Day One - Naples

Random plinth we found in
Pompeii

Today we went to Pompeii and the Museo Archilogica Nazionale (National Archaeological Museum). Pompeii was hot and very still so that didn't help and made it feel hotter! We left Naples an hour later than expected but left the Pompeii ruins about two hours earlier so we totally overestimated the time we would spend. By the end of Pompeii (12:30) we were nasty and grossly sweaty so decided to go back to the hostel for a siesta-style break. Pompeii was ruins and to be honest that's all there was. There were a couple of rooms which had an odd table still in it but the table was roped off and you couldn't even get into the room. I was a little dissapointed with Pompeii because I expected it to be much...more and it just wasn't. Still worth the trip but don't get your hopes up.

Aditi and Milly being dramatic

We went to lunch at the famed Sorbillo (after our short trip to Pompeii) which was INCREDIBLE. The pizzas were literally a work of art and very different to pizza - even good pizza - anywhere else. We went back for dinner.

Our first shady spot (Pompeii)

Aditi in the main church(?) in
Pompeii

We then went to the Museo Nazionale which was fairly interesting but a but typical for a museum: a lot of busts and statues of Greek people eg. Augustus, Marcus Aurelius etc. There was a really cool room with a spectacular ceiling and a dozen big paintings, one of which (Milly informed us) was of Adam.

Gabinetto Segreto

Then we found the Gabinetto Segreto (Secret Room). It's a section of the museum dedicated to brothel-style art: frescos, sculptures and figurines. It was actually pretty fascinating to learn about the history behind the room - there used to be rooms like the Gabinetto Segreto in most museums around the time that people started lobbing off male sculptures endowments, this one happened to be one of the most notorious and thus one of the most famous. Interestingly, a lot of the pieces were from Pompeii, which (like this particular Gabinetto Segreto) was infamous for it's more risque lifestyle and artwork. We seemed to have developed a knack of finding nice shady spots in amongst all the culture, unfortunately once we had sat for about half an hour in the shady spot in the museo we decided that the rest of it would simply be far too exhausting. We went back to the hostel and relaxed in the common room (also called the Pillow Room, although there was a definite lack of pillows) until dinner then when back to the museum that is Sorbillo.

We're leaving the hostel at 5:30am to get our first intercity train to Rome so must go and pack.

-Laura