Napoli - il giorno due **Naples - day two**

I was up at 6:30 AM sharp on the second day (technically, it was our first effective day in Naples). God blessed us with a beautiful day; the sun was just beginning to rise as I stepped out onto the balcony and the city was just beginning to wake up. Breakfast started at 7:30 AM so being typical, kiasu Singaporeans we wanted to grab breakfast first thing in the morning in order to squeeze as many things into our itinerary for that day.

We headed down to the second floor (secondo piano, the elevator announced, which was actually the third floor since they start counting from piano terra - the ground floor) where the breakfast was served. It wasn't a fancy spread - just some buns, ham, cheese, tarts, eggs (who eats hard boiled eggs in the morning??), yoghurt and a selection of tea. It was sort of a letdown as I was expecting those intercontinental spreads that we were so used to at 5-star hotels. Gobbling down some buns with ham and washing it down with tea just to fill our stomachs, we made our way down to the reception to ask for directions and other touristy questions.

We decided to hit the La Pignasecca market first. According to the guidebook, it was the oldest market in Naples and the nearest one to our hotel. The rest would just have to wait. To get there, we had to take a stroll up Via Toledo, which is a shopping street filled with boutiques and cafes. Nothing was open at that time of the day - there was just the morning crowd rushing to work. About 10 min later, we wandered off Via Toledo into this little street (couldn't figure out where the street signs were, but we realised later it was actually La Pignasseca itself) because Penny noticed some fruit stalls. She even bought a sweater from a stall run by some Chinese folks (aren't they everywhere these days??) for €7.

Wandering further into the street we found a seafood stall which had so many different variations of aquatic life forms on offer. Just looking at the clams alone, there were at least six varieties there (not counting the mussels and see hum)! And there were fish in all different manners and sizes, squids, octopuses (or octopi?), stingrays - it just made my head spin taking in everything! If we had access to a kitchen, I reckon we would have bought ourselves a few crabs and fish just to get a taste of the Italian sea.

Having irritated the stall holders enough with all our picture taking, we moseyed further yet into the market and came across a vegetable stall. Again, we were awed by the variety of fresh produce they had to offer! Everything looked so succulent like they had just been harvested from the ground (there was still dirt and mud on them)! There was so much vibrancy and colour to the vegetables that we were tempted to buy one of each item just to bring them back with us.

As we wandered further, we realised that perhaps we were still too early so many of the stalls were not open yet (the guidebook says the market opens at 8 AM). We decided to head back to the hotel to book our day tour to the Pompei city ruins and Mount Vesuvius, the volcano responsible for burying the said city. The bus for the tour had already left, so the tour agency sent a Benz to send us to the first stop – Pompei city.

Our guide there, Esmiralda, bought the tickets for us and explained how to use our audio guides (we had missed the group by about 45 minutes so we didn’t get a speaking guide with us). We opened up the map and almost fainted when we saw how big the entire area was. We had only one and a half hours to cover what would normally take 4 hours. So we ran! We decided that since we didn’t have enough time to cover everything, we could only see the major stuff. We stuck pretty much to the main street, turning off every once in a while should we come across anything interesting or to snap some photos, but our main objective was to see the colossuem at the other end of the city. Which was pretty much worth it in the end - the colossuem was just incredible!

It was magnificent but yet heart-rending at the same time as we went about viewing the other excavated remains of Pompei city. Remnants of what used to be residences, gymnasiums, amphitheatres and town centres served as grim reminders of Mount Vesuvius’ enormous eruption which buried the city in 79 A.D. With Mt Vesuvius looming in the background, it wasn’t hard to imagine how frightening it must have been back then.

In an enclosure were also other excavated artefacts that once belonged to the people of Pompei – vases, pots, push carts and sculptures – along with actual human and animal bodies that were preserved by the volcanic ash. Fascinating but creepy.

