Catching Up: Thursday May 15th

Ok, so this weekend I have not been as good at the blogging thing. Thursday night I was so exhausted I could barely keep my eyes open long enough to make it to my bed. In fact, we were going to go to Capri on Friday, but we postponed our trip until next week because we were so exhausted. So here is what I missed telling you on Thursday.

Thursday was another day in "downtown" Naples. The more time I spend in this city the more I really am enjoying it. The history is a big part of that. The bank of Naples is celebrating it's 400 year anniversary this year. 400 years! That is older than the USA! Crazy! Also, they have a lot of castles around here and the Castel Nuovo (New Castel) was built in either the 14th or the 15th century (I can't remember which)! It is so fun to learn about it all. It is kinda overwhelming too. I am just grazing over a lot of stuff. I really would like to study Italian and learn the history and come back in a couple of years. (I say that about everywhere I go though).

So today we began our journey taking the Farnicular (sp?) which those of you who know Opera know there is the song that repeats "farniculi farnicular farniculi farnicular" (lots of times it is associated with pizza commercials or the phrase "momma mia"). This Opera song is talking about a farnicular that used to run up to Mount Vesuvius. I didn't take that one (as it no longer runs) but I did take it up to Castel Sant'Elmo and the San Martino Monastery/church. That Castel wasn't much, it did have amazing views of the harbor.

The Monastery/church was soooo cool! There were monks there who had taken a vow of solitude and couldn't talk with one another. However, in one of the rooms they would go into to enter their robe changing facility there was a neat feature. The acoustics in the room were such that if you stood in the exact center you could hear an echo. Then if you stood at the corner on the north-west corner and the south-east corner you could whisper and hear it clear as a bell. The monks used to talk to each other this way. Kind of interesting.

Then we went downtown Naples again and walked along Via Toledo. We bought straw hats for our Capri trip (very touristy). We stopped for Gelato in the Galleria principe di Napoli.

We went to this really cool theater, Castel Nuovo, and the Pallazo Regale (royal palace). My two favorites were the theater and the palace; mostly as they were the most ornate.

The Castel Nuovo did have some interesting artwork in it. It has been revamped into an art museum.

The palace was really cool. As Napoli has been under multiple leadership (the Italians, the French, the Spanish, etc) you can see all the influence in the decorations of the palace. Especially the French side.

On our way home we got Magnum bars (yay! I love them!). I had such bad blisters on my feet from my shoes though! Oi! I am sure it is because I am not staying hydrated and so my tissue is swelling and my shoes are rubbing on the inside of my feet. I am only drinking about 2 pints a day (oops!).