Naples

By Jon Mountjoy

August 27^th, 2021

Naples is a beautiful city. It is so picturesque. I spent a few weeks there, did a lot of walking, and was totally taken by the feel of the city. It feels lived in, like it's been there forever.

What these calm pictures fail to capture is the total controlled chaos on the roads, with cars, bikes, scooters and people weaving their way fearlessly around each other.

There are so many tiny alleyways - it's very organic. I love how everyone hangs their washing outside as well.

People

There are so many lovely people in Naples. There's something eye-catching about gentlemen wearing a flashy suit, or ladies with dresses and lovely hats.

This particular lady I walked past a number of times every morning en route to a coffee. She, and others on the street, would come out at roughly the same time every morning and clean her flat, inside and out.

The flat itself was tiny - two rooms, perhaps, with the scooter parked behind the kitchen table.

These two gentlemen were waiting patiently for something.

Food

I have remarkably few pictures of the vast quantity of food that I ate in Naples. I suspect that my attention was wholly on the food. Of course, there was plenty of pizza. This one here from Starita.

I also enjoyed a number of babà, as well as a magnificent sfogliatella riccia from Pasticceria Scaturchio.

Art

There was much art to be seen. I enjoyed the Gallerie d'Italia, the Archaeology Museum, the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte and an evening of Neapolitan music.

Pompei

My visit to Pompei started by spending a day at the Archeological Museum in Naples, which houses much of what was found at Pompei. In particular, I appreciated seeing some of the art, and some of the Herculaneum papyri (from nearby, not Pompei itself).

I learned about these bodies as a child, reading about Vesuvius. I didn't enjoy the way the bodies were displayed.

It rained, heavily, the entire day I was there, so these pictures are all I could capture of this historic place.

Fontanelle Cemetery

I visited this rather haunting charnel house, the Fontanelle Cemetery. Apparently Naples had run out of cemeteries, and started to use this place. It was then inundated with the dead from the Naples Plague of 1656, and later epidemics as well.