Touring Naples

My first weekend, I stayed behind in the city while my host family went off to their beach house on Capri (rough life). Here's some photos from my amazing weekend adventures!

First, I visited the Naples National Archeological Museum.

Hercules being a boss. 

And the largest statue ever recovered -- the Farnese Bull.

Some of my favorite frescoes.

Behold Athena, the goddess of just about everything: wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, just warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill (according to Wikipedia). The original total package.

Sometimes the most exciting part is just walking around.

In Piazza Dante, who is often called the father of the Italian language.

Next, I went underground to see Napoli Sotterranea, which was originally built as an aqueduct when the city was establish more than 5,000 years ago. These are some old ass tunnels.

To keep the water running smoothly, the coated the walls with oils. You can see the layering effect.

To keep the water clean, people would climb down a well and use these small hand holds to scale the walls, skimming the water like we do pools. 

Some parts were completely dark so we carried candles.

It was hard to capture, but the tunnel was so tight in parts. We couldn't bring any bags and everyone had to turn sideways and scoot through. The smaller tunnels kept the water pressure high.

Now it's a tourist attraction, but during WWII, Neapolitans moved into the aqueducts to take shelter from air raids. They blocked all the wells and created stairs, sometimes living underground for weeks at a time.

After the underground, I took a tour of a long-lost Greco-Roman Theatre. It started in a normal Italian apartment situated on a normal Italian street. An elderly woman lived here for years before archeologists came to the area searching for the theatre. These bricks in her apartment alerted the researchers to the ancient treasure under her bedroom. 

To reach her wine cellar, the bed pushed back into the recessed wall and a door appeared underneath. The woman's wine cellar backed up to the ancient dressing rooms where the likes of Nero prepared to take the stage.

The passageway from the dressing rooms to the stage.

This arch supported the highest seats in the theatre. Six similar arches once formed the semi-circular edge of the theatre. This window is in someone's house. Perhaps the most incredible thing about all this history is how Neapolitans simply take it in stride and build right on top of it. This is also because there used to be a law banning the building of houses outside the city walls, so space was at a premium.

I met another girl (an opera singer from Holland!) at Napoli Sotterranea, and we decided our next stop should be the Palazzo Reale, or Royal Palace of Naples.

The main staircase. It was breathtaking. And I was really glad we asked for audio guides -- it seemed like every little thing was symbolic for something.

Pure decadence. Every square inch was dripping with luxury.

Il Trono.

Sometimes the ceilings were the best part.

Or maybe the view of the Bay of Naples was the best part... Either way, about the time we walked through the queen's third antechamber, I realized it was good to be queen. Check out Vesuvius on the left.

My favorite paintings in the royal collection were these depictions of everyday life as it was.

The nosebleeds in the royal theatre. Not bad at all.

The girl I met wasn't exactly a photographer. 

Next, we walked down to the sea to visit one of the castles. Unfortunately, it closed early on Sundays, but we still had a nice stroll along the bay.

Hopefully I'll get to go inside the castle next time! Overall, a really amazing weekend. 

This past weekend, I met up with the opera singer again and we had the best pizza I've ever tasted:

 The beer wasn't too bad, either.

This weekend, I'm taking on ROME! Ciao for now!

The Italian Job

Well, I guess it's been awhile since I've updated this... oops. A few things have happened since then: I finished up my year in Korea, took a vacation trip to Thailand, went home to Michigan for a few weeks, and then moved to Naples, Italy to be an au pair.

I'll start now by writing about Italy and then backtrack to wrap up my Korean adventures and maybe write a little about Thailand.

Okay so first of all, I wanted to talk about my preconceptions of Italy and Naples in particular. Before I left, I definitely thought I was going to see a number of things:

• People talking with their hands
• Lots of smoking
• Romance/public displays of affection
• PIZZA AND PASTA AND WINE
• Beautiful landscapes and seaside views
• Rollings hills dotted with stucco buildings almost on top of each other

Despite expecting these things, I was still surprised by how completely accurate my preconceived notions were. Within my first 24 hours, I was treated to close encounters with (almost) all of these things -- I haven't had any wine or pizza yet. Yes, everyone talks with their hands. It is so entertaining to watch people talk. Yes, it seems like everyone smokes. Yes, I have seen multiple couples, mostly young, making out in public places. Yes, I have been eating amazing food. And holy shit yes, the views are amazing.

So that's my first impression of Italy in general. 

The family I am living with has a great apartment with a terrace that is probably about the same square footage as the inside area. The mom is a (divorce?) lawyer and the dad owns an electrical and/or security company and also maybe just bought an online newspaper. I'm a little fuzzy on those details, but I know they must have the euros rolling in because they have had American au pairs for 6 years and also employ a full-time housekeeper.

Let's talk about the joys of having a housekeeper because frankly, I don't know how I survived without one before. Her name is Patrizia and she comes  to the apartment with fresh groceries every morning. She cleans the entire apartment (I don't know why you would have to mop every single day, but whatever) and also cooks lunch and dinner for all of us. Which means I get to eat homemade authentic Italian food twice a day, every day. It's unbelievably good. I don't know how picky the previous au pairs were, because they keep telling me I don't have to eat something if I don't like it, but everything is so delicious. Let's just go ahead and add housekeeper to the list of things I would like to have when I grow up.

The awesome view from the terrace -- you can see the sea on the left and a hill covered in houses to the right. It's even more breathtaking at night, but impossible to capture.

Here's the old palace we walked by quickly in the city center.

I guess now I should talk about what I'm actually doing here -- taking care of Chiara (key-are-uh), who is seven AND A HALF, and Vittoria (emphasis on the second syllable, kinda roll the r), who is 6. They were all over me the second I walked in the door, which might be a sign of some kind of attachment disorder, but maybe it's okay because we Skyped before but I don't know... Regardless, they're very affectionate, but also very temperamental. Almost every activity we do ends in tears (sometimes they're even real tears), but we had a talk about expectations and rules today and I think that will help. I'm sure it's difficult adapting to a new caretaker every year or so. 

This week and next, they're still on summer vacation so I'm taking care of them all day which means a little overtime pay, but it's also a little tough to start out with them all day. The family is also renovating their apartment, which means a lot of toys and games are packed up. Sometime this month, we'll all move into a temporary apartment while workers invade the current apartment in order to join it with the newly redone apartment next door. In the meantime, I went from a studio apartment to sharing a room with a 6 and 7 year old. The transition has its downfalls, but overall, I'm enjoying myself and keep smiling to myself about how happy I am to be doing this.

Today, the mom took me down to the city center and we had some gelato and walked along the sea. This weekend, they invited me to come along with them to their beach house, but I'm considering staying behind so I can explore a bit on a my own. But we'll see.

I won't have much free time until the girls return to school, but I'll try to keep you guys updated as best I can! Ciao!