ITALY - DAY 24

Today we drove into Naples to meet up with Enzo and Christian so they could show us the highlights of Naples. It took approximately two hours to travel 60 kilometres. That gives you an indication of how windy and narrow the roads are in Italy.

Following the GPS we arrived at where we were to meet them only to have to try and find a park. This turned out to be a problem. We drove around for half and hour before finally finding an underground parking garage. The assistant allowed us to park there and we then walked back trying to find the place to meet Enzo and Christian.

First impressions of Naples was that it was very dirty and unsavory. The parking attendant told Pasqual to remove even his watch as this would make us a target for a mugging. Great! Really looking forward to walking around if it is that dangerous.

We caught up with Enzo and Christian and Enzo started to show us some of the sights. He informed us that Neapolitans are very proud about Naples and think it is the best city in Italy. We saw a variety of piazzas (none of which were as impressive as Rome) and a shopping mall (identical to Milan's mall but with less polish) and a whole host of churches. We got to taste a local delicacy only found in Naples. It was called a baba. They were delicious.

Enzo took us into the Museo Cappella Sansevero. We saw Giuseppe Sanmartino's famous 'Veiled Christ'. This was amazing. The marble looked like it was like tissue. You could see all the detail of Christ. He was a master sculptor.

We also saw Giuseppe Salerno's Anatomical Machines. These were two human bodies, a male and a pregnant female, that he had inserted bees wax and a colouring through their veins which preserved them. The flesh had then rotted or been removed leaving behind the skeleton with all the veins etc. It was a little hard to get your head around the fact that they were real living people but amazing to think that someone from 1763 thought of a way to do this.

After that we went into a subterranean archaeological area where we saw two levels of existence below the Naples of today. Going down the ten steps we stepped back in time over 2000 years. Then below this excavated Roman site they have found remains of an even earlier period from when Naples was a Greek city. They have not been able to determine just how old these ruins are. It was awesome. We could wander freely around the site and in the whole time we were below no other person came down.

Then we had pizza for lunch, Neapolitan style. Traditional pizza of Naples is a margarita (best pizza we've had in all of Italy). You are not suppose to cut it, you are suppose to fold it into quarters and eat it like that. We didn't though.

We continued walking through Naples slowly heading back towards the car. We said goodbye to Enzo and Christian, then faced the drive back over the mountains to the villa. It was the best road out of all we have travelled this last week. We even got to see a goat herder and a mob of goats.