Back in May, I booked myself a small trip to the south of Italy. A long time ago, I was in the ancient city of Pompeii (and climbed Mount Vesuvius), and for a few years now, I’ve wanted to come back. I had not really looked seriously into it because affordable flights felt either too short (two nights) or too long (five nights). In the end, I made the calculation that maybe one day for Pompeii, one for Ercolano (Herculaneum) and two and a half for Napoli (Naples) might work out – arriving Monday evening and leaving Saturday late afternoon. I found an reasonably-priced hotel close to the station for the five nights, and then life happened as it usually does. This meant that I ended up without a definite plan – just a few basic bookings – and I seriously miscalculated how rough around the edges Naples really is. Despite it being an area with a “bad rep”, I wanted a hotel near the station to facilitate getting to both Pompeii and Ercolano by train, and because I did not want to connect to a second means of transport when I arrived in town at night.

My flight was due on the 17th of July at 18:30, but it was delayed. Right as I was boarding around 18:45, I got an email stating that my credit card had been denied at the hotel, so unless I provided another one within two hours, the booking would be cancelled. I would be in the air, so I needed to do it on the plane itself. Truth be told, my credit card is due to expire in August, so I don’t know if the error was on the hotel or my bank’s part. Fortunately, upon landing there were no further messages, and as I waited to disembark I tried to access my banking app – to no avail. That made me a tad bit stressed – even if I had cash, I wouldn’t want to get stuck abroad without a working credit card again. My bank has this thing for making all my cards stop working at the same time.

I had booked a ticket for the airport bus, that took merely 15 minutes to get to town. The line, however, was stupidly long. As we waited, taxis and gypsy cabs offered rides, but I did not trust those. The first bus left, and the second one arrived shortly after. It filled up, and there were two groups in front of me. The driver claimed that he only had space for one, so I gleefully claimed “one!” and went ahead. People on board called me lucky, people off board probably hated me.

As we drove off into the road, the first thing I saw was a rat, and that should have been a hint. We stopped off at Plaza Garibaldi in Naples around 22:20, and I did not take 10 minutes to get to the hotel – but boy, they felt long. The city smelt like urine and fishmonger ice, and there were lots of people hanging out who looked up to no good. I finally reached the hotel, the debit card worked, and I had bought a sandwich at the airport so I could have a snack. The air-con worked, and I managed to get the shower working. Things were looking up.

I’ve seen Naples described as charming and chaotic. In principle, I agree with the chaotic part. It has nice things, but it did not feel like a nice “welcoming” city – I would not really call it dangerous, but maybe dodgy or sketchy, and always on the lookout for a naïve tourist to scam or pickpocket. I was not really scared, but uncomfortable more than a few times, which made the whole trip a bit tiring. I decided not to wear headphones to pay more attention to my surroundings. In general, the plan was to start off early in the mornings and be back at the hotel with dinner and drinks in the late afternoon, which turned out to be a good idea. The hotel was small and noisy, but clean, with nice staff, and it became a little refuge, because this is not a town I wanted to go out to take pictures at night of.

Side note – on top of everything, I got caught in the middle of a heat wave – so just assume that from the beginning to the end, it was hot, and I was dripping sweat, unless I was underground. I mean, not even the Archaeological Museum has air conditioning in all the wards… but it does in the basement, which holds… the Egyptian collection. Go figure.

The city of Naples – Napoli in Italian – dates back to a settlement-port established in the 8th century BCE. It was refounded by Greek settlers in 470 BCE and it has been continuously inhabited since then, despite the constant threat of looming volcano Il Vesuvio – Mount Vesuvius – and its temperamental eruptions. There are records of about 50 eruptions, the most famous being the one that buried down Pompeii in 79 CE, though the volcano has been quiet since 1944.

Originally part of Magna Graecia (a network of Greek colonies in in Italy), Naples quickly became one of its most important cities. It became an ally of the Roman Republic against Carthage and it eventually became a Roman colony and part of the empire. Emperor Nero performed in its theatre in 64 CE, it is said that an earthquake hit as he did – he explained that it was the gods clapping at his act – it was in reality a precursor of the year 79 eruption.

After the fall of Roman Empire, the city was captured by the Ostrogoths, and later by the Byzantine Empire. In the year 661, the Byzantine Emperor granted Naples the right to be self-governed by a local Duke, which yielded to the Duchy of Naples and its eventual independence. In the year 1137, the Duchy was annexed to the Kingdom of Sicily, of which it became capital in 1266. In 1282, the Kingdom of Naples was created, though at that time there was a dependency of the Kingdom or Aragón and the city eventually became a part of the Spanish Empire. In the 17th century, Naples was the second-largest city in Europe, and it became the epicentre of the Baroque style.

In 1714, the Spanish “lost” Naples, and for a while it was ruled by Austria. After the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, Naples and Sicily combined to become the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. After 1861, Naples became part of the Kingdom of Italy as part of the Italian unification. This marked the beginning of the decline of the city. Naples was the most bombed city in Italy during WWII, and the first to rise against German occupation. In recent years, it has had issues with waste management, Camorra organised crime, corruption, poverty and high unemployment.

In 1995, the Historic Centre of Naples was declared Unesco World Heritage Site, due to the great number of historical monuments of standing importance – archaeological sites, churches, palaces, castles… Naples has turned to tourism as a source of income, both legit and not so much. Different attractions are managed by cooperatives that employ local people at the same time they open historical sites for visits – which is of course good, but the downside is a lot of guided visits and places you can’t see on your own.

I arrived late on Monday, and I had decided not to book Pompeii for my first day, just in case there were delays. I decided to dedicate Tuesday 18th to Naples (which lead to discover that the Archaeological Museum closed on Tuesdays), Wednesday 19th to Pompeii, Thursday 20th for a half-day trip to Ercolano, and the rest of the time to Naples itself. If I had done a bit more research and timed things better, I could have fit another half-day trip. However, on the bright side, this meant I did not become too tired.