“That man just exposed himself to us” -Pleasures and Displeasures of Naples, Sorrento, Capri and Pompeii

Hi CHP,

This weekend, Greg Mo, his roommates Matt and Gary, my Greg, and I went on a weekend excursion to the coast of Italy. We booked our trip through a group called EuroAdventures, which seemed like a good idea. In the future, I would not book with them again, because our transportation to and from Rome was late… lots of “unexpected costs” etc… but ANYWAYS…

We stayed in a town called St. Agnello, which is one train stop away from the lovely vacation town of Sorrento, and about a half hour away from Pompeii. We stayed in a hotel called Esperidi, which had little bungalows for two and four people. It was really nice! The whole hotel was surrounded with lemon trees (as this area of Italy is known for its Limoncello), and overall it was a nice choice.

The first day that we were there, we decided to go to Pompeii. Greg Mo and I were really excited about this, as it is one of the most well preserved archaeological sites in the WORLD. The train ride was on the Circumvesuviano… which means around Mt. Vesuvius. As we approached Pompeii, we could see the close proximity of the ancient city and the volcano.. which would explain why the eruption killed EVERYONE, in 79 AD.

The entrance charge for Pompeii was 11 euro, and you had the option of a guided audio tour. We decided to navigate the city on our own. Pompeii is enormous for those who haven’t been there. It was basically a lively Roman city, surrounded by a gate. It has temples, basilicas, baths, amphitheaters, homes, brothels, restaurants, a shopping district… you name it, Pompeii had it….

This is part of the ancient shopping district, where the Pompeiians went to buy their Prada, Gucci, and knock-off handbags of course…

A temple which opened onto one of the main streets…

The Temple of Apollo…

Greg really liked the Temple…

I also enoyed the architecture…

Fantastic frescoes and mosaic tile floors….

The theater…

Lavish homes….

Dead people…

And of course, an abundance of pornography. This wall painting, located in the House of the Vetti, is the fertility god, Priapus. He is weighing his phallus with a bag of coins, as an omen against bad luck and a call for prosperity…he looks pretty prosperous to me…

The “Lupanar”, or brothel, had a sort of “menu” on the wall, which the patron could point at to request what he wanted…

Apparently Pompeii had 25 or more brothels which have been identified by their colorful wall art!

And I kid you not, the average fee for a visit to this brothel was described as “two asses, or about the price of a couple of glasses of cheap wine”…

Where the magic happened….

 

After tearing ourselves away from the porn, we saw thousands… of ARTIFACTS

Apparently bodies are considered artifacts, and placed on the shelves…

More dead people….

Aaaand thats a mummified dog….

So after our day in Pompeii, among the dusty ruins, we were ready to experience some of the Mediterranean! We took a ferry from Sorrento, to the Island of Capri (28 euros!) The ferry ride was only 25 minutes long, and quite a nice ride. The town on the island is located at the base of the large rock, that basically makes up the entire Island. Once at the island….

We took a boat around to the famous Blue Grotto. The grotto is a small hole in the side of the cliff, that contains a water filled cave. There are a group of men that make their living, rowing tourists in and out of the tiny hole…..

Those are the stairs that lead down from the cliff to the grotto entrance, which is in the water next to them. That little blue sign says “Absolutely no swimming” in multiple languages…

That would be the entrance to the grotto. You have to lay down in the row boat, and then men bring you in with a combination of rowing and pulling on a rather rusty looking chain attached to the wall of the cliff…

Once inside, the rowboat men start to sing loudly in Italian (I didnt think that this part added to the atmosphere, but… nonetheless). It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen! My camera could not capture the neon blue aqua color of the water, it was like we were floating in electricity!

For a more accurate idea of what it is like… click here….

http://www.italianvisits.com/images/campagna-im/capri-im/capri-blue_grotto.jpg

Very exotic! Oh and you are not supposed to be able to swim here, but apparently (according to Greg Mo, and his roommates) if you PAY the row boat men enough… they will let you take a dip!

After our visit to the grotto, we hiked up to the top of the island, where the city center is. This was picturesque… colorful stuccoed buildings, music, good food. etc….

From there we walked down the island and decided to rent a boat to go around the island ourselves, because Matt owns/drives boats and we had heard that you could do this. So we asked around and met a shopkeeper woman from Connecticut, who had lived in Capri for 40 years! Her husband rented boats and we chose one from them (80 euros in all, for two hours). We got a map, and set off around the island!

That’s Matt and Gary, enjoying the high seas!

I was a bit worried about renting a boat, for reasons such as… a sinking, sharks (which apparently there aren’t any), crashing into a cliff, getting our anchor stuck, getting lost out to sea… etc. But renting a boat turned out to be a great choice because we got to see wonderful sights such as these….

We boated through that little arch in the middle…

This was the white grotto, at which we anchored the boat and jumped right off the back and into the water!

The boys climbing up onto the stairs to go into the cave… lots of sea urchins here..

 

Wild GOATS up on the cliffs! We could hear their hooves clicking when they jumped from rock to rock… We were just waiting for one to plummet into the SEA.

The Mediterranean is VERY salty by the way…

The last day that we were on the coast, we decided to go to Naples. Naples is considered a very dangerous city and most students avoid going there while abroad, but we sensibly decided… WHY NOT?

Other than being extremely dirty, Naples was actually really neat! Its close, small streets were packed with people, and it seemed to be the most authentically Italian city yet. Not a lot of tourists, mostly neighborhoods with specialized stores, and a lot of stray animals…

Naples is also the place which justifies the title of this entry… As we were crossing the street near the train station, we were all having a nice conversation about how the Italians are very strict about dressing for the season you are in, even when the weather doesn’t match up. We were noting that many of the Italians are already wearing their heavy winter coats, despite the weather being in the seventies. As Matt was saying this, he pointed to a man in a large, puffy black jacket, leaning casually up against a wall with what appeared to be his hands in his pockets. He said.. “Like that guy over there”….

As we all turned to look, we realized that the man had all of his… umm.. cleanly shaved genitalia… hanging out of his jeans.

After we got over the shock and horror of that incident, we decided that Naples really wasn’t as bad as people say. It had lots of good pizza (as it is the birthplace of pizza), neat little shops, and neighborhoods that don’t seem to have changed much in hundreds of years…

-Kelly