March 25 – To Napoli

Easy ferry crossing took 7 hours to Brindisi. There I had a nice airbnb and in the morning four trains to Napoli (to make bike carrying easier than on the high-speed trains). I didn’t have accommodation booked, so I went to tourist information at the station and they found me a hotel nearby that they said was cheap and decent. 500 euros for 6 nights – yikes. Apparently it was the last room they had, and I wasn’t surprised. The furniture was broken or damaged, curtains falling off, not good. The manager was not around, so I went back to the information place and told them. They obviously called the hotel becuase in the morning, they moved me to a nicer room.

In the morning I went to the local church, which didn’t seem too impressive until I went inside. Photos should speak for themselves!

March 27 – Cathedral of St John the Baptist

Naples is ‘busy’, some say chaotic, but people know what they’re doing – they just do it faster and closer together. I’ll post some videos later to show what I mean. In the meantime, I went to the main cathedral, the Duoma, officially known as the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and the seat of the Archbishop of Turin. Spectacular. The Turin Shroud is somewhere in there, but I didn’t see it. Like in many of the lesser churches, there are confessional booths which are often occupied. From what I’m learning about the local mafia, I’m not surprised.

March 28 – the narrow streets

Naples is famed for its narrow busy streets. Cars, scooters and bikes race up and down. There are usually no pavements, so it’s a bit of a free-for-all. Of course, there are main streets which look just like any other major city, but they are not as interesting.

In the part near where I stayed, with its narrow streets, and in the Spanish Quarter, the local mafia (Camorra) are more or less in charge. They are involved in a wide range of criminal activities, including drug trafficking, extortion, money laundering, illegal gambling, and arms trafficking. It is said that around 20% of the local economy is controlled by them.

Napoli are close to clinching the Italian football championship, and the town, especially the old town with its narrow streets and chaos, is celebrating. There are shrines to Maradona, who played for Napoli for a while and helped them to their last championship. He died three years ago, but there are almost as many images of him on the streets as of the Virgin Mary.

March 30 – Naples National Archaeological Museum

There is not much in the way of museums or art galleries in Naples and I wasn’t expecting too much from visiting the Archaeological Museum. But I was in for a pleasant surprise. I’m not particularly interested in Archchaeology, but I could have spent a couple of days there.

There were hundreds of statues and other sculptures, fascinating information about the development of the Byzantine empire, fantastic mosaics and a really impressive section on Pompei. Rather incongruently, there was also a spectactular section comemorating the musician Lucio Dalla who had a very close connection with the city.

Brilliantly curated, annotated and organised. Worth dropping into Naples just to see it.