Una Città Come il Vietnam

Today was a day with little planned, and the little that was planned were very little plans. We were expecting yesterday to be a big, tiring day, and it was a bit, but not too bad. But we'd already decided to take it easy today, and we'd shuffled our ideas around to make it so, and that was that. There are loads of churches and a few museums close by that we could have gone to, but we didn't. (To tell the truth, I'm already a little tired of going through the Lonely Planet to see what we have to see. We won't see everything, so why try too hard? It's exhausting. I'm happy just to go with whatever presents itself, or what catches my eye or imagination.)

A large (30m2) nativity scene. Can you see the Baby Jesus?

We went out for breakfast again, at the same place as yesterday, but this time we stuck to a pastry or two and a normal coffee. We took the long way home to explore the neighbourhood a little more, then we came home to rest up and see what would happen next. What happened next was a bit of a sleep, but we went out for lunch, thinking a local piazza looked interesting. Unfortunately it wasn't, so we ventured further to see what the streets had to offer. Finally we had hit a time of day when all the shops were open - all the other times we were always too early or too late to get more than half the shops - and we had an interesting wander. Plenty of tourist and souvenir shops, of course, but also some up-market and down-market clothes shops, the odd hardware shop, vaping shops, loads of food/coffee shops, and again, we came across the lanes selling miniatures for nativity scenes and such-like. Apparently these are a Napoli tradition, and in fact the name of the street that we're staying in is the name of some brothers who were making these scenes from 1840.

Underwater reservoir

We were aiming for an underground tour. When we found the place again (having made note of it the day we arrived), it took a detailed explanation and some time before it dawned on us (or me, anyway) that there were TWO underground tours (similar names, similar logos and similar company colours) selling their tickets in the same piazza. One was a tour of the water system and its historical caverns, and the other was more archaeological in nature. We thought the water would be a bit more focused and interesting, so we went for that one. We were half right - it was focused, but not terribly interesting.

Rack - with spikes, for added discomfort

We snuck out early, and from there we went to our other destination for the day, about two minutes down the street: the Museum of Torture. Their leaflet was one of several that had been left at our accommodation, and it was something different, so it was worth a try. It was indeed different, and horrible, and horrific, and you really have to wonder what kind of human beings the Inquisitors were. It's incredible to think that such devices were (often) thought up in the name of religion. Apparently there were rules: a torture couldn't continue for more than an hour, and there had to be 24 hours between sessions. So that's alright then. Except, the rules were rarely followed.

Fried pizza (classic) (front); and behind: mini fried pizza fritters

We came home again, and relaxed until it was nearly time to think about dinner. Another leaflet here has a mouthwatering picture on the front, of fried pizza. (This is Naples, the home of pizza. They're allowed to innovate and re-invent.) The address was near here, but in a different direction from the Historic Centre, where we've mostly been wandering. We headed up in that direction then, for a different view of the city. We passed through a street market and past a lot of small neighbourhood shops, in an area that really reminded us of Vietnam in many different ways. Much of Naples has been like this actually: you can see it in people's behaviours (their driving, walking, drinking, smoking, their outside voices, their lives in such close proximity to their neighbours) and their attitudes (driving wildly, without

Street market scene, Via Arena alla Sanita

helmets, kids of 12 - and younger! - driving motorbikes, whole families on motorbikes, also without helmets); rubbish on the streets (actually VN might be considered cleaner - at least they don't have 3 or 4 overflowing skips on each corner); the condition of the buildings: mostly grubby, but still with plenty of individuals making an effort to brighten up their place with greenery and flowers. Every wall here has graffiti, some of it artistic, mostly just kids leaving a mark, but you don't get much of that in VN. But really, you can feel that it's people getting on and making what they can of their lives despite the government and the authorities. In Rome, people seem happy to live by the rules, whereas here they work around them... just like in Vietnam.