Sorrento

There are many places to visit in Naples and with its good transport links it makes the ideal base. However, it is one of the dirtiest modern cities I have ever visited. There is rubbish strewn everywhere, bins overflowing and graffiti on every brick wall you see. So today we were leaving Naples behind and visiting Sorrento for the day. We took the local train with its 33 stops on the way. You can get an express train but they wouldn't sell us a ticket at the main station. It was a bizarre experience. When we went to Pompeii it took a visit to four different ticket booths and much persuasion before they would sell us tickets for the Express. It is more expensive but much quicker. Whilst waiting for the Express train 4 different people told us we had to go on the local train! So today we gave up trying and just went with the flow on the slow train to Sorrento.

It was a day to browse, drink, eat and watch the world go by in a very clean town.

                                                               Even time for a selfie.















Lemons were everywhere.

We took the lift down the cliffs so we could walk by the sea but being Italy this isn't so easy as it seems that the seafront is owned by bars or restaurants or hotels.

But once we were near the ferry port we had a much better view of the sea and could see the Island of Capri in the distance. 

Unfortunately it then became quite hazy and the warm Sirocco wind began. Not too bad to begin with but by the time we sat down for lunch outside a restaurant overlooking the sea, it blew the salad off the plate!

Time to call it a day and walk back through the town to the station

National Archaeological Museum, Naples

 It took three visits to the Archaeological Museum before I finally saw the mosaics from Pompeii. On my first visit on Sunday the rooms containing Pompeii antiquities were closed but the rest of the Museum was open. I wandered around and in the garden saw these three figures, part of a superhero exhibition by Adrian Tranquilli. There were many of his figures throughout  the museum. ( They were exhibited as a future civilisation amongst the ancient civilisations of the Museum's permanent collection.) Ideal for Weekend Reflection

On Tuesday I forgot the Museum closed for the day but on my last full day in Naples I finally got to see what I wanted. It was worth all the effort. I was bowled over by the colours, detail and size of the mosaics. Most of the mosaics shown here were from walls and vaulted ceilings in Pompeii. Used for decoration and to record events or images of family members and pets, some were just 20cm square. I do not recall any detailed information about individual mosaics so just sit back and admire how Romans decorated their homes 2000 years ago.

This is the faun from the House of the faun as I mentioned in my previous post and all the following four mosaics are also from that villa.