NAPLES (Mon 8 June)

Going to the Archaeological Museum in Naples today, to see the artifacts from Pompeii. We caught the train to Naples Central and then transferred to the Metro which took us to Piazza Cavour, which is just a few metres down the road from the museum. This all worked out relatively painlessly.
Firstly we went through what appeared to be a relatively new exhibition, which displays the artifacts and discoveries they made (and are still finding) when putting the Metro through, just a few metres beneath where we were standing.
Then we went through to the main Museum itself. On the ground floor they have their sculpture exhibition, which is understandable, because they would have a few problems getting some of these babies upstairs. You would think that by now we would be used to the size of these puppies … we aren’t. We are still astounded by their size, and the skill and craftsmanship that created them.
There is one in particular here that stands 13 ft high and depicts a woman being tied to a bull. The story being represented is that of King Lycus. Evidentially he was bewitched by Dirce and he abandoned his pregnant wife to be with her. The single mum later gave birth to twin boys, who when they grew up hunted down their father and killed him, and tied Dirce to the horns of a bull to be bashed against a mountain. Charming.
From here we went upstairs to the Pompeii art. This is amazing. Mosaics like you have never seen before. Mosaics that portray everything from landscapes, illustrations, and even to portraiture, all done with tiny mosaics. From big to small, some of these are big enough to cover a wall. It would have been incredible to have seen these insitu in Pompeii. Justine have commented on what it must have been like to discover and uncover something like this.
Also upstairs is the ‘Secret room’. This is the room that we have heard so much about. Essentially it is a room of ancient porn. Depictions of different acts depicted on frescoes, earthenware, and sculptures. Seeing a sculpture of a toga with an inappropriate bulge, a sculpture of a satyre mounting a goat, or frescoes used as brothel menu boards just doesn’t seem quite right. Evidentally this collection was hidden away for along time and could only be viewed with express approval by the king. Understandably this only heightened the attention that it has received. Personally I think it is all over-hyped. Interesting … yes, definitely worth a twitter or two, but that’s about the strength of it.
This exhibit is followed on by an endless display of frescoes, which are very cool. Mostly depictions of mythical themes, which is really very interesting and a change from what we have been seeing over the last few weeks.
Also on this same floor there is an exhibition about the gladiators, showing various forms of armour and weapons, etc, or so we have heard. We were about to go in when they shut the doors. We went downstairs to ask when they would be reopening (we thought it might be a lunch break – they tend to do that here), and all we got was the Italian shrug. After some persistence we managed to ascertain that they actually didn’t know if it would open again or not. We would have to wait until 2:30pm when the afternoon shift started, before they would know. It seems as if they have a lot of volunteers, and it just depends on whether they show up to work on the day, whether a section is opened or not. After more persistence and several phone calls they finally told us that it would closed for the rest of the day, and it wouldn’t be open tomorrow either as the whole museum is closed on Tuesdays.
It was then that we saw the board and we saw that there was a total of eight different sections that were closed that afternoon. So if you want to go to the Archeological Museum to see a particular exhibit, even if you do pay your ten Euro per person to see it, that is no guarantee that it will be open.
We headed home after this for some heat relief in the swimming pool, and then a stroll around Sorrento. We walked down the stairs at the rear of the camping ground, and we ended up in this lovely little seafront town. Complete with fishing boats and a Trattoria (whose claim to fame is that Sophia Loren once ate there – and they have the photos to prove it).
As we walked on through Sorrento we agreed that this place really is set up for tourists. They have accepted that and embraced it, but not in an over the top tacky way like we have seen in so many places. But this is probably the end of line for most tourist groups, not many seem to venture south from here. So from here on we are going to have to work harder on our Italian. So far it has been too easy to make the most of the English speaking Italians, which interesting enough, it seems to be the ones about our age that are the more proficient in English, not the younger ones as we had expected.
Tonight seems to be a big night here, there are huge fireworks going off up on the hill. We saw some notices today saying that the carabinieri are celebrating 195 years, so we are guessing that it is related somehow. It does make you wonder why they couldn’t wait five years for their 200 years though doesn’t it.