We made our way back to the entrance in exactly one and a half hours and Esmiralda showed us to a nearby restaurant, Ristorante Vesuvio, for our first Italian lunch. We started off with salad (no dressing, just EVOO and lemon) and a plate of fried battered sotong and prawns. Up next was a spaghetti vongole (with ultra sweeeet clams) and gelato for dessert. Wonderful!

Our next driver, Feliche, arrived and ushered us into yet another Benz to drive us up Mt Vesuvius. He didn’t speak much English so most of our conversations along the way were accompanied by a lot of gesturing. After about a 15 minutes drive up the winding roads (which nearly made us puke), we stopped at a car park that was near the peak – we had to hike the rest of the way up! We almost fainted when we looked at the long trail ahead of us that disappeared around the side of the volcano. But the long hike up was quite interesting as we looked down on the city – makes you realise how awesome God is by creating everything around us.

Half an hour later, we heaved a sigh of relief when we finally got to the crater. The trail continued, circling the crater but we were satisfied with getting to where we were. Several snapshots and some massaging of our legs, we started to make our way down again. We almost slipped on several occasions as we made our way down the rocky trail. We hopped into the Benz and made our way back to the hotel. I had to close my eyes as I REALLY felt like puking this time round. It was about 4:30 PM by the time we reached the hotel. Our tickets to the Andrea Bocelli concert were sitting on the table! Penny and I both took a quick shower and hit the bed, wanting to get some rest before heading out again.

We got up again at about 8 PM, changed and headed out into the streets. The concert was starting at 9:30 PM so we didn’t want to be late! We hit Via Toledo again and walked towards the venue, Piazza Plebiscito. Surprisingly, it was quite dead for that time of the night – all the shops were closed! As we got closer to the venue (I didn’t even realised we’d reached as I expected the walk to be longer) at Piazza Trieste e Trento, there were cafes and restaurants here so there was quite a crowd. Piazza Plebiscito was just next to it so people were already crowding around to get a good spot to watch the concert. Guess you didn’t need tickets for the concert after all!

As we approached the entrance, we were told to put on our wristbands (I was wondering what they were for) and ushered into a VIP area for some drinks and light snacks. God is great – not only did He bless us with a free holiday, He sent us to a free concert with VIP passes! Not being able to eat (the lunch was causing havoc in my stomach), Penny got herself a drink and we hung around savouring the moment. We finally took our seats about 15 minutes before the concert was scheduled to begin.

After what seemed like eternity, the members of the backing Czech National Symphony Orchestra filed onto the stage to take their seats, accompanied by their conductor, Steven Mercurio, to do a sound check and an opening number. A while later, Andrea Bocelli finally appeared on stage, with rousing applause, to give an opening address presumably to talk about his upcoming album, Incanto, and why his performance in Naples.

The performance itself was nothing short of spectacular. Even his mother was in the front row watching her son perform! Bocelli had three guest performers with him pepping up his act - Italian movie star and singer Massimo Ranieri, flutist Andrea Griminelli and Italian soprano Cecilia Bartoli. The night ended in an encore with Bocelli and all his guests appearing together on stage to sing a final number for the ecstatic audience. Following all the fanfare and standing ovation, the performers disappeared backstage to address the Italian media who were also there to cover the performance. Clamouring for more, the audience (us inclusive) was evidently reluctant to leave even after the lights started to dim, signalling the end of the concert. Only when all the lights went off and the cleaning crew arrive did the audience realise that the concert was indeed over. We started dragging our feet to leave the square, all the while straining our necks to hopefully catch a last glimpse of Andrea Bocelli and his friends.

Starting to feel peckish after all the excitement, Penny and I headed for a pizzeria next to our hotel. We were disappointed that the guy was closed (an earlier check with the boss told us he closes at 12 MN but it was only 11:30 PM), but he did refer us to another pizzeria down the road. We quickly made our way there, sat down and ordered a pizza to share (although we were baffled by the Italian menu). Satisfied with our first true blue wood-fired Italian pizza, we headed back tour room for a well-deserved night of rest after having engaged in so many activities.

Tomorrow we go to Rome. Woo hoo!