Naples

Discovered in a Villa in the ruins of Pompeii

We thought that we should build on the boys' interest of Pompeii  by visiting the Museo Arch Nazionale of Naples.  In 1800, the king of Naples decided to fund the excavation of Pompeii and in return, he insisted that the loot (treasures in antiquity) be removed from Pompeii and shipped to Naples to be housed at the Museo.

Not sure if his intentions were as perfect as the result but the Museo is housed with 1,000s, literally 1,000s, of masterpieces dating from the period surrounding the building and ultimate death of the city of Pompeii - approximately 400BC to 79AD. 

You can reference our earlier Pompeii blog for more specifics on 'how' many treasures did not disintegrate during the eruption.  


The drive to Naples (or nipples as the boys liked to call it.  And when I reference boys, I almost always include Calvin) was 111 kms from where we were staying.  This distance can take anywhere from 1-3
hours in Italy, depending on the traffic and road construction.  Italy’s road planning and construction is difficult to understand.  We have been on four lane highways where we see a car every 10-15 minutes and we have been on two way streets connecting cities 100kms apart with cars lined up bumper to  bumper the entire way. Our trek involved the latter and it took a full two hours to get to Naples. Now most 'bad' things and some 'good' things in Southern Italy are blamed on the Mafia - I'm not sayin' I know  for sure, but I'm guessing the four lane highways to nowhere connect the  'connected' and the two way streets to major centers are not four lane highways due to some level of resistance to our friends in Sicily.

 If the major road ways are difficult to comprehend, you should try driving in downtown Naples (actually, you should NEVER try driving in downtown Naples). Calvin has driven in a lot of large, congested cities in the world but nothing compared to our day in Naples.  There are no lines on the roads which should serve as the first indicator of impending chaos.  As many cars as could fit within the two curbs jousted for position as we drove into the city Centro.  Horns are used with such frequency that they are rendered useless and only a few tourists seem to react.  The car shakes constantly as if you are driving in a blender with 1,000 year old cobble stone streets for roads.  You need to manoeuvre around tire shredding potholes.  There are almost no parks in Naples, and with a few million residents, it has the highest population density in all of Europe.  Vespa’s’ filled with entire families dodge in and out of free spaces as they form between vehicles like water filling crevices in the roadways.  We watched a couple on a Vespa with their two children negotiate their way forward with perfect precision. The dad drove with the baby on his lap while chatting on his cell phone and the youngest (approximately 5) sat between dad and mom while mom carried his tricycle on the very back of the Vespa. 
 
We finally found a parking spot and had to cross two streets to get to the Museo but it was more than worth it.  There were coins,  necklaces, bracelets, rings, frescos cut from walls of mansions, statues from parks and wealthy homes, 50 years of  records and contracts (actually wax documents) used to track the business of  the local banker included legal agreements, rental agreements, loans,  etc..  We have been taught that the renaissance painters introduced us to perspective in their works of art but the artists of the first century BC used perspective in their mosaics, paintings and sculptures nearly 1,400 years prior.  Not only was the city of Pompeii relatively intact but you could rebuild the lifestyle of a local Pompeian from the items recovered.  We know how much the average person made each year, saved each year and how much things cost.  Records show us how much it cost for a loaf of bread, a tunic, the cleaning of a tunic, treats at the local fast food joint where you could get ice cream, an afternoon at  the gym and sauna afterwards as well as an hour at your favourite  brothel.  If we had brought a tote bag we could have taken some of the treasures home with us.


Most of the stuff was not bolted to the walls but hung freely for all to touch (which we didn't) or pocket (which we didn't).  There were security guards everywhere but most could not make the run from one side of a room to another without an oxygen tank and almost all were focused on their crossword puzzles.  Seriously, every security guard we saw was completing a crossword puzzle - perhaps they handed them out at the beginning of the day and there was some bonus associated with the most complete or correct.  We did note that most security guards were one shave away from a Tony Soprano look alike. We spent a few hours wandering around this Museo admiring the work of artist's creations from over 2,000 years ago - Uffizi and the Louvre have nothing compared to this. 

When it was time to leave the Museo, we had to tiptoe our way through a group of protestors.  Not sure what they were protesting.  There were 30+ Museo patrons gathered near the exit awaiting the removal of the protestors but the security guards never appeared (no surprise to us).  

Hunger is a great motivator so Calvin picked up Devin and started to tip toe his way through the protestors  Aidan, Noah and I followed to the heckling of the crowd which we didn't understand anyway but I did recognize a few swear words from my childhood  playing with the Italian kids on the streets of Toronto.

We were hungry and were planning to trek to the world's first ever pizza restaurant for lunch.  Yes, pizza started in Naples and the restaurant credited with starting it all is Antica Pizzeria del Michele. In June 1889, to honour the Queen consort of Italy, Margherita of Savoy, the Neapolitan chef Raffaele Esposito created the "Pizza Margherita," a pizza garnished with tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and basil, to represent the colors of the Italian flag. He was the first to add cheese.  The sequence through which flavored flatbreads of the ancient and medieval Mediterranean became the dish popularized in the 20th century is not fully understood.

We highly recommend this Museo but only after you have visited Pompeii so you can better appreciate where these works of arts resided prior to the Museo and how fortunate we are to be able to view them.

We did go to the "first Pizzeria” and once we realized we needed a number, we stood in line for about 40 minutes before being seated.  A simple Margherita pizza (that was delicious by the way) at a modest restaurant at a modest price was a great ending to our day in Naples.  If Pizza was not born here, it was perfected here.  

 As we have mentioned, Italy is an interesting place and Naples might win the award for the 'Most Italian' city we have visited.  There is not a lot of tourism here and unless some things change, there will likely not be more in the near future. Find a tourist bus or metro, take it into the city, visit the Museo and a nearby pizza joint and get the hell out of there.

It took us 30 minutes to navigate through 2 kms of streets to get to the highway.  We made our way to the top of Mount Vesuvius for an incredible sunset.  It was just us, a couple from Germany and the usual pack of stray dogs admiring a tremendous sunset (the dogs came up to us, sat at our feet and watched the sunset with us – most refined) and view of the valley below.  In the east, a storm cloud built and we could see a lightning storm in the distance after the sun had set in the west.  Another great ending to a crazy but wonderful day.