We took a train from Rome to Naples; it was scenic as you can see parts of the coastline. We were lucky it was a lovely day. It was a cultural shock when we got off the train at the station. Naples was different after Rome, Venice, and Florence; those cities are bright, open, and relatively clean. On the other hand, Naples is grimy and dark, and rubbish is everywhere. The footpath was hard to walk down as it was uneven. It is really noticeable when you have to drag something like a suitcase. (We only had a small bag, which is manageable.) Another thing about Naples is that it is car-centric, as there are parked cars everywhere, and most of them look pretty beat up. Also, it was hilarious when crossing the road because at crossings, cars will be driving at full speed, so you don’t walk down, but then they hit the brakes really hard and honk at you to cross. They are aggressive but considerate drivers. Anyway, let’s get to what we (my sister Janki, and I) saw.

National Archaeological Museum

The National Archaeological Museum is a 5-10-minute walk from the station, so it was our first stop. It has a lot of bronze statues, which are rare as they were melted for the bronze, unlike the marble and stone ones. It also included a lot of paintings from Pompeii and Herculaneum, among other things found there. There was also an ancient Egypt exhibition, which was pretty interesting, based on what they highlighted here.

One of the exhibitions is a recreation of the town of Pompeii, which is much larger than I thought it would be. I liked seeing the mosaics and paintings and how colourful these places were during that time. Learning about Pompeii here was nice, so we could focus on seeing things when visiting it. We stayed till the museum closed.

Pizzeria Hermanos and Bar Brazil

For dinner, we went to a Pizzeria to have Neapolitan pizza. We had two pizzas, with bruschetta and split them in half. It was my first time having Neapolitan pizza (obviously). I liked the delicious base, and I liked the sauciness of the pizza. It was nice and filling, and I had been going for pasta instead of pizza, so it was nice to have that for a change.

Another cool food place we visited was Bar Brazil, which was close to where we stayed. Tuesday morning, it was crowded. I brought a pastry and the obligatory coffee. It was really good, so we returned to get something else. Can you tell me that my European travel motto was holiday calories don’t count? I had a pistachio-based cornetto and another fruit tart-type thing.

Pompeii

Pompeii is not in Naples, but it is a short train ride away, and the station is at the site’s entrance. I first learned about Pompeii in Year 9 when we went on a field trip to the Pompeii exhibition at Te Papa in Wellington. For those who don’t know, Pompeii is an ancient Roman city buried by the Mt Vesuvius eruption in 79AD. The volcanic ash buried the town and was largely abandoned until it was rediscovered in the 16th century. It is both harrowing, educational, and quite ominous, given Mt Vesuvius’s presence.

We arrived to spend the whole day there. Modern facilities are available, like a cafe, and water fountains, rubbish bins, and toilets are found throughout the site. The map provided a lot of information on the types of buildings they have, including houses, bakeries, temple sites, etc. There is also an amphitheatre (below) where Pink Floyd recorded a concert film, and it has excellent acoustics despite being built so long ago!

Many houses had art painted on the walls and mosaics on the floor, which was not what I expected, as I had imagined the walls to be plain back then. Another assumption that was challenged while I was walking through was the role of women in Ancient Rome as many of the building patrons were women. There was an exhibition about the women of Pompeii, and they could identify women’s way of life from these sites. Upper-class women were in charge of finances in the household back then, despite not working, and they had safes for their valuables that even their husbands could not access. Really shows how misguided the red-pill men are about traditional gender roles and how most of it is only about control.

I found it pretty interesting that there is graffiti on some of the sites, like old Latin from the people living here. But there is also graffiti from our modern times, with people having signed their name and date. The date in question, sometime in the 1800s! Like that is sort of history itself in its own way. I wish I had taken a picture of it. It really goes to show that, as things change, the more they stay the same.

They do have some bodies that they had excavated still at the site. Seeing those is sad; most lie down with their hands covering their faces. However, many died instantly, which makes you realise how scary and painful it must have been for them in their final minutes. This tragedy was invaluable in understanding the ancient Romans and their customs. Still, it is just a reminder that many real people, living real lives, had to die to make that happen.

Final Thoughts

I think the biggest lesson I took away from visiting Pompeii, and all the other historical places I visited in Italy, is that I don’t matter! What I mean is I am insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Millions of people were here before me, and millions will be here after; I don’t matter. I have people who will miss me if I weren’t here. But my decisions won’t change the world or have earth-shattering consequences. This is not to say that we don’t have a voice or a platform and should completely not care about the environment, because everything helps. But I felt guilty for pulling all-nighters for my assignments because I had to keep the light on. I am not a politician or a celebrity who will change the world; I am just a regular person, and my life decisions don’t affect anyone but me. It just helps me to be less hard on myself that everything is not the end-all be-all because my life, choices, thoughts, and even my body will be washed away by history.

Look, I forgot to mention, I had forgotten my hayfever medication and was dying. Did you know how much pine there is in Pompeii? I didn’t, but I bit the bullet after a week of suffering through Italy. I went to buy hayfever medicine; luckily, the pharmacy in Naples was helpful, despite the language barrier, although it was expensive. Overall, we had some great food here. Naples is cheaper than the other cities in Italy, but it is pretty grimey. We were walking past shops where they sold katanas and guns! They also don’t have a good bus system. We waited 30 minutes to take a bus to the airport, then decided to walk the 40 minutes to the airport instead. Like that wouldn’t happen in Auckland on a weekday! So yeah, a lot of navigating, no!