Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Domingo en Napoli

Our first day in Napoli, we visited several of the architectural sights including the Gallaria Umberto in the main part of town along via Toledo. It seemed that most of Napoli was out enjoying the fine day. Families crowded the large Piazza Plebicito with small boys playing soccer with their parents. We arrived right at noon so the church bells were ringing. We walked up via Toledo lined with cafes, pastry shops, shoe stores, and clothing stores, amongst throngs.
We spent much of the afternoon in the archeological museum which had a tremendous collection of mosaics, frescoes, statues, and everyday objects that had been recovered from the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum. We were most impressed with the artistry and beauty of the mosaics and the blown glassware that managed to survive the heat of the 79 AD Vesuvius eruption.
After a few challenges buying metro tickets and walking through some sketchy neighborhoods we managed to get on the train and arrived back in the lovely Mergallina neighborhood to our home in an 1890s apartment block complete with courtyard and stables.






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