Sean Stapleton
It's 7pm and we've just scraped by with our train arriving from Pompeii with enough time to snaffle a quick feed at the Napoli train station. George missed out narrowly on another stray dog selfie at the station, a sport that's brought great amusement to various tourists and Italians as pics are taken with the numerous strays.
We started our day with a sub par sleep in ending at 6:15 for a 7:30 train to Napoli. The struggle was real as we wolfed down the convent breakfast of sticky sweet pastry breads and hot chocolates likely to induce diabetes. The train was an absolute luxury speeding through the Italian cityside at around 270 km/hr.
Italy is truly home to some beautiful city sites, unfortunately the streets of Napoli seem to be in much the same state of the buildings of Pompeii. Nonetheless we navigated our way through the wild streets to a Main Street to hit up the supermarket. Nutrition being a priority of course, only the freshest greens, breads and delicatessen meats were purchased for lunch later. Much like in Greece, the locals are perplexed at the number of us in shorts and t-shirts and stare on while wrapped up in puffer jackets and scarves
The Napoli museum was a brilliant amalgamation of sculpture, mosaic, bronzes and paintings. One of the standouts being the Farnese Bull, a massive construct of marble depicting a woman in the process of being tied to a bull by two youths as it kicks and bucks. The secret cabinet of Pompeii was certainly entertaining too, with a selection of Pompeii's restricted museum items. The number of various common items from the ancient household displayed in the museum makes you think, how long will it be till one day the Teflon pan is sitting in a display cabinet as people marvel at the past that is our present?
Lunch disappeared as quickly as it was bought and with little time to spare we were on the train to Pompeii. What was left of the city allows you to stroll through the streets of Pompeii as if in pre volcano days. The first levels of nearly all houses are standing and even crossing the cobbles to peep into the atrium of a ruin is a surreal experience, it takes very little to imagine the bustle of those frequenting the roads. Marco was exhausted after a day of crutch walking over the dodgy cobbles and would give anything for a fireman's carry to the train but he trooped on.
The pace in Italy is exhausting, but if you can keep up, it is as rewarding as a triumphal arch must have been to Roman generals.
