Naples, Pompeii and Vesuvius

So our trip through southern italy ended in the naples/pompeii area.  One of the largest cities in Italy, Naples seemed really diverse and more westernized than some of the other cities.  Unfortunately, it was also a lot dirtier and not nearly as nice as a lot of the other Italian cities.  There are garbage strikes where the garbage people dont pick up the garbage.  So walking through the streets there are these hugeeee piles are trash that look and smell disgusting and make the city a lot less attractive.  Not a great experience.  But despite that there are still a lot of cool parts.  Similar to Milan there was a huge indoor/outdoor gallery.

And of course when your in Naples, theres one thing you HAVE to try. Thats pizza.  Naples is famous for its pizza and rightly so.  I had a campagnola (countryside) pizza that had grilled veggies, fresh mozzerella and a perfect crust.  The restaurant even made the pizza into a heart shape for one of my friends cause they like her so much! Naples definitely has a unique personality.

Indoor/outdoor gallery space, similar to the one in Milan

Heart shaped pizza for Lindsey!

very very very good pizza from Naples

We also stopped at Pompeii too.  I had been here once before, but I was exhausted.  This time I had more energy and we had our guide telling us all about the stuff we were looking at.  That deifnitely helps.  It still amazes me to see the shapes of the bodies that had died during the disaster.  Plus how rich the city was in culture and size.

Artwork from Pompeii

Theater of Pompeii

Crazy how you can still see the forms of the bodies

 After seeing Pompeii, we went up to visit the very thing that destroyed it, Vesuvius.  We actually got to hike to the top and look down into the crater.  It was really cool.  As we climbed we walked through a layer of clouds and could see the city of Naples from the top in between the clouds.  It was cold, but cool seeing the clouds swirl into the middle of the volcano and of course grab a volcanic rock or two to take home.

Me on Vesuviusss

There was a lot of hiking...

Naples!