A Day in Napoli

Day Sixteen

Despite the long period of sleep each of us got, none of us were in the mood to be awake at 8:00AM. There was no coffee, no food, and it was foggy enough to be intimidating, but not enough to complain. Massimo came downstairs and asked if we were ready to go. He was dressed in a suit because today he was to accompany a friend to the hospital. The previous day, he had told me that he would drop us off at the chestnut field, leave for a few hours, and return to pick us up. I already knew it would be a lazy day. Only moments after seeing if we were ready, he yelled to me through the door, "Katy!" because this is what he always calls me, "Katy! Or if you like, you may go to Napoli. The weather here is no good, but in Napoli- much better." Not wanting to be the only one with a day off, I turned to the boys, "Napoli?" I shrug, "YES! We much prefer Napoli!" Felipe exclaimed. And that was that.

Massimo drove us to the bus stop in Montefalcione where we were to catch the bus to Avellino and then to Napoli. While we are there, we make friends with heavy accented Italian woman who is apparently from Boston, and a short, slick haired Englishman. They picked our brains about Obama and the dealth penalty which made me a bit uncomfortable. I tried to avoid the whole thing because I figured being undecided would be in my favor- I was later told by Felipe that no matter what I should just say that I love Obama and I will have friends everywhere in Europe. Good to know.

We board the bus and about two hours and a transfer later we are in Napoli. For the first time in our trip, we were both okay with not having any idea where we were or where to go. There were three of us, and one of us knew some Italian so all was well. We wandered around pretty much all day, stopping for a some espresso and then moving onto a pizzeria. In between, though, we passed through a very large and crowded market. We weaved in and out of the screaming Neopolitans; "Prego! Prego!" trying to force their welcomes, but mostly just intimidating us. We saw many clothing vendors (Bras for only 2 Euro! If it is there next time I am buying like 7! Bras are almost $30 back home!), pescherias (which I like to translate as "fishery" but in the context of "witchery" rather than a "hatchery"), and butchers galore. Sitting atop the cooler of one butcher were three large pig heads as though they were trophies. My immediate though was how badly I wanted to bring one home to make head cheese. It was then that we decided to get some lunch- we thought it would be the best idea ever to EACH get a pizza at the restaurant since we were so hungry, but it was pretty unreasonable on our parts. The pizzas were enormous, and I still have no idea how we managed to pack all three of those away in our bellies.

We decided to walk off our pizza babies, and headed towards the archeological museum but were blocked by about 25 polizia and even more up ahead. Uncomfortable, and with my inner voice screaming, "GTFO! GTFO!" Felipe made us keep walking. I say made, but obviously I had a choice a. listen to the voice and stay behind, getting swallowed by the mob of people and separated from the only two humans I know or b. go with my friends. I decided that if it were something that bad I would rather be in danger with my friends than in danger alone- so I followed. Turns out it was just some guys hanging over a balcony a few stories up in protest of some labor dispute. I still do not see the need for that many guns and protective vests if that was all. We finally convinced Felipe to keep moving, and continued through a maze of narrow streets coated alternately in street art and gang tags until we came across a gelateria where we proceeded to eat mass amounts of the ice creamy goodness.

Bellies fuller than we could have imagined, we spent an hour at an internet cafe before heading back to the bus station. On the ride home, we watched Mount Vesuvius in the distance as the clouds surrounded it.