Napoli!

Ciao from Napoli (aka Naples). I arrived at my hostel around 1pm, got a free map and some advice (including the tidbit about it being some kind of a municipal holiday so museums were free), and set out on the town...

Everyone says bad things about Naples. It's dirty; it's not safe; it's ugly. (I could go on.) However, I actually think Naples isn't bad. To me, it's less sketchy than some parts of Tijuana...

Anyway, the one things I really wanted to do here was visit the Museum Nazionale (which houses all the artifacts that have been removed from Pompeii). Getting in for free was a bonus. There were some stunning black marble statues with haunting white eyes (not from Pompeii), amazing Pompeii mosaics, a special phallic/sexual art archive section, and what was the most interesting to me...busts and statues from the temple to Isis (who knew?) and a gorgeous icon of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi (again, who knew).

I also got into some Palace for free - and need to do some research to understand what exactly I was seeing. :) Other than that and general photo snapping (e.g. of Mt Vesuvius across the bay), I just had time for some genuine Napoli pizza. Good stuff. :)

Tomorrow, I'm off to Sorrento (or, actually, someplace slightly outside it) where I plan to base myself for 5 nights so I can see Pompeii/Herculeneum, the Amalfi Coast, and Capri...