3:45pm: phew! Napoli is exhausting. Had to come back for a rest. I'm able to get some internet sporadically on my ipod but it won't connect on the netbook for some reason, so I'm not sure when i'll be able to post everything :( Anyway, slept very well and very much last night – that was much-needed. Woke up to the alarm at 7:30 and went to breakfast at 8, where mamma had set up a whole display that appeared just for me. There was a bit of misunderstanding with the coffee so I didn't get any milk, but that's ok. She was very concerned that everything was ok and that I slept well. If there's a place you want to be taken care of by an italian grandmother, it's naples.
In my reading I had learned that Caffe Mexico, right on the square where I'm staying, is one of the famous/best coffee houses in all of Naples – and Naples is said to have the best coffee in Italy – and we already know Italy has the best coffee in the world. So I popped over there for a ridiculous cappuccino and then walked the 5 or so minutes up to the Archaeological museum.
8:15pm: And clearly I didn't get very far beforehand because I've now gone out and had dinner and come back and am soaking my feet in the bidet. Anyway picking up from before, I made it to the arch. Museum right before 9 and waited a few minutes for it to open. What a ridiculous and crazy collection that place has. I especially liked the Farnese collection, comprised mostly of statues collected from Rome's Baths of Caracalla. The mosaic collection from Pompeii was also neat. But the statues were largely gargantuan, like David-size huge. And impressively-well preserved (though many of them were of course restored and in some cases fixed up by none other than Michelangelo).
Spent about an hour in the museum then took the metro one stop to Montesanto to find La Pignasecca market, which every guidebook said was awesome. Well, there were about 5 fruit stands, a couple fish stands, a couple bread stands, and that was mostly it. What a disappointment. So then I walked down to Via Toledo, one of the main north-south roads in Naples. All the major roads are relatively straight and flat – thank you Greek street plan! Wandered all the way down to Piazza Plebescito, which has a couple of really gorgeous buildings, and the Galleria Umberto I, a covered shopping mall similar to the one in Rome, but even more grandiose. Wandered back up and a little through the famed Spanish Quarter with it's narrow alley-streets and lots of character and laundry. Apparently it's a really unintelligent place to be at night but midday it was fun and felt totally safe. In fact I haven't really seen any unsavory looking characters but I am being careful to be in before dark.
Wandered around and around because I found Hosteria Toledo, one of the highly recommended places I'd noted, and they didn't appear to be open. Finally at 12:30 I walked in and ate. I was the only person there for a while so I was treated like a queen. I had spaghetti aglio olio e peperoncino – aka spaghetti with garlic and oil, one of my all-time favorites. It was fantastic. The pasta was so al dente it was barely cooked but there was a ton of oil, pieces of soft garlic, and just enough spice. And only 5 euros. Naples sure is a cheap town to eat in. By the time I left several local worker-types had come in and clearly knew the owners. On my way I out I was warmly greeted several times. What people say about friendly Neapolitans has certainly proved to be true so far!
Wandered back up Via Toledo and stopped at Fantasia Gelato, recommended several places. Had an out of this WORLD dark chocolate and coffee combo and set off to find Spaccanapoli – another ancient Greek street (composed of several streets with different names a la Copenhagen's Stroget) that runs sort of parallel to Via Toledo. Found it and began following Rick Steves's Naples walking tour. Found the Cappella Sanservo, which is a tiny chapel filled with Baroque-era white Carrara marble sculptures. In the middle is the “Veiled Christ” which has to be the single most impressive piece of artwork I've ever seen. No photos were allowed, so google it and you'll see what I mean.
Had to pass by Santa Chiara and Gesu Nuovo churches because it was afternoon siesta time and pretty much all churches close in Naples in the afternoon.
Kept wandering, checked out Via San Gregorio Armeno again and at Ferrigno, the most famous of all the shops on that street, I bought a little 15 euro ceramic pulcinella (a symbol of Naples) holding a pizza. Thought it was funny. Made it all the way to near the Station, the Porta Nolana fish market. It was also highly disappointing, but maybe because it was late in the day (in street market time anyway - though the market supposedly stays open until 7).
My feet throbbing by this point, I walked all the way back to my B&B – maybe 30 minutes or so. For some reason the bus system really intimidates me, but there was probably a way to do it using public transport. Came back around 3:30 and rested for a while. Set off around 5 to visit Santa Chiara and Gesu Nuovo since they'd be open again and are close to both the B&B and the street with all the pizzerias I want to try (they're across the street from each other. Just my luck, there was a massive funeral going on in Santa Chiara. No clue who it may have been but there were seriously hundreds of people, and there was some service (not listed on the regular weekday mass schedule) going on in Gesu Nuovo. Luckily it's close enough to my B&B so I will try a third time tomorrow.
Found San Domenico Maggiore that was open and empty and beautiful, and also another little church with some work of Donatello inside. Then it started to rain a little so I just sat down near tonight's pizzeria of choice and waited for it to pass, which it did pretty quickly, giving way to completely clear skies. Around 7 I went into pizzeria I Decumani, right down the street from last night's choice. 80% of the restaurant was already full with a kid's birthday party and all their parents. There was one British couple and me and then a couple more empty tables. So it was quite loud but fun to watch. I had a pizza with artichokes for 5 euros and it wasn't nearly as good as the night before. Part of that I think was that the artichokes were like marinated and added a vinegary taste to the pizza (kind of why I don't like olive pizza that much), and the cheese was just in clumps all over instead of nice and even like at Gino Sorbillo's. Still very good pizza! I had two sit-down meals today for about 15 euros. Amazing.
Then came back to the B&B, which is filled with another absurdly good smell and had another conversation in Italian with (I'm guessing) owner Carmine's wife. I managed to understand her when she asked what time I wanted breakfast and whether I had been in the Spanish Quarter this morning (I guess she saw me?:O) and even managed to tell her I ate lunch there. Go me!!
I actually did a lot of things today that were planned for tomorrow because of the disappointing Pignasecca market (I'd 'budgeted' almost the whole morning there and spent 10 minutes) so tomorrow morning I think I will go out to Caserta, a short train ride away, and it's a palace even larger than Versailles. I just have to figure out the trains because part of Naples's metro system is actually run by Trenitalia the national train system, and it's mega confusing.
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