Napoli

As I write this evening's post I am sitting on the 6th floor balcony of my bedroom overlooking the Bay of Naples.  I am listening to the water lapping against the rocks below me, watching the wooden rowboats sway back and forth in the black water, and looking straight across the bay are the twinkling night lights of Sorrento.  This is exactly what the doctor ordered after a long wet day of wandering around the streets of Naples.

 It rained today but that didn't stop me from grabbing my umbrella and seeing what Naples is all about.  I love it. It is almost overwhelmingly chaotic.  The narrow winding streets all seem to be going in an upward direction where I am sure at one point a hill existed.  Now it is row upon row of buildings with laundry hung between them.  The buildings look very old and dark (read...dirty) with graffiti everywhere the eye turns.  Little trattorias, gift shops, clothing stores, tabbaci stores, and farmacias under 6 stories of apartments go as far as the eye can see.  Every once in a while the skinny streets open up into a beautiful piazza with Baroque style statues and water fountains.  Chiesas are scattered about in and around this maze of a city.  And always, the rat-tat-tat of the motorcycles and the honking of horns for the pedestrians to get out of the way or have their toes run over.

Bright produce against filthy walls

I can tell just from the smells the food tastes different here.  More flavor, more color, more spices.  The sounds of la bella lingua all around.  I really need someone to learn this language with me so I can practice when I get home.  Practicing with my taxi drivers and old men next to me on the train just isn't going to cut it.  Especially when the old man wants to practice his English.  Anyhow, it is an interesting place.  I went in to two different churches and saw two Italian weddings.  Beautiful they were in the Italian language with the backdrop of a 600 year old church.  I did think to myself if I were to ever do that again it will be here in Italy...in Italian.

There is a certain allure here.  The streets beckoned me on in spite of the rain. And yet, the whole time I felt as though I was missing something.  In Rome, there are destinations.  The Colosseum, St. Peter's Basilica, etc.  Much of the history of Rome is right out in the open.  Here the "sites" are nestled in with the rest of the chaos and this city is much older than these Baroque buildings.  Turns out I was right.  I did a little research when I got back to my room and apparently there is a whole world underneath me.  Somewhere under this city are the remains of a Greco-Roman theater that seated 6,000 where Nero is said to have sung through an earthquake.  There are catacombs, and bomb shelters, and pagan temples, and ruin upon ruin beneath those who live here now.  Maybe that is what I was feeling.  My history, archeology sniffing nose was right!  Napoli's history is beneath her.

Since I am only here for one night this will have to be a return trip.  Maybe I will journey here again after Positano.  Why not, eh?  It's only an hour on the fast train from Rome and I will be here till the 9th.  Maybe someone will sit next to me and let me practice Italian.