Napoli, what a cool city! We have had a really great time here. We stayed at a hostel called Giovanni's house. Giovanni is great, giving insightful suggestions of what to do in the city and making delicious pasta for us as well as getting everyone together for music and hilarious chats!

The first day we took a walking tour he suggested us. Naples has thriving streets, beautiful buildings and a lovely seafront. It also is the home of pizza (originally invented for Queen Margherita here), so our first stop was Gino Sobillo's where we had our first delicious pizza served by one of Gino's twenty-one kids! Italy must have the Fanta in the world too, so much better than NZ.

We walked through town popping into some of the beautiful churches along the way and seeing the two castles in town. One of them is on a little island area that we walked around and up the parapets for great views of the city and Mount Vesuvius. There was also a beautiful old building that now houses shops next to the cities grand square. That night we trialled Del Presidente pizzeria, where we had our first buffalo mozzarella, yum!

Wednesday morning we went to a nearby pasticceria where we had Naple speciality sfogliatella, pastries with ricotta and cinnamon, they are delicious! They also have these great croissants with apricot jam inside and coffee you drink standing at the bar (cheaper than sitting down.) It was then off by train to Ercolano, not far from Naples where we caught a bus up to Mount Vesuvius and walked the final quarter of an hour, pretty easy! Views from the top of the Bay of Naples and the crater were fantastic. It was then back down to Ercolano with two American guys we caught up with from the hostel, to have a great pizza lunch before checking out the Roman ruins of Herculaneum. Smaller than Pompeii, it is more intact due to how it was hit by the eruption in 79 AD. Many of the buildings still have there second stories and there are even wooden remains giving a real feel of the place. The houses are decorated with mosaics and marble, which is beautiful. The preserved skeletons of people trying to flee the explosion are pretty frightening. That night Giovanni made amazing pasta for us and we had a great time with the small group at the hostel.

Today we went up on the cable car to the hill overlooking Naples for more fantastic views and did more wandering round the city. We then went on a tour of the underground remains of the ancient city, originally built by the Greeks and expanded by the Romans. We saw where the theatre was, the houses on top it following its original curved shape. Emperor Nero performed here bringing slaves from Rome to be his audience. It was then down 35m into the old aqueducts that had stretched 400km and used robust Roman construction to withstand earthquakes. They were used as shelters in WW2 and there were remains from these times down there. We then had our final pizza in Naples, at Trianon, open since 1923. Really good, but my favourite was Gino Sobillo's, while Mik favoured her one in Ercolano.

So sadly we are on our way back to Rome and departing for Boston tomorrow. It was great to end on a high in Naples, I would love to return there and spend more time in Southern Italy, but for now it's ciao!