Day 23: More Pompeii stuff, churches and free dinner!

I realized I didn't really cover Pompeii too well yesterday, due to fatigue, so I went back and added more photos and edited my post a bit. I realized that there were some autocorrect typos, for which I apologize for not catching.

Today was a busy day, as I tried to cover as much as possible without getting worn down with fatigue. I started at the Certosa e Museo di San Martino, a church and museum combination. The church there is the only one I've been to so far where you can actually walk everywhere, both behind the altar and the rooms in the back, without extra charge. I got some great pictures too, as they allowed photos everywhere. True museum was a bit of a letdown though, as half of it was closed off for reconstruction. Luckily, I got it for half price with my card that I got for Pompeii yesterday. There was, however, a pretty cool naval exhibition at the museum which showed both real ships and model ones, as well as weapons and shipbuilding.

Since it was in the area, I also visited the Castel Sant'Elmo, a star-shaped Castro sitting on the cliff where the Certosa e Museo di San Martino is below. The views from the top of the castle really doesn't have much though, as he only structures in the plaza are a prison and a church. The church is closed to the public, and the prison now houses a collection of contemporary art. Of course, I didn't know this, otherwise I would have not bought the ticket and just walked to the top of the castle. The ticket also gave me access to the elevator.

After taking the cable car back down the mountain, I visited another 2 churches before buying lunch. The first was Chiesa San Anna di Lombardi, which featured some cool miniatures and an amazing Vasari room in the back. Apart from that, the church was pretty normal.

The next "church" is actually the part of the monastery that I went to on the first day. It's just that they were closing as I arrived at the second buildings, so I had to call it a day. It turns out that there is an entrance fee for the second building, as it is a very nice courtyard and museum combined. You can't take any pictures inside the museum, but it's not anything mindblowing anyways. I took a few pictures of the courtyard, and the archaeological dig at the backside of the museum. The archaeological dig is excavating a Roman bath building including a bath, a swimming pool and a sauna.

I had some Italian fast food for lunch in the form of a to-go pasta and took it back to the hostel to eat and rest up a bit in the air conditioned room.

After lunch, I went to the Duomo church, which is basically 3 churches rolled into one and is one of the most important churches in Naples. The main hall and church that you enter into is grand and impressive in decor, but the real impressive part is that to the left and to the right house two mini-churches. On the right is the Chapel of the Treasure of San Giovanni and is more classical in nature, with more decorations using fancy stone and gold. On the left is the oldest Basilica in the west, the St. Restituta's Basilica, built in the 4th century. While it wasn't as beautiful as the other sections of the church, it contained an old baptistery called The Baptistery of San Giovanni in Fonte. The baptistery was the old-fashioned kind, being a full immersion bath. When baptized, the person would rise from the bath and look up at the amazing tapestry above. I didn't get to see the baptistry or the chapel at first, as they were closed from 12:30-4:30pm and reopened after that.

In the meantime, I went to the National Archaeological Museum. Luckily, they allowed pictures, which means that you all get to see the original artifacts for Pompeii and Herculaneum! The museum started off displaying sculptures from the Farnese collection, including several animal sculptures and sculptures of gods. One that I particularly liked is the sculpture of Apollo and his lyre. Others that are good include "Hercules at rest" and "The Farnese Bull". I've attached pictures of both. I was quite disappointed to learn that a ton of exhibits were closed for some strange reason, but luckily, the Pompeii artifacts were still open. Things from Pompeii included paintings and furnishings such as those shown in the pictures.

In my final chapter of the day, I had planned to go to Gino's for pizza, but Giovanni cooked gnocchi pasta at home, so I got a good free meal. I think the key for girls who want to be fed good food is to marry an Italian.