Thursday 10/7 From Rome to Naples, and then exploring Naples

I slept from about 8pm through to 7am but it was very interrupted sleep. I kept waking up during the night, maybe due to the fact that the bed was angled downwards to the wall so you couldn't fall off, or maybe because I just didn't have enough room to fully stretch out with my bag on the couch too, We also got served breakfast, which was a nice surprise. Some rolls and coffee, not too bad.

We arrived at Roma Termini station and got ourselves and our stuff off the train. We had a look around but couldn't see any trains departing for Napoli. So, we went to a check-in desk to ask. The next train, leaving about an hour later, was compulsory reserved seats. It was only 10 euro for the two of us so we just booked it and went to put our bags down somewhere. We took turns watching the stuff and going to the bathroom to freshen up (the queues on the train were way too long).

We waited and waited, and only about 10 minutes before the train arrived did a platform number come up on the screen. We got on the train, in a compartment with an Italian family, an old couple and a young couple. We spent the whole trip just listening to music, which I hadn't done in a fair few days. The two hours went very quickly indeed.

When we arrived in Napoli we found something called an artecard which gives us free transport for three days and free entry to some of the museums and sites, plus a discount book for related stores and cafes. All for eight euros each! And apparently, only certain states in Aus can get this certain card type, including WA but not the eastern states. How cool are we!

We spent a while trying to find the bus we needed across the city. We eventually caught it. Apparently, Italians don´t quite believe in the phrase I´ll catch the next one because every stop we got to more and more people piled in. I´m pretty sure it must have gone over the technical specs and allowances for the bus. Anyway, it was far far too crowded, and really crappy having our packs with us. But, to be honest, if people didn't want that sort of crushing sweating bus experience...they could have caught the next one!

We got off a couple stops earlier than we needed, because the bus was too cramped and getting moreso by the minute. We got our bearings and walked down a bit to find our hostel. We couldn't immediately find it because it was hidden away inside a building. But, a very nice place. Friendly staff and fantastic rooms; really a hotel at hostel prices, as it had been written up as. Plus, it was easily one of the cheapest places we´ve stayed at yet (with breaky included!).

We gathered up dirty clothes and headed up north east to a place with a laundromat, nearby a large church that was supposedly worth seeing. We found it and got our washing in. Not too badly priced, seven euros for wash and dry. While this was happening, instead of waiting there for the stuff to be done we went to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Naples, or MANN (well that´s how they put it, anyway).

Inside was a lot of statues gathered from many of the towns around the area, including Pompeii. Practically nothing was written in English, so it was a bit hard to determine what we were looking at. Got slightly bored through it all, I have to admit. I think the museums in Rome will probably be better, An interesting thing near the end of our museum excursion was a gated-off room where they have all the erotic art and sculptures. They had it sealed off for a while apparently and they limit the ages that can go in too, hehe. Some of the sculptures were pretty funny and some of the wind chimes/bells were just blatantly ridiculous, ie – bells hanging off...phallus with wings. Yep, that was about it.

We went back and picked up our laundry then headed to the hostel. After writing up some blogs we went out for dinner, seeking pizza (since Naples is meant to be the home of pizza). We found a place nearby that was relatively cheap and had a marinara and a siciliano. Oh. My. God. They were good.