Day 8 :: Underground in Naples

Attempting to read a map of Naples

 

Our next port of call was Naples and I was really looking forward to it.  1-because it's the birthplace of Pizza and 2-because it was the one port that we were just walking off the ship and going to without taking any trains.  We allowed ourselves to sleep a little later.  I did not really understand the concept of sleeping in anyways because I still had this weird morning person syndrome and was wide awake by 5:00am most days.  I'm thinking maybe I was born into the wrong time zone and I was actually meant to live in Europe!  Since there was no rush we went to the dining room for breakfast instead of the more crowded Windjammer.  They have a buffet of the same foods from Windjammer set up in the middle but there is also a menu that you can order from if you are too lazy to get up or want the two or three items that aren't in the buffet.  I discover that the french toast in the dining room was so much better.  It was super thick and super delicious and Mj loved the Eggs Benedict so that's where we ate breakfast for the rest of the trip.  

 

This giant area is all Underground and dark!

 

After breakfast we walked off the ship and straight into beautiful Naples.  The internal compass that Mj seems to have implanted in his body is what made it possible for us to get where we were going and make it back to the ship.  I don't know how he does it but he always knows where we are and how to get us where we need to go. He reads maps and GPS like it's nothing.  Me, not so much.  My sense of direction is terrible even in my hometown so I basically held his hand and let him lead the way.  Since there was no time crunch Mj thought it would be fun to see if I could actually read the map and get us to our first stop.  I refused at first but he made me.  As I started out I was excited because I was finding the streets that I needed based on the map.  It was all making sense but eventually I had to throw in the towel.  I had narrowed it down to a certain area where I knew it had to be but I could not pin it down.  It should have only been a 25 minute minute walk and I had us walking in circles through the sketchy part of Naples for an hour.  They put the street signs on buildings and not every street had one which made it even harder.  I handed over the map, he says "okay" and 2 minutes later we're going down the narrow street that I kept missing and we were  there.  

 

In the San Lorenzo Maggiore museum

 

During my research I stumbled across a place called Napoli Sotterranea (Naples Underground) and was really fascinated.  I couldn't even really figure out how much it cost or where it was located so I wasn't sure if we'd be able to find it.  When I did a google map search it appeared to be next to something called San Lorenzo Maggiore so I put that down for location and when I saw that on our map I knew that's where it had to be.  There are excursions according to the website but I couldn't get much information so we just showed up.  Without an excursion you go down on your own which was fine with me and it was only 7 €  each.  We had the whole place to ourselves.  It was cool and dark and quiet.  All the lights were run on motion detectors so as we moved through the caves lights came on lighting our path.  That is, until we got to one section where the lights did not go on at all.  It was awesome!  The only way we could actually keep going is because Mj had the flashlight app on his i Phone.  I felt like I was in a horror movie except I wasn't scared and I was pretty sure that nothing terrible was going to happen.  After we came out of there we walked around the rest of the museum.  There were some interesting things to look at.  I had so much fun underground that I wanted to go again before we left.  Mj just rolled his eyes at  me but he went along with it. 

Enjoying Cafe in a streetside Cafe

 

After that we sat outside at a sidewalk cafe and drank coffee.  It was so nice to just be sitting there.  We had time to let me get us lost, sit down, relax and really enjoy the beauty around us.  I wandered into this tiny little shop and found a really cute top for only 7 €.  

Special Delivery by bucket

They do this thing there where they have stuff in a bucket delivered from the shops below directly up to their home through the window.  If you look close you can see a lady pulling up a blue bucket on a string.  We saw this happen twice.  We also saw all these men walking around holding serving trays with plastic cups on it.  We couldn't figure out where they were coming from, where they were going or what they were doing at first.  I don't know how it works but they are delivering coffee to people, probably from different cafes all over the place because we saw these guys everywhere.  

 

Such a charming little town

Castle Nuovo.  A real castle! 

Royal family jewels

At the top floor of the castle

 

After that we headed to Castel Nuovo.  It's this giant castle that we saw as soon as we walked off the ship.  It was 6 € each to go in.  It was so beautiful to look at on the outside and inside there was artwork, all kinds of interesting things to look at and a nice view on the top floor.  It even had a moat around it.  It's a parking lot now but still.

 

More Pizza and wine please!!

After that it was time for food and you already know it had to be Pizza.  We went to a place called La Piazzetta.  We ordered a bottle of wine to share and this time we each had our own Pizza.  Delicious.  I noticed they don't pre-cut your Pizza in Europe.  Like the others we had to cut it ourselves.  I was also surprised that Pepperoni on Pizza doesn't seem to be all that popular.  Maybe it's an American thing as there was no Pepperoni to be found on this menu or the place we ate at in Rome.  In US you can always get tap water for free but  in Europe if you ask for water they offer you still or sparkling and it's always in a bottle.  This restaurant charged 2,50 € each as a service charge whether you use the restroom or not.   After we were stuffed with Pizza and wine we headed back to the ship.  It was the slowest paced day we'd had yet and it was nice.  I really loved Naples!  After the hustle and bustle of Rome it was just the kind of slow and relaxing day that we needed.  We had spa appointments at 5:30pm.  Our aching feet needed some TLC so we each got a back massage, foot/ankle massage and facial.  It was just what we needed after all those days of speed walking. Then it was time for our obligatory nap.  Later that night we went to Windjammer just because there was food to be had.  We weren't even all that hungry. 

We juuuussst missed the Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake wedding extravaganza.  Too bad; it might have been fun.

Day 9 :: Day at Sea