Naples, Pompeii and Capri

Richard in a Pompeii house
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Let me get this out of the way: Naples is the filthiest city I've ever visited. It may as well be classified as a garbage dump rather than a city. There's garbage EVERYWHERE, and in no small amounts. I try not to let it bother me, but its really difficult to get past. Now that I've mentioned it, however, I can move on to the good stuff.

When we arrived we checked into the hostel we were staying at: 6 Small Rooms. This hostel is definitely one of the best we've been to so far, in my opinion. Its made up of, you guessed it, 6 dorm rooms in an apartment. There are 3 bathrooms, which resolves the usual issues with this configuration. But what sets this place apart from others like it is definitely the kitchen and the TV room. The kitchen has one big table with chairs all around, and the TV room contains several couches and a heap of DVDs. Both these rooms really make settling in with the other backpackers easy, and everyone is talking with everyone by the end of their first day.

Seeing an almost perfectly preserved city from 2000 years ago is incredible

Pompeii snack bar
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In the afternoon of our first day, we decided to head out to Pompeii. Word of advice: never visit Pompeii when its really hot; there's not much shade, and even less water taps. Nevertheless, we were there for 3 hours and it was fantastic, albeit overly hot and sticky. Seeing an almost perfectly preserved city from 2000 years ago is incredible; its a completely different experience seeing the roman ruins in Rome, which are far was perfectly preserved.

We cooked some pasta at the hostel both nights, but it was too easy to get pizza for lunch on both days. Naples is the home of pizza and its everywhere, dirt cheap, and very tasty. A good sized Margherita pizza can cost you as little as 2.50€.

Elena in Pompeii
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On the second day we headed out to Capri, which as it turns out is an expensive enterprise. Expensive but totally worth it. The ferry over is 30€ return and takes about 1.5 hours. Once there we grabbed some lunch and hopped on a boat (13€) that took us around the island. The view was amazing. Better still, though, was that halfway around the island you could jump into a rowboat (10€) and get rowed into the "blue grotto", which gets its name from the way the sunlight causes the bluer than blue water to glow inside the grotto like there was a light underneath. Absolutely beautiful.

Elena on the boat in Capri
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On the third day we went around Naples on a hop on/off bus. Unfortunately the major attraction for us, the archaeological museum, was closed on Tuesdays. Who closes on Tuesdays, honestly? Regardless, we still had a great day and visited a few sites, including the royal palace.

It was finally time to say ciao to Italy and prepare for our 12 hour train to Slovenia.