Napoli Day 1

We arrived in Napoli in the late afternoon on Thursday. We stayed at "Giovani's Home" with whome our friends had stayed two weeks before. The hostel was dorm style, so we were in a room with 5 other people. I was separated from Stefan and John and stayed in an all girls room, and they were in a boys room. It was nice to meet other college kids and we had a good first experience in a dorm style hostel. Giovani is the owner of the hostel and he made us lunch when we arrived. It was pasta with homemade pesto sauce, and it was very good. After lunch he sat us down and gave us a rundown of Napoli. He drew stuff on a map and told us the best places to go see and where to eat. 

John in the dining room of hostel

John and Stefan's bunk

The boys room..the girl's room looked the same

After checking into our hostel, we decided to explore the city. The street depicted below is called the "Christmas Street." There are many stores with displays of handmade Christmas items, such as nativity scenes and ornaments. There were also other items that didn't really relate to Christmas, but represent the culture of Italy, as well as some specific items that represent Napoli. 

We stumbled across a church that looked pretty, so we went in. It was different from many of the churches we have looked at so far. It was simpler and didn't have elaborate frescoes everywhere. This particular church had beautiful stained glass.

The outside of the building below supposedly has musical notes on it that create a song. Apparently it was only decoded recently.

castle that overlooked the ocean

this was on one of the castle walls

This rice ball tasted the most like my Grandma's than any other rice ball I've tried. (Grandma I still like yours the best!)

The first night we did a underground tour of the old aqueducts that were eventually emptied and used as bunkers during WWII. Napoli was one of the most bombed cities in Italy. Along with seeing the old aqueducts  we also got a tour of the old Roman theater, which was discovered more recently. People had been living in it (and often right on top of it), but did not know that it used to be an ancient Roman pathway and theater

Start of Roman theater tour. This is the exact apartment the people were living in (including original furniture), before they were paid to move so archaeologists could excavate. The brick is part of the original roman theatre. (they just incorporated into apartments without knowing it 

This door led to the wine cellar of the apartment

The wine cellar..which was actually the old backstage entrance for the actors.

Down to the changing rooms

Signature Roman architecture. The pattern of the diamond bricks helped absorb shock during an earthquake.

marble that was used in the theater

Was featured on the history channel

The roof here is actually the floor of someone's bedroom who currently lives in the apartment above. 

Someone's apartment window that looks into the old theater

The door leading downstairs in the center actually leads into the theater

entering the aqueducts

One of the original well opening

Where the maximum water level was (in red)

WW2 era objects left in tunnel

Picture of the mass scale homeless during ww2

area where german deserters hid out (left gas masks and other items)

depiction of how a roman citizen would clean the aqueducts. They climbed down with a small candle and removed foreign objects

Time for the candlelit tour

original holding section for a private homes supply

cellar that was connected to a church and home above

original pottery and jars used for storage

10 levels to the above church

Giovani recommended a pizza place close by that, according to him, has the best pizza in Napoli. It was delicious pizza and it was really cheap considering how much pizza you got (around 3 euros). We ate there twice during our trip, but here is the pizza from the first night. My pizza had tomato, mozzarella and artichoke. John had a interesting pizza with ham, mozzarella, cream and basil...it was quite delicious.

Stefan's pizza with tomato, mozzarella, basil and ricotta.

The elaborate pizza menu