Curiously Chaotic- Napoli Day 1

So I'm splitting my Napoli (or Naples) conversation into two parts as this city really needs two days to fully explore everything I want to see and discuss. So this part will talk about my first impressions of Naples, the Archeological Museum, churches, and of course the pizza. Ideally, the next part will discuss my first trip outside of my three week program, Gambrinus (a cafe where Ernest Hemingway and many great artists and authors spent their time), my journey to find an early copy of Dante Alighieri's Inferno, a visit to the Strega store, and more pizza (naturally).

I landed in Napoli on my first very chaotic night in Italy. I don't think my poor anxiety ridden jet-lagged self could have possibly made any solid thoughts about Napoli whilst trying to communicate with my taxi driver (I hope he's doing great). So I consider this my first impression of the city. My entire week leading up to the Saturday of our tour I was warned about pick-pocketers and how the city is a little on the dirtier side.

I will concede that being in Napoli in broad daylight and walking on the streets was a bit of a shock for me because I was expecting the latter warning to be overdramatic. I don't think it was exactly. However I think because of how Italy is depicted on social media and movies, there's the expectation that everything is luxiorous and has this refinement. But at the end of the day, Napoli is another city. There's graffiti every where. Alley ways are dark and a little on the narrow side. And it's incredibly busy. Every single city crosses off everything in this check list. Besides, Napoli has been around for a long time with some of the oldest (if not the oldest) universities in Europe. It's a city with rich history that is also full of bookstores. As stated above I will be coming back for more.

Also no one got pick-pocketed which is great. Be cautious in Europe my friends.

With that off my chest, I would like to begin discussing my time at the Archelogical museum which is known as the third most important Archelogical Museum in the World (following behind both Egypt and London). The content in this museum was no joke. This place was full of amazing art, more knowledge on Pompeii and Herculanuem, a room full of dicks and erotic art (pardon my french), coins dating further back the the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and many prolific statues. All within some of most beautiful architecture I've ever seen in my entire life.

Some of my favorite exhibits and pieces of work include (but most certainly not limited to), Flora ed Primavera, Medea, the private room full of dicks, an entire section solely dedicated to a Temple to Isis in Pompeii (Isis is the Egyptian Goddess of fertility for those unaware), The Giants' Tombs, this absolutely gorgeous ceiling fresco, Farnese Bull, and a surprise visit from the portrait of Homer (I will be discussing Homer some more when I talk about The Odyssey and how that Epic is significant to Coven of Ravens). I would name some more stuff but I unfortunately did not make note of the names of these pieces. I think being in a building full of famous pieces of work and such life like statues was both unbelievable and terrifying. These statues were massive and held such detail down to the viens on the feet, so much so that I was getting a little existental and the horror writer in me would think 'wouldn't be wild if one of these guys just came to life'. In addition backpacks weren't even allowed in the museum because one wrong move and you could accidently knock over an extremely important portrait. No pressure.

The churches have been just as beautiful (if not more so) than I expected. I'm not exactly religious and I've joked many times that I will burst into flames the moment I enter a church because of my witchcraft practice. However, I really adore the beauty and architecture that is in churches especially in Europe. The stain glass windows, the giant organs, the grandiose art, plus more. I'm a sucker for the aesthetic. Not only that but I also got to learn of the history of Napoli and the outrage of the required payments for the church when under the rule of the Spaniards. A moment resonated with me when a woman with the church asked for any offerings which were told by our guide that weren't required to pay an offering. From what I understand, she was feeling a type of way and that interaction ended with our guide telling her to not revert back to the time of the Spaniards. That, and this is as direct of a quote that I got, "We don't go back a history of blood and gold". Is it a lot for a simple offering? Maybe. Do I also not have the full context of the discussion? Yes, mainly because I don't speak or understand Italian nearly that well yet. But the statement, 'we don't go back a history of blood and gold' is one that I wrote down immediately and hopefully it'll find a new home in my novel alongside other facts I learned about churches with credit given to our tour guide.

Now, I have to discuss the pizza here. Why pizza? Well Napoli is the birth place of pizza with the first and oldest pizzeria a hot spot for tourists. While I didn't get to go to this exact pizzeria I did get to enjoy some of Napoli's famous pizza and really the only place where you can get a fried and baked pizza. I can easily say that it was some of the best pizza I'd ever had with the best dough. Hands down. Also I like beer now, I guess? That's the character development I didn't see coming.

Just based on my first day in Napoli, I'm excited to experience morr on my second day trip and experiencing this colorful city with no shortage on things to do. It was a nice moment to get out of my messy middle.