We went back to Naples to go North and spent one night there, May 8 at the Hotel Napoliviva B&B. We'd read some mixed reports about the city. Linda found an airbnb in a good location but we didn't find any public transportation that got us close. The manager of the airbnb, Dario, arranged for a car service to pick us up at the train station. It's a pretty big station and we were looking for our ride and he spotted us first. There was another rider in the front passenger seat of his car. Our driver, Salvador, was a hoot. He didn't speak English but was using Google translate as he drove and was just a lot of fun. He drove us to about three blocks of our place and then we had to walk because the roads were too narrow to drive. His passenger actually helped pull our luggage down the street and carried a piece to our second floor destination where we checked in.
The street outside of our window.
Our main goal was to go to the National Archilogical Museum of Naples. It was a pleasant walk. A lot of its content is are from Pompeii and Herculaneum. I believe all of the mosaics are from there. They were quite detailed.
The secret room. At one time you needed a govenment pass to view the contents of the secret room. The contents are all about sex and pretty graphic. As we were leaving the room there was a school group getting ready to go inside. I think they were probably junior high age.
We have left the secret room.
The two runners. Found in Herculaneum.
Mosaics from Pompeii or Herculaneum
An astronomical exhibit.
The layout of Pompeii.
We were surprized by the amount of glass found at Pompeii.
Naples is considered to be where pizza got started and Lisa and Jeff's friend Dan had recommended Gino Sorbillo. It was along the way to get back to our room and we got in line shortly before 7PM when the restaurant opens. We thought we would have to wait for a second seating but got in quickly and were seated upstairs. Talking to our hotel manager beforehand he would have gone elsewhere on same street instead of stand in line. We found it excellent. If we had stayed in Naples another day we would definitly have eaten there again.
I must admit we were impressed. Linda had a Margheritta Extraand I had a Marinnara. We would have gone back if we had stayed in town.
Our room from the second floor.
The manager when showing us the place showed us that the lighting on the shower wall changed colors. Here in red.
We had an early start and the manager showed us how to make our own cappuccinos, which came out good, and we ate the same sweets and cereal we would have had later. He had arranged for our driver from yesterday to pick us up where he had dropped us off the day before. He was waiting for us. We did find out his passenger was his wife and he was recently "retired" from the Italian post office.
The train station.
Vesuvius as we leave Naples. Closer than I thought it was. It is still an active volcano.
Our high speed train to Rome. We found that they were well maintained and every train that we were on left and arrived on schedule. There are two seperate companies that run trains on the same tracks. We used an app called Trainline that showed each company and allowed ticketing seamlessly.
