Southern Italy - A Rick Steves Tour
Naples
Day 11
Everything is compressed in this area – a very short drive to Naples and our next stop Museo Capodimonte, a most impressive gallery of Renaissance paintings including my favorite, Raphael. Again, we had the benefit of a local guide with extensive knowledge of the artwork and the artists.
 chiesa del Gesu' Nuovo |  Michelangelo Buonarroti |
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 Polidoro Caldara da Caravaggio |  Tommaso di ser Giovanni |
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Pizza
Naples is known for many things and probably the best of these is Pizza. Now this type of pizza is not for everyone – it has a very thin crust, and not crispy, so you have to fold the pizza to stop everything from sliding off when taking that big bite. Probably because of the texture, very few toppings are put on the pizza – how about just cheese and tomato sauce. Yum!
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 Solo athlete |
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 Athlete |
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 Farnese |
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 The Farnese Bull |
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 Hercules, 2nd century AD |
Cappella Sansevero
Day 12
This morning we’re off to Cappella Sansevero, home to exquisite sculptures, many salvaged from the Vesuvius eruption as well as many artifacts and drawings. Taking these tours really wets your appetite to learn more about the history of the area and the culture from the time of the art work.
With our free time this afternoon, David, Judi and I, my fellow adventurers, went on the Circumvesuviana to Herculaneum, another ruins created by the Vesuvius eruption that took Pompeii.
Herculaneum
Herculaneum was very different than Pompeii – it was much smaller but more preserved. Pompeii was buried in ash whereas Herculaneum was covered in hot mud. The buildings still had most of their walls, some roof lines and many of the mosaics were intact. One of the chilling sights that really hit home as to what happened when the volcano erupted, people were huddled in caves trying to escape the lava. The bones have been somewhat excavated to show the horror and reality of their sudden death.
On that sober note, we took the commuter train back to Naples to get ready for our farewell dinner.
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 Storage |
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 Two story home |
 Mosaics intact |
 toilet |
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 Roadway |
 Caves with bones |
 Tomb |
 Alfio final toast |
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 Naples skyline |
 Southern Italy Group 2016 |
Farewell Dinner
From the hotel, Alfio led us down to the waterfront for our final feast. There were toasts and more toasts to our fearless leader whom really had to keep track of us as I wasn’t the only one that liked to run off and do my own thing during our free time. As we had come to expect, our dinner was many courses, I really can’t remember how many, or how many wines they were paired with. But, just like the beginning of the tour, it ended with a wonderful meal but this time instead of getting acquainted it was sad goodbyes to my new friends. Arrivederci amici!