Naples & Pompeii!!

I arrived in Naples yesterday afternoon and it is definitely different from the other ports we have docked at.  The city is very dirty and lots of people were coming back to the ship saying that the surrounding area is really sketchy.  I know Naples is a popular tourist spot so I feel like we must just be docked in the wrong part of town.  Anyway, I relaxed and ate dinner on the ship last night then went out to do a little exploring with Janae.  Her tour guide from the morning told her the area is alright if you go to the right of the ship and stay along the shoreline, so that is basically what we did.  We went out in search of gelato but it was nowhere to be found.  We literally walked for about an hour looking for anything and I know there were gelaterias on every corner in Rome so I was surprised that there weren’t any here.  The shoreline was still cute and there were lots of people out strolling so we felt pretty safe.  We ended up settling for some freshly grilled corn on the cob from a street vendor which was no gelato, but still pretty good.  Then we went back to the ship and headed to bed.

This morning I had a SAS trip to Pompeii that left at 8:30am.  We took a bus for about 40min and had a tour guide talking to us the whole way about the history of Naples and all the towns we were passing.  Pompeii was really cool because the town is completely preserved – it was so crazy!  Everything built in Rome was really over the top because it was such a large city and gathering place, but Pompeii was just a regular town that used to be right on the sea in ancient times.  The highlights of the tour were definitely the brothel (because they have preserved images that were on the walls to help clients choose what they wanted) and the massive town square.  The city was huge and it was crazy how so much of it was still standing.  The other really neat part to see was an area holding all the things that had been excavated from the site such as pots, tools, etc.  They also have plaster moldings of people who died in the volcano in the exact position that they died in – mostly covering their face with their hands to protect themselves from the ash.  When the ash cloud covered the city it then hardened around the bodies that it covered and then over time the bodies decomposed leaving a cavity in the shape that their body was in, so archaeologists poured plaster into the cavities and now have the molds of these people – it was really interesting to see.

Then we took the bus back to Naples but on the way stopped at this factory to see how they make this special kind of jewelry that is carved out of seashells.  It was really amazing art and the tour company gets commission on if we buy things but I just looked around and took pictures haha.  When we got back to Naples it was about 1:00pm so we had a little while to walk around the town.  We went to get pizza for lunch at Castel Nuovo.  I had an amazing one that was mozzarella, ricotta, and salami folded in half like a calzone – it was delicious!  We continued to walk around and wanted to shop a little but it is Sunday so everything was closed.   We looked at a few street vendors, but there wasn’t anything too exciting so we just headed back to the ship around 4:00pm.

Tonight for dinner on the ship they had a 4th of July themed cookout.  It was definitely the best meal we have had by far.  They had potato salad, macaroni salad, regular tossed salad, ribs, hot dogs, hamburgers, and all the toppings on the side.  They also had a giant 4th of July cake and a wide variety of desserts including an ice cream sundae bar.  Even though I was still full from my giant pizza at lunch, I still ate a ton of food because I knew it would be the best we would probably ever have.  As far as the rest of the night, everyone is pretty busy because we always have papers and such due after we leave a port and we only have one day of classes before arriving in Croatia!