Italy - Pompeii and Napoli - Ancient Splendour and Delicious Pizza

Pompeii was quite something. Of course we pick the hottest time of the hottest day of the hottest heatwave in Italy to go see it, but whatever!



Our lovely Ijourneys audio guide Deb informed us all about the Maritime Gate, the Temple of Apollo, the storehouses, the Forum, the Baths, the House of the Poet, the House of the Faun, the brothel, the bakery, the amphitheater, the training ground, the taverns and the arena. We had to fast forward her a little since it was so hot and Pompeii is so extensive.



I hadn't realized how big the city was and it really is a remarkable preserved snapshot of the past. It also really shows how similarly people lived in those days as today. There was the main drag with all the good bars and shops, the central marketplace, bread still in the bakery ovens, the laundromat across from the brothel and more. Very interesting and oh my goodness, the Pompeiians had MONEY.



And you can see Mount Vesuvius looming in the background of the whole city - would have been a terrifying sight when it was erupting over a day and a night to bury this place.



But again, very hot, so we bounced after a few hours to reward ourselves with a meal. And what kind of people would we be if we didn't have pizza in its birthplace? After a solid hunt for a recommended restaurant (to no avail) and a near miss with spraining my ankle on the cobblestone sidewalks, we found a hole in the wall pizzeria that gave us a margherita and a marinara pizza and a drink for less than 6 Euros.

And I can say it really was the best pizza I've had so far in Italy. The ingredients were all super fresh and well balanced and the crust was paper thin. Perfect!



Aside from amazing pizza, Napoli will be remembered for the groping hands and flirtatious manners of its male population. While ordering pizza, Luigi (actual name) our pizzamaker was flirting it up with Krishna and practically proposed to her over the course of ten minutes. He did get a solid shoulder squeeze in before we left. And as we walked down the street, construction workers overhead were going all out with the whistles and catcalls, despite us being sweaty, dusty and generally a mess. And when we met up with Seema who'd stayed behind at the train station to book tickets, she had a tale to tell as well. In our twenty minute absence, she had two guys besiege her and one even full on kissed her two minutes into the conversation. They seem to mistake Canadian polite manners for invitations to bed. Quite a cultural miscommunication!!