#naplesmuseum

This morning was a rather fantastic sleep in, as I didn’t actually get out of bed until 9:30am (how scandalous!). We all enjoyed a slow morning, taking it in turns to have showers, as although there are two bathrooms, there isn’t enough how water to sustain any heat or pressure simultaneously! We ate some brekkie, lounged around, catching up on some international news and booking a private tour of the Amalfie Coast for tomorrow.

  Dad seems to have caught a cold from our bus tour of Tuscany (some idiot went on the trip, sitting in front of Dad with a fairly infectious cough) so we all agreed it would be better for Dad to chill in bed for the day and enjoy the view of Naples apartment buildings from the window (hahaha). The three of us then (finally) left our apartment at about 11am and walked for a few minutes to the Naples Archaeological Museum, which holds most of the original artifacts discovered at the Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and the 4th town (whose name escapes me woops). Unlike all the surrounding buildings, The Naples Museum seems to be the most cared for, with minimal to little graffiti on it. Inside the museum, I dumped my backpack and jacket into a locker and then headed to the first floor, which held most of the artifacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum. The Museum was beautiful. The staircase (which we had to walk up to get to the first floor) was grand, with beautiful marble stairs and statues adorning the space. Once on the first floor, all the exhibition rooms led off a central ‘Ball room’, which was beautiful frescos all over it! We first went into the room of ‘The Villa of Papyri’. I specifically studied this building, as within it was found over 100 preserved papyri scrolls that contained the only surviving copy of Greek and Roman literature, philosophies and law. It was amazing to see two of the original, carbonized scrolls that were found by archaeologists in the 18/19th century in Herculaneum. Although I studied the building, I never actually realized how large and extensive it was! The museum had dedicated three large rooms to the frescos, marble paintings and marble sculptures all found in the Villa. One thing I thought was awesome, was that in the library, the owner had used busts of authors to mark and identify the works on the particular shelf written by that individual. This aided archaeologists in identifying the authors of volumes where the ones found in the Villa of Papyri are the only surviving copies. 

  We then ventured into three rooms that held artifacts of household utensils. There were medical instruments; tweesers and tong- things used for extracting teeth. Sturdy frypans, with little indents on the side to help pour out the contents. Complete silverware sets, with little figurines as handles, copper light holders and GLASS!! The glasswork was amazing, there were bowls, vases, window panes and I think the items certianly give Murano a run for its money! There was one vase in particular that was white glass on a dark blue, styled to look like a Cameo vase in precious stones. It was utterly beautiful and it was in such pristine condition that I couldn’t believe it was at least 2000years old.

We then went into extensive rooms that displayed the frescos found in both Pompeii and Herculaneum. They were stunning and the colours were so vibrant, it was again, hard to believe they were over 2000 years old and not dome extensive and elaborate hoax! It was such an amazing feeling to see works that I had only ever seen in my yr 12 textbooks in real life!!! There were so many it was slightly overwhelming. The archaeological record is so big and rich, it’s just a shame that they aren’t preserved well enough. Throughout the entire museum, frescos were only protected from direct sunlight through fairly thin blinds/curtains and bar two, none of the frescos had glass coverings. As the guards were understaffed, only personal control and appreciation of the artworks can stop an individual from smearing their hands all over the ancient frescoes. One thing that was seriously disappointing was that due to low staffing levels, the room dedicated to The Temple of Isis were closed – and they were the paintings I specifically wanted to see.

  We then headed down to the Mezzanine floor, where we saw multiple rooms of the beautiful mosaics found at both sites. Some of the mosaics had individual stones so small, that from a distance they looked like paintings. Again, it was utterly amazing to see some of the mosaics I had studied in real life! All the mosaics were in bright colours (perfectly preserved), displaying imagery of animals, crops, the fertility of the Campania region, Nilotic imagery (Egyptian animals and scenery) and the famous ‘Alexander Mosaic’, that was discovered in the House of the Faun in Pompeii and consists of 1 million individual painted stones. These rooms are certainly a highlight of my trip and I still can’t believe I saw them! We also went into the ‘Secret Room’ which contained images of what I’m sure you can imagine for yourself. I also, purposefully, did NOT take photos in there!!

