Trianon Pizza, Naples, 2018

One does not visit Naples without having pizza (or espresso). Fortunately, we have our favorite pizzeria in Naples, Trianon. It is one of the two classic pizzerias in the city. The other, somewhat more famous--and whose name eludes me--serves only two varieties: 1) cheese and tomato sauce, and 2) just tomato sauce. We prefer Trianon, with its somewhat larger repertoire. It's still all about the crust, the freshness of the ingredients, the atmosphere, etc. Plus, as #2, we think they try harder. Our past visit--with few changes--is at http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2011/02/pizza.html.

My napolii, anchovies swimming in the sauce, with a healthy spoonful  of olive 

oil too

Her sausage and funghi

The upstairs oven

Pizza station

Somebody else's, right out of the oven

Decor

Street scene; we walked around the city rather less than
previously; a dense and lively place, raw energy...not for
those who prefer the quiet open spaces; we had spent all
our energy at the museum; and eating pizza

A renovated Garibaldi metro station; Naples is doing what it can to be a more
attractive destination--there is now a direct shuttle from the archaeoloogical
museum to the great art museum at Capodimonte (http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/
2011/04/capodimonte-1.html and http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2011/04/
capodimonte-2.html

They're working on it...oh, I had my espresso at the metro station; even in a
metro station cafe, Naples espresso tops all others; I'm now a Kimbo fan....

National Archaeological Museum, Naples, 2018

If you care about the classical world, archaeology, the history of art, this is one of those ground zero places. All the goodies from Pompei and Herculaneum found their way here; plus all the extraordinary goodies the Farnese popes dug up from the Baths of Caraculla in Rome, quarrying for the new St. Peter's Basilica. Previous visits and posts are:

http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2011/03/naples-archaeological-museum-pompei.html
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2011/03/naples-archaeological-museum-farnese.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/10/naples-national-archaeolopgical-museum.html,

and I have only a few pix to add...

Grand hall of the museum, formerly a palace

Meridians were quite the thing back then

The Blue Vase, 1st century AD, from Pompei, cameo/glass

Snake City/Lucky Charms...cobras, no less; all this stuff from Pompei

Helpful model of the Temple of Isis in Pompei

Impressive if not helpful model of Pompei as it had been excavated by 1879

Some of the paintings are quite large

Among the more popular portraits

Personal favorite: a stylized Sappho

The Penelope/Diana; from the Villa of Arianna; see #4 below

18 feet across by my measure

Among the Pompei sculptures

Bronze

Approaching the Gabinetto Segredo, where the dukes kept the lewd stuff; a
lewd floor mosaic

And a lewd sarcophagus; for other lewd pix, see previous posts noted above

Vicki refers to the Gabinetto Segredo as the Viagra Room

Moving right along, no longer in the Pompei collections, a selection of "dying
Gauls," a favorite Greek/Roman theme

In one of the beautiful courtyards

For reasons still not well understood, at least by me, the museum also had a
temporary exhibition of Star Wars props, including, foremost, this X-wing
fighter

And this

Integrating the collections

Thus; one of the great museums also has a great sense of
humor

The Farnese Hercules at Rest; one of the greats

Stabiae Villas

We have read, and observed, that the average visit to Pompei is about two hours. Our opening-to-closing visits over the years have been great, but they do tend to wear you out, especially at our advanced ages, and so we took the next day off, partly administrative, partly resting. The next day, however, May 27th, we ventured down the Circumvesuviana to Nocera, just a few miles from Pompei toward Sorrento, to see one of the Stabiae villas. The Roman elite built large and opulent villas along the coast here which also were destroyed and buried by Vesuvius in 79 AD. Perhaps the most famous is the Villa of Arianna.

Garden scene along the way

Seafood shoppe in Nocera

There was no signage until you actually got to the site, up the hill

The villas included many buildings, sprawling over some acres

As always, our interest was mostly the mosaics and frescoes

I like to think of this as the library or reading room

Great interpretive signage; and in English too

Dionysus "lovingly" admiring Ariadne

Muy importante: the Diana figure at the right is actually PENELOPE, dressed
as Diana (it's complicated)

Spare parts; rooms and rooms of spare parts

Vesuvius, biding its time, beyond Nocera

Everything's up to date in Nocera

A good illustration of frescoes taken off the walls to Naples and the duke/
monarch there, financing the excavations: "bring me the good stuff, destroy
all the rest"; this is why you have to go to Naples to see what is most
important from Pompei