A Roman Resort Holiday

Eleven years ago, I moved away from Naples. No more pizza margherita, dumpster hunting, or perilous trips through streets packed with vespas and battered vehicles. This past weekend, I made my grand return. The bus left at 6:00 AM, so I dozed off and on until our arrival in Naples. Helen, her friend Nikki, and I got off our buses and went on a whirlwind tour of Naples. We started off with (surprise, surprise) a church, Santa Chiara. That is, I started off. Skipping the church itself, Nikki and Helen chose to stay outside while I paid the entrance fee to get into the cloister.

Well worth the entrance fee.

And then it was pizza time! We went to Gino Sorbillo's and I had a fantastic pizza margherita. It was the best pizza I've had in eleven years.

Before.
I would show the after, but there wasn't anything left to show.

We went into Il Duomo of Naples, complete with the reliquary of San Gennaro. He's the patron saint of Naples, and every year people gather to witness a morbid miracle: his blood liquifying. The legend goes that if his blood doesn't liquify, Mount Vesuvius will erupt. This legend is mostly based on the fact that the last time his blood didn't liquify was in 1944, the last time Mount Vesuvius erupted. We'll have to wait and see, I suppose. 

I had to race back to the bus to go to Pompeii, the ancient vacation spot for Romans. We wandered through the dusty streets, taking photos and trying to decipher exactly what was what, as they had run out of English guides. But even in our ignorance, it was a lot of fun.

Pompeii may be ruined, but we found out that we still needed a map to get around.

As the sun was setting, we headed back to the hotel for a late dinner and bed. I shared a suite with my bus neighbor, Kristina from Macedonia, and a table with Helen (Hong Kong), Nikki (Taiwan), Betsy (Virginia), Helen (Estonia), and Rodrigo (Brazil), turning the evening into an international affair. 

The next morning we got on a ferry to Capri, where the emperors played. We took a boat tour around the island, visiting the famous Blue Grotto (which was beautiful), as well as the White and Green ones (Capri is a colorful place). After lunch, we hit the beach, enjoying the sun and the warm water. My skin enjoyed it a little too much, turning pink with excitement despite rigorous applications of sunscreen. But gelato and a little shade heals all, at least for a little while.

After a whirlwind weekend, we returned to the bus for a long ride back to Perugia.