  After spending a good few hours looking around, all our stomachs were communicating with us that we required Pizza! One of my Mum’s friends visited Naples only a few months earlier and recommended a pizza place where she said she had had eaten the best pizza she had ever had. With the assistance of google maps, we walked for about five minutes and found the restaurant. I was actually so starving, like I felt as though my knees were about to collapse! We ordered pizzas (Evan had margarita pizza with buffalo bocconcini, I had pizza with mozzarella, mushrooms and proscuitto and Mum had pizza with buffalo ricotta + bocconcini, tomato and basil). The pizzas were utterly amazing! And we all agreed with Mum’s friend that it was the best pizza we have ever had. It wasn’t ‘heavy’ on the stomach (even though there was heaps!), the ingredients were fresh and really tasty and all the ingredients were in perfect balance! We also had the best coffee so far in Italy and enjoyed these slices of awesome chocolate cake afterward (that was a small portion – which was perfect!) with crunchy biscuit as a base and then various layers of different chocolates.

  After our lovely lunch, we walked back to our apartment. We walked through some, what I would say, were fairly dingy backstreets, but they were really just full of bustling life! It seemed every second shop was a food or pastry shop and they all had these little window cabinets on the footpath displaying the tasty treats that one could discover inside (they were all variations of the same pizza and pastries though!). There were narrow, cobbled lanes where above your head was someone’s washing and at one point, we had to pass a van that was unloading laundry or something, but to pass, we had to close one of the back doors – the van was filling the entire street!!! There were countless vesper bikes that whizzed past us and most passengers didn’t bother with helmets. As Aussies used to space, we have all reached an appreciation for small cars (our prado would have gotten stuck between buildings on nearly all of these streets) and the little smart cars, which we look at and comment how ridiculous cars of such size are, come into their own natural habitat here! Smart cars are so perfect for these streets (I think they were designed specifically for Naples backstreets) and they just speed along, without any need of concern about parking or scraping building along the way! Along our travels, we made our aimed destination of the starting point of Naples underground tours. We talked with the guides and decided to return at 6pm for an hour and a half tour of whatever happens to be beneath Naples! After that interval, we continued along the road, buying biscuits and shell-shaped pastry to consume once we returned to the apartment. We turned left onto the most boho and indie road ever! The street was lined with orange trees, bustling with people and we admired vintage clothes shops, jewelery made from brass and copper and music shops (that unfortunately sold electric guitars and their accessories more than brass instruments). It is after walking through streets like these that helps you appreciate that Naples has a vibrant street life that is absent in both Sydney and every other city in the world.

  Once back at the apartment, we chilled for an hour or so, consuming tea and the pastry treasures we had bought along the way. At 5:50pm, Mum, Evan and I quickly left the building, retraced our way through the backstreets and arrived at the place where the underground tours began. After waiting around for about 10minutes for the English tour (none of us particularly wanted to do the tour in Italian) we walked down over 100 steps into the aqueduct system beneath the city. The aqueducts were built in the 4th century BC by Greeks, who sourced construction materials (rock) from 35-40m beneath the surface for their buildings. The aqueducts were then used as a water system for the city. However, due to cholera, they were drained and the aqueducts were used as a rubbish tip during the 18th and 19th centuries. During the Second World War, the 3m-deep rubbish was concreted over and the aqueducts were used as bomb shelters. Walking through them was fairly crazy, knowing they had been made during the 4th century and then had many lives and uses since then!! We were guided around, walked through a particualarly narrow section where we all had to use a candle to light our path as there weren’t any lights there and saw experiements where they were growing plants 40m below the surface! As our guide told us, the humidity in the aqueducts was always above 70%, and whilst we were down there, humidity was at 95%. The plants in the experiment were not watered (but given sunlight) and had survived for more than 12months! We learnt how there were public and private wells in the aqueducts, and it was the responsibility of one slave to constantly clean these water reserves. Legend also says this character (whose name we can’t remember ah!) would steal from the rich houses if he thought he wasn’t getting paid enough. Thus, the legend was born that if anything can’t be found, this character stole it (like the ‘Mr Nobody’).