nateniale's travels

{ Naples, Italy - May 2011 } I love how the Italian words sound, and being able to understand them is even better! During the trip in Italy, I kept trying to eavesdrop in conversations, especially when those older Italian men were talking loudly with such passion and many hand movements. But I digress. My point is, I can read and understand the title of this post - Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli is the Naples National Archeological Museum. It has many collections from nearby Pompeii and Herculaneum, and served as a great introduction to Pompeii that we planned to go the day after. Then again, the exhibition on Pompeii in the National Museum of Singapore the year before was one of the reasons I planned the trip to Pompeii. There were many sculptures exhibited, that remarkable as they were, became fuzzy and similar after awhile. However, there were two that stood out - Farnese Artemis and Aphrodite Kallipygos. Artemis was a Greek goddess, and I have been to the si...

{ Naples, Italy - May 2011 } Walking down the chaotic historic centre of Naples, you would never guess that there is a whole world deep underground. There are various sites and tours that bring visitors under the city, but on our visit we decided to explore the Naples' underground with  Napoli Sotterranea , which literally means Naples Underground. We were led to an apartment building, down a flight of stairs into the remains of a Roman theatre. Imagine, to be living in a building not knowing that it was built on a couple of thousands year old theatre! According to our guide, Emperor Nero, the Roman emperor, sang in this theatre through an earthquake. Many families are still living in the apartment above it.  We were then brought to another passageway, down hundreds of steps underground, into what used to be a Greco-Roman aqueduct during the Roman times. The aqueduct was eventually not used, and the water redirected. Standing inside the aqueduct, I could not ...

{ Naples, Italy - May 2011 } In my previous two posts on " People of Venice " and " People of Vatican City ", you can see how touristy the places are. Venice was full of day-trippers and we could only escape them early in the morning, or when we started wondering the tiny alleys. In Vatican City, with only 800 residents, there are literally only tourists that you see! Which brings me to Naples. Just from these photos, you can see the difference between those tourist cities and this charming historic centre. There are no shortage of locals, and really, not that many tourists. So, if you, like me, love to people watch, the best place to watch the locals would be Naples.          This charming old lady, deserves a special mention. Saw her from the window of our Bed and Breakfast, while we were taking some photos of the street downstairs, Spaccanapoli. Quickly snapped a photo of her, which she noticed, and started scolding vivaciously before go...

{ Naples, Italy - May 2011 } Growing up in Malaysia, and then studying in Singapore and Australia, the pizza that I knew and grew up with were those American pizza with thick crust and lots of toppings. I was never really a fan. Soon, I discovered thin crust Italian pizza that I came to love. So, when in Naples, the birth place of pizza, what do you think is the must eat dish? Pizza is probably the most popular and the best known creation of all Neapolitan cuisine. And the most popular pizzeria in Naples is arguably Da Michele. A small unassuming pizzeria, with no decorations except for the white and green tiles, that offers only two types of pizza - marinara (with tomato, garlic, and oregano) and margherita (with tomato, mozzarella, and basil). There must be a good reason why Da Michele still manages to attract long lines of customers after 140 years. And being featured in the book and the movie Eat, Pray, Love is not the reason. The reasons are these... When you are ab...

{ Naples, Italy - May 2011 } Walking down the streets in the historic centre of Naples , we soon saw a recurring figure that seemed to the unofficial mascot of the city. A character dressed in white with a black mask, there were many figurines of him playing various musical instruments and even with pizza and spaghetti in hand. We later found out that the character is Pulcinella, which means "chick" in Italian, and it originated from 17th century theatre. { Click here for other travel tales from Italy and  a list of my travelogues }

{ Naples, Italy - May 2011 } I have a confession to make. When I was planning the trip to Italy, I did not plan to go to Naples. We finally decided to go just because we wanted to visit Pompeii, and wished to break the journey from Rome. Even then, I was apprehensive and reluctant. I had reservations about the city after reading about the gritty, dirty city. However, there is the food that I have heard so much of, and so I thought that the food and Pompeii should be more than enough reasons for us to spend a day in the historic centre of Naples.  Stepping down from the train, and walking from the station to our little Bed and Breakfast in the historic centre, the main roads were filled with garbage and there was a massive strike happening on the main road. My apprehension grew the longer we walked and I remembered that I just wanted to be in the B&B, away from the crowd. When we reached the outside of the B&B just off the main street in the historic centre, Spa...

Managed to go to quite a number of cities around Italy, and like one of the owner of the Bed and Breakfast we stayed in said "There are three Italy - the Northern Italy, the Southern Italy and the middle one". I fully agreed! All the cities that we went to were very different - it felt like we were in different countries! And most of the time, the traffic best described the mood of the city. Venice There are no roads! In a city where you take the gondola for leisure cruise along the canals, where the main public transportation is the vaporetto (water bus) and you need to take the traghetto to cross the "roads" (ie canals), you know you're in a one-of-a-kind city! Venice is like no other! This visually stunning advertisement captures it all... Bologna Bologna feels like a young, energetic and animated city. The food was amazing and the gelato was probably one of the best I have ever had! Rome (and the Vatican City) All roads lead to Rome - I would not b...