Brendan Doms

Me inside the Colosseum.

Today I went to most of the tourist sites around Rome. Sadly, the Sistine Chapel closed earlier than it was supposed to by several hours, so I missed it. But I saw the Colosseum (skipping the hour long line by paying 4 euros more for a tour), the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, and St. Peter’s Basilica, just to name a few.

The churches feel weird - they’re all gold and glitz, like the religion is about being shiny and impressive rather than personal. It’s extremely…commercialized.

This has been my favorite day yet. I love the city, and the sites were awesome. I should have booked some more days here. I’ll have to come back.

The view from the rooftop of the hostel in Rome during dinner. You could see a lot of the city.

I fell in love with Rome almost instantly. It is “organized chaos” as one person at my hostel put it. I couldn’t agree or like it more. In stark contrast to Naples it is much cleaner (though the Athens subway still wins for being the nicest I’ve seen) and everybody speaks English once again.

I ambled about a park and then the Colosseum came into view over the tree tops. I caught myself unconsciously grinning. And it hit me: this is why I came on this trip. To see these things. To have these experiences. I am giddy.

Back at the hostel there is spaghetti night - for 2 euros you get all the pasta and wine you want. It’s a great socializing tool and I meet a bunch of people. Most notably, the highest concentration of Americans yet. There’s two girls from Montana, and two from Wisconsin. So the midwest is getting some good representation!

Eventually, sitting on the hostel’s rooftop, a guy tells us that he has a duty free bottle of vodka that he’d like us to help him get rid of. We oblige, and laugh long into the night.

Me in the ruins of Pompeii.

It’s August 24, 79 AD. In what is perhaps the most famous natural disaster in history, the city of Pompeii is utterly destroyed by the lava, debris, and ash of Mt. Vesuvius erupting.

Seeing the ruins was the best part of the Naples area. I loved it. Walking around I noticed myself at one point skipping from rock to rock pretending there was still lava on the ground, and I wonder - is this how the children’s game was created? Did kids hear stories about Pompeii and create a game out of what they heard? There’s no way to know obviously, but I couldn’t get the idea out of my head.

Anyway, not much more to say. I’m really glad I went. There were thunderstorms the past two nights, so I got a really nice day after the rain to walk around. Cool, but not humid. It was a nice change.

A wine grown on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius, looking back out at the sea.

Looking back at the town of Portici from the pier.

Minnesota, huh? You are a…grizzly?

A waiter in Portici.

I’m trying to like Naples, really, I am. But it’s dirty. And not in a surface level kind of way. There’s a deeper filth here. Like grimy in addition to grungy. Athens just felt brighter by a comparison - a glittering jewel of safety and cleanliness. Naples seems dim, no, diminished by Athens.

I got out of the down town area quickly. Supposedly the Central Station is the most likely placed to get pickpocketed in Italy. I headed south along the water on the “Circumvesuviana” - a strange name for a train until I realized that it probably literally means “around Vesuvia.”

Portici is the little town I’m staying in. It’s an old-fashioned fishing village by the looks of it. It’s the first place where I feel like not knowing the local language is a problem. I’m having to do a lot more pointing and talking with my hands. It’s not very walkable - it takes way longer to get places on the map than I feel like it should. There’s just a lot of nothing in between. There are stray dogs everywhere, and most of the people I see on the street look like they’re retired. This place smells. Like rotting fish and feces. The ocean water, so blue around Greece and Cyprus is a murky brown here. I won’t be touching it with a ten foot pole.

That said, the hostel itself, “Fabric” - an old textile factory that’s been converted - is amazing in how modern and clean it is. It’s definitely the coolest place I’ve stayed yet in terms of decor and style. Sadly, the crowd is taking a night off. Most of the people are just sitting around watching movies rather than socializing. After the Aphrodite, going from Matrix: Revolutions to Runaway Jury to The Shawshank Redemption (with hardly a break in between) seems like a bad use of time in Europe.

Luckily I found a group that wanted to go out for some late pizza and wine. Naples is the home of the margherita pizza, if you didn’t know. And that buffalo mozzarella, tomato, and basil is both tasty and cheap.

There were moments of beauty, of course. A sun shower while I enjoyed a local wine. Children playing soccer with a basketball in the street. The hostel had lots of potential, too. I’m just glad that I only spent one night here.