Naples: It was the best of cities, it was the worst of cities. Well ... it wasn't really the best of cities.

Hello again, Blogonauts!

On Saturday the express train carried our merry band from Rome to Naples. More than anything else, I was struck the mountainous scenery along the way.

And once we lugged ourselves from the railway station into the streets of Napoli, I was equally struck -- nay, startled -- by the profligate mounds of trash and random scatterings of the detritus of human life, all of which literally littered the city's streets. And I haven't yet even mentioned the (rather poor quality) graffiti.

As you may have gathered, Naples fails to give a good first impression. Of all the cities I have visited, the closest parallel is Cairo. They both seem impoverished and ancient, grimy and graffitied, chaotic and colorful.

Yes, colorful. For beneath the grimy surface, Naples hides a cultural Mecca.

Our first forays into the city's heart found us on the parallel streets, Via Tribunali and Spacanapoli. These narrow roadways are interrupted periodically by wider piazzas that seem inevitably tied to a church or shrine, and intersected regularly with inconceivably tight alleys that randomly spit forth Vespas onto the primary thoroughfare.

All of these are lined with gritty shops and even grittier apartments and abandoned buildings. Yet this jampacked parcel of people nonetheless somehow works. The city's squalor is balanced by a well-groomed population of youth who peacefully gathered to pass their Saturday evening in Piazza Gesù Nuovo, where we had coincidentally chosen to have our dinner. The human congeniality conquered much of our prior apprehension about this city.

Then to further soften our hearts, on Sunday we visited the crown jewel of cultural Naples: The Archeological Museum.

The king of Naples instructed the original excavators of Pompeii to bring him the good stuff. And thus was born the collection that became the core of the Naples Archeological Museum. If you have seen frescoes and mosaics from Pompeii, in all probability the originals reside here. But the museum offers so much more to see. Bronze statues, decorated pottery, religious and cultural icons, and all manner of artifacts from first century life are here to ogle. Much of it looks like it is still in usable condition, so viewing them is like entering a time warp of nearly 2,000-years.

The remainder of our Sunday we spent visiting Castel St. Elmo high above both the old and the new city, which we reached via funicular railway, and later consuming cannoli in a cafe before walking along the harbor.

So Naples showed itself to be an acquired taste, a place where the seedy intertwines with the sophisticated. It's not high on my list of places to visit again, but I am very glad I was here.

Next we went to see the source of all those antiquities, and the murderous mountain that both took away so much from the ancients while giving us such an unspoiled vision of their daily lives.

Watch for that next.