First Day In Naples 7-3

Naples: “The Arm Pit of Italy” to some. I personally wouldn’t agree, but it ain’t no Rome. I’m somewhere in the middle I think.
On the first day, we slept in a bit. We really needed it. We were so exhausted from the heat from the day before. Before we headed out, James’ roommate came in. He’s been gone for a few days. I guess that he went on some wine tour of a vineyard in Florence, and on the way there, the van driver hit an old lady going 50 miles per hour. He said that it was pretty gorey and she had a bone sticking out! An ambulance finally got to her after two hours, but she was breathing when she left! CRAZY!!! He was a little shaking up, you could tell. Who wouldn’t be!?
Anyway, we barely made it to our one o clock city tour. The tour was amazing. We had a guide named Sabina, who was absolutely wonderful. We ended up having her all three days, and she was so great. She was loud, and excited and she knew her stuff you could tell. She was pretty too, as James liked to continually point out, but I liked her so much. We had a few good conversations with her over the three days. The first day was awesome. We started by viewing an opera theater that is in the wealthy shopping district in town. I never really thought that I would be too interested in something like that, but you’d have to be nuts not to think it’s amazing. It’s all done in red and gold, and the thing is shaped like a horseshoe. We got to go in the king’s box and see the stage. It’s one of the oldest in Europe, so when I say King’s box I mean it literally. That’s where the king went to see the theater. Very impressive, and the guide was a cutie pie. Her English was impressive.
Afterwards we took a panoramic tour of the city. I have to admit, from the outside looking in, Naples is beautiful. The beaches are really only big rocks, but the water is incredible. There are villas on the outskirts that would blow your mind and boats that are in the dock that have to be worth millions. Everything is done in a certain architectural style, so while the buildings of the city differ to a certain degree, they’re all similar enough to have a cool effect. The city was wonderful, and it was a good introduction to our stay there.
There are four major castles in Naples, and they’re legitimate. They’re huge buildings with the ramparts and the draw bridges. It was interesting to see. That was definitely something that I was NOT expecting to see there. We visited two cathedrals as well. They were nice, though not the most impressive. I think it’s going to be hard to compare after St. Peter’s. One of them was a Jesuit cathedral that was still an active church. I don’t know much about confession, but they do theirs in public. There is no little box. The people are right outside talking to the priests. Interesting I thought.
The rest of the night was taken up with us finding a place to eat. On the way there, we saw why Naples is called the armpit. It’s a little sketchy, a LOT dirty, and a little scary to tell you the truth. We made a decision the first day that we would be inside the boat by nightfall every night. We figured it’d be safer. And the mob is totally there. No myths. They run the place.
We have ate nothing but pizza every meal in Italy. We had lasagna once, and it was great! But man. We’re into pizza, and Naples is supposed to be the best. Funny story. Our first meal on our own there, we go into this place, get some incredible bread and then order a Pizza Napoli (Naples in Italian). Turns out that that particular kind of pizza is one without cheese. No joke, a pool of sauce, that’s what we ate. Haha. Serve us right for not looking close enough. It was interesting, and I’m sure that if it had cheese on it, it might have been one of the best I’ve ever had. It was an interesting day.