NAPLES

MONDAY OCT. 8TH

I, with the New Zealanders, Matt and Kate got on an early train to Naples for a day of exploration.  I knew Naples was an intimidating and very dirty city but I'd heard there were many nice parts too.
We decided after going through the guide book a few times that we wanted to go the the Royal Palace down by the waterfront.  It was an 18th century palace with some beautiful artwork inside and an amazing architectural feat of marble and stone.  The intricacies in the sculpturing was not unlike many others I have seen in Italy.  We were almost the only ones visiting the palace that day.  The architecture was so much like that of the castle I was at in Battaglia only this was of course on a much larger scale. I like seeing these kinds of places but find that I couldn't wait to get back outside to see more of the real city of Naples.  The streets were narrow and the alleyways between the buildings were so narrow that a tiny car could barely fit.  But still some did.  The city (old part) was so full of scooters with their crazy drivers that it was very stressful trying to walk some of the streets while dodging the scooters flying by and getting so close, I don't know why I didn't witness at least one accident.  We had to have a piece of pizza at one of the street venders.  I mean Napolitan pizza is infamous.  At least that's what I've read.  It was by my taste the perfect pizza with the very thin crust.  A popular flavor here is ham and peas or ham and mushroom.  It was very, very good.  After enjoying our 1st piece of pizza we headed to Dante's Plaza.  It's a popular place for students probably because of the many, many used book shops there.  The University of Naples has parts all over the city and the cost to go there remains quite affordable at about 1,500 Euro/yr. plus the cost of books.  Maria Pia attended to get her PHD in Philosophy many years ago when the only cost was for books and a place to live-no dorms.
From the Dante Plaza we went to the DUOMO which like most of the churches I've seen is just over the top beautiful, huge and very ornately decorated with artwork being very exquisite.
By this time we had to find our way back to the train station to catch the 6 p.m. train back to Telese.  I really liked the city of Naples and would return to see more.  But it's not one of my top 10.