Friday, March 27, 2009

Spring Break--Napoli Day One

Well, it's our last night of our spring break trip and I finally found some time (and an internet connection) to begin updating this! We are flying back to Rome tomorrow, where I will be uploading all of my pictures and adding to these posts but for now I can start with Napoli.

We left Friday morning for the train station, all packed and ready with summer dresses and warm weather clothing. It was a little chilly in Rome, but we reminded ourselves that we would be going south where the weather was supposed to be in the 60s and sunny. Our train to Naples took just under two hours--enough time for me to fall asleep in our little cabin.

Our first impressions of Naples were that it was dirtier than Rome (though Rome is pretty dirty itself). Our train was nice enough, though decorated with graffiti, but the streets of Naples were filled with garbage. Not to worry, there were nicer parts away from the train station. We found our hostel, the Fabric Hostel and Club (it is a renovated fabric factory) and decided to nap since most eating places don't open until later anyways.

Eventually we made it to downtown Naples. We walked around (compared to Rome, walking around Naples was a piece of cake) and saw the cathedral and the National Archeological Museum. It was getting pretty chilly after that and all we wanted to do was find a cafe for some espresso--which Naples is known for. When we finally found one and ordered, though, what came was a spritzer. Apparently our waiter misunderstood us so instead we had a pre-dinner drink. That was disappointing, but our next stop, Pizzeria Brandi, made up for it.

Naples is the birthplace of pizza and after eating it there, no other pizza will compare. The pizzeria we went to was suggested to us by one of my roommate's boyfriends. His great uncle is the owner so we mentioned that after ordering our pizza margheritas (the classic Neapolitan pizza). We got a visit from him at our table and at the end of our meal he bought us a round of limoncello, a traditional Neapolitan drink.

After our meal we headed back to our hostel. Naples is not the safest place in Italy, and since it was nearly 11 the man at the bus station suggested we take a taxi instead of the night bus. He called one for us and told the driver to take us straight to our door to make sure we got back safely. We were so grateful for him!

That was our first day of spring break...and I would write about day 2 but unfortunately my time is up on this hostel computer. Tomorrow I'll be able to write more from Rome!!

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