just did it to increase the shop's popularity.

Pompeii was fantastic, we didn't really know what to expect. It's pretty much a whole town from the first century AD, when Vesuvius erupted and covered it, leaving it to be discovered about one millennium later. Its the collection of Roman ruins that are the best preserved. Original Roman Empire roads, buildings, tons of columns, wall paintings, gladiator stadiums and amphitheatres, necropoli (?), and even brothels. Definitely worth the visit, as much as we are a little "ruin-ed out" from Mexico, it was something completely different.

04 Old stuff at Pompeii

05 Gladiators in a Pompeii Amphitheatre

06 Christians vs Lions stadium

07 Gladiators take 2

08 Being fashionable on Ischia beach

09 Ode to the Margherita (pizza) at Da Michele's