Napoli

One of the things I find so astonishing about Italy is the citrus trees. Apparently it is the height of the season for oranges, and although the trees on street corners in Rome are stripped of their fruit as high as anyone can reach, when I traveled to the country I saw orange and lemon trees loaded down and the ground under them carpeted with wasted fruit. Since then I have come to judge a city by the condition of its fruit trees. As I said, Roman orange trees are healthy and popular (like the city!) but the fruit in Naples rots on the bough.

Before I even reached Italy the word ran around that Naples--or Napoli as the Italians call it--was to be avoided at all costs because in addition to being far more disease-ridden and prone to violent crime than central or northern Italy, it has been suffering under a trash strike for the past month! However, Naples does have two big draws: the National Archeological Museum and the ancient ruins of Pompeii on its doorstep. So I braved Naples, and although the city was astonishing in its poverty and filth, the museum was thoroughly enjoyable. I have included a photograph of my favorite bust I saw there, one that is assumed to be Dionysus, but he doesn't look like it, does he? Anyway...the National Archeological Museum included such highlights as the Farnese Hercules, the best Roman copy of the lost Greek statue call the Doryphoros as well as cases and cases of jewelry, baking pans, bronze statues, etcetera from the nearby ruins of Pompeii. Well worth the visit, but I was still glad to board the bus and continue onto the little coastal city of Stabiae where I would be spending the night.