Monday August 14

We woke up at 5:30, and groggily got dressed and ready for the day. We met Michele and Francesca in the main room, because they offered to drive us to Pompeii (!). The boat was docked and they were still sleeping! They woke up, we went to the car level of the ship, and I worried that driving out of the ship was going to be a big mess. It wasn't! They drove us to Pompeii so quickly, we had a really fun and sleepy drive, that included a karaoke rendition of wrecking ball by Miley Cyrus and Love Today by Mika, and then got breakfast with them right by the old city in Pompeii. I got a croissant with Nutella in it! Nutella sandwich!! They dropped us off at Pompeii with the promise they would visit us next year in Philly. It was 7:30 and Pompeii didn't open until 9. After the gate opened, we were able to explore the ruins, and we saw so many tiles and frescoes as well as the town center, a small theater, a lot of residences, a brothel, some baths, a laundry business, and some plaster casts of people petrified by Vesuvio. The last part was a bit intense. We took a train to Naples and at this point were very hungry. We walked to a Michelin starred pizza place only to find it being renovated! We walked to a different spot only to find that one closed as well. It was so hot and we were getting grumpy carrying our luggage all over Naples, or as we called it, Bapoli. We found another place nearby that was very very good! Spicy salami pizza and Margherita pizza! We split two pies and a small bottle of wine and it was perfect. We took the train to Termini and checked into our hotel near the Tiber river. We took the subway, a bus, and then walked to Pigneto, which is a residential neighborhood a little outside of the center of Rome. We did a little walking along the wall along the city's original border. Mike had 6 restaurants in that neighborhood he wanted to check out. Five of them were closed for holiday! We saw a lot of interesting wheatpastes and street art. We ended up eating at Necci Dal 1924. The food was innovative and delicious and we were seated next to a nice Russian couple. One of them ended up being the photographer Elena Anosova. She takes photographs of the Baikal region in Russia. We got some great pasta and Mike got octopus which freaked me out but I tried anyway. We had some nice conversation with the people at our table. We had a great time despite the neighborhood being mostly closed. We took the 19 tram through the city to Ottaviano, attempting to go to the magic bar. It was a 40 minute trip through a lot of the periphery neighborhoods of Rome, going past landmarks like the Villa Borghese, and Sapienza Università. We walked to the magic bar and it was closed. Everything was closed! We found one open bar and got a drink then went back to the hotel to sleep.

Our friend Michele had a picture of himself on his license plate.

This dog's name is Nero and he lives in Pompeii.