Norwegian Epic Cruise Review: Naples Italy
I’m back to share part 2 of my travel series featuring the Norwegian Epic! If you haven’t read part 1 yet, click the link to catch up! -> 7 Day Western Mediterranean Norwegian Epic Cruise
Our first port was Naples, Italy and I was so excited to get off the ship and explore! We got off not entirely having a plan of where we were going to go, or how we were going to get there. So imagine our faces when a man popped out of a secluded stairwell and asked us if we needed a tour guide. LOL! I can say at first we were a tad iffy however, getting in a van with this man wasn’t far off from the other adventurous things we did in Barcelona! (That’s another post lol) Luckily for us, the man wasn’t jack the ripper and we not only survived but had an amazing time!
Naples is VERY industrial. . . there is nothing there once you get off the cruise ship and walk into the port. You will need a tour guide or some type of transportation to take you into the city. I have to say that Naples in my opinion appeared to be the least “fancy,” it actually seemed like there was a lot of poverty there. Long story short, hire a tour guide or catch a taxi because walking around in that area didn’t seem safe at all!
Pompeii
The tour guide took us to see Pompeii, which is an ancient Roman town that was mostly destroyed by volcanic ash. This place was HUGE as it covered around 170 acres and had around 11,000 people living there. It would take the average person at least 5 days to see the areas that are available to tourists. Crazy enough, there are still parts of Pompeii that aren’t even open to the public yet!
As we walked around Pompeii, I couldn’t believe how many artifacts and buildings were still in tact. Also, it was absolutely amazing to see how intelligent these people were back then. The city had a water/sewage system, amphitheater, gymnasium and even a port! The two photos below are both in the smaller amphitheater!
We even saw an array of mansions for kings (see photo below) to houses for the middle class population. The tour guide also showed us an original brick oven. Now we see how far back people have been using brick ovens for!
I have to say that although Pompeii was spectacular, it was also very sad to see/hear how the population there died. Below are photos of human artifacts; they’re so detailed that you see the position the boy was in as he was passing away.
Final Review of Pompeii
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and our tour guide was so knowledgeable and amazing! I definitely plan on revisiting Pompeii and seeing the areas we didn’t get a chance to tour.
Naples Cathedral
Once we left Pompeii, our tour guide took us to enjoy the best gelato EVER!!! Then we went to tour the Naples Cathedral, which literally took my breath away! This was the first building I saw where the artwork was absolutely astonishing. Little did I know, this cathedral wouldn’t be anywhere near the meticulous detail I was going to see later further along in our trip.
Food
Last on the list was of course FOOD! After a long hot day, we all were ready to sit down and enjoy some authentic cuisine. I THOUGHT I was going to try alfredo. . . FAIL! The owners of the restaurant (amazing people by the way) had never heard of alfredo sauce. How American of me LOL! So I opted for the Margherita pizza but not before I tried our appetizer, which was fresh mozzarella! You haven’t had REAL mozzarella, until you to go Italy and savor it. That’s it. . . no one can tell me differently! LOL.
After our phenomenal lunch, it was time to get back on the ship and head to the next port! I really enjoyed myself in Naples, and I’ll definitely be visiting again to explore new places! If you’ve ever visited Naples, let me know where you went and what you did!
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Until Next Time ASSASSINS. . . Stay Motivated!