Episode 2: Napoli!!!

Alright, Episode 2!

Sunday night in Rome Randy and I realized we were leaving the next day and had no idea where we were going. So on a whim we decided on Naples, known to the locals as Napoli! Which is how I prefer to say it. It fits the atmosphere....but it just doesn't have the same effect in text. I'll tell you in person next time and you'll see =)

So Monday morning we went down to the train station got our reservations, and were on our way. Napoli is the birth place of Pizza, and they're very proud of it. And they should be, it was probably the most amazing thing I've ever eaten. The people there were amazingly kind, but I've never been more scared in my life to walk down a sidewalk.

Traffic was an adventure everyday. You know that stressed feeling you get driving on the freeway in rush hour traffic? We got that walking down the street. People swerving and honking all over the place! Plus, when motorcycles can't get around cars, they just drive down the sidewalk. And they'll beep at you like they own that sidewalk. Which, when we first got there, we thought they did. But after a while, you get calloused like the locals. By day 2, when someone beeped at us we were throwing our arms in the air and shouting like we were Neopolitan. And we thought we were. We owned that city, and everyone was in our way, not vice versa. It's pretty much the only way to survive.

Randy found the equivalent of an Italian Taco Stand. They're everywhere and they sell these mini pizzas for €1. They're ok...just like pizza with no cheese....so like dough and sauce. For me, it was enough to sustain life. For Randy, it was love at first sight. But they were only in Napoli, so he's been crying about it ever since we left. It's quite pathetic really...

The shops were full of people, and the haggling was impressive. There was even a whole alley devoted to figurines. They sell them year-round and they get especially busy around Christmas. People buy nativities and then come to the figurine shops every year to add to them. It's a great tradition, and I almost bought one just so that I'd be forced to come back every year, but I resisted =)

We stayed at 2 different hostels, the first one was crazy, expensive, and sucky. The second one was amazing! It was a monastery converted into a hostel. The people were very chill, and I was really sad that we only stayed one night. But alas, after 3 days there, we discovered that 90% of the city smoked (including children under 12), and the large quantities of cars and traffic produced an equal amount of exhaust. Which meant that my body was recieving much less oxygen than it was used to. So the stress, mixed with the lack of sleep, topped off with polluted lungs, was leaving us quite tired and slightly sick. So we were ready to move onto small town Pisa, located in the open fields of Tuscany.

Aside from the large amounts of traffic and pollution, Napoli has been my favorite. Tune in next time for Christmas in Pisa!