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Domenico and his daughter, Gea, picked us up promptly at 9:00 am. Domenico is a member of the Napoli Est club. We headed downtown but first stopped at Domenico’s yacht club, Circolo Nautico Posillipo, on the way for a quick drink. On our way from the bar to the dock, we passed a female aerobic class and thought that it would make a great infomercial for a home workout tape. After catching a nice glimpse of the Bay of Naples, we headed down to the Tribunale (Courthouse) for a morning of justice.
This tribunale was huge and was designed, along with many other buildings in the immediate area, by a Japanese firm. The courthouse was different from ours in several ways: it had almost 30 floors, there were banks and shops inside and smoking was permitted. Once we arrived at the facility, Domenico dropped us off and another Rotarian, Ermanno, took over but Gea remained with us. Ermanno is a civil lawyer and took us around the civil law section of the building. We were able to go in a courtroom and observe a few cases. In this courtroom, there were four tables of lawyers and four judges. After the civil side, a criminal lawyer joined our group and took us to the criminal side of the building, where we were also able to observe a case. The one we spent the most time at was the arraignment of several different people who were accused of dealing drugs. When we left the courthouse, we parted ways with Ermanno but Alberto, another lawyer, accompanied us, along with Gea.
We headed up to a castle which overlooked the city but it was closed so we decided to take in the view and then hit a cameo shop nearby. This shop had pictures of and a letter from Bill and Hillary Clinton and Martina and Jane bought some gifts from the owner, who claims to be the only cameo maker left in Naples.
Next was lunch at Trattoria Vanvitelli. The highlight of the lunch was the introduction of melloncello to our lives. It’s similar to limoncello but it’s made from melons…obviously. But, the best part was that it was served in a bottle that was shaped like a, you guessed it, cello.
We said goodbye to Gea and Alberto and took the subway to the National Archaeological Museum. There, we met Bruce Megill (our Canadian youth exchange pal from Cornwall, we met at Paestum and this was our reunion) and Sergio (another Rotarian) and headed inside the museum. If you’re coming to Naples, you must visit this museum. Inside are amazing frescoes and Roman statues (thanks to the Borbone king Carlo III), a large room with an astronomy clock, an Egyptian section with hieroglyphics and mummies, and the largest collection of artifacts from Pompei, Ercolano and Stabiae in the world. In a PG-13 section of the museum, there is a room where many pieces of erotic art from ancient Rome are on display, with explanations of the reasons why certain pieces were created.
After the museum, Bruce and Sergio took us to dinner. We all enjoyed our food and Sergio told us that this was going to be our best Rotarian dinner of our time in Naples because there was no speech afterward! Another golden nugget that Sergio shared with us is that there is a saying in Italy that means that people aren’t doing anything worthwhile: fare la ricotta – it literally means to make ricotta cheese.
We went back to Denza after dinner, worked on the blog and got some sleep. Tomorrow’s a free morning so we’re all pretty excited for that.
This tribunale was huge and was designed, along with many other buildings in the immediate area, by a Japanese firm. The courthouse was different from ours in several ways: it had almost 30 floors, there were banks and shops inside and smoking was permitted. Once we arrived at the facility, Domenico dropped us off and another Rotarian, Ermanno, took over but Gea remained with us. Ermanno is a civil lawyer and took us around the civil law section of the building. We were able to go in a courtroom and observe a few cases. In this courtroom, there were four tables of lawyers and four judges. After the civil side, a criminal lawyer joined our group and took us to the criminal side of the building, where we were also able to observe a case. The one we spent the most time at was the arraignment of several different people who were accused of dealing drugs. When we left the courthouse, we parted ways with Ermanno but Alberto, another lawyer, accompanied us, along with Gea.
We headed up to a castle which overlooked the city but it was closed so we decided to take in the view and then hit a cameo shop nearby. This shop had pictures of and a letter from Bill and Hillary Clinton and Martina and Jane bought some gifts from the owner, who claims to be the only cameo maker left in Naples.
Next was lunch at Trattoria Vanvitelli. The highlight of the lunch was the introduction of melloncello to our lives. It’s similar to limoncello but it’s made from melons…obviously. But, the best part was that it was served in a bottle that was shaped like a, you guessed it, cello.
We said goodbye to Gea and Alberto and took the subway to the National Archaeological Museum. There, we met Bruce Megill (our Canadian youth exchange pal from Cornwall, we met at Paestum and this was our reunion) and Sergio (another Rotarian) and headed inside the museum. If you’re coming to Naples, you must visit this museum. Inside are amazing frescoes and Roman statues (thanks to the Borbone king Carlo III), a large room with an astronomy clock, an Egyptian section with hieroglyphics and mummies, and the largest collection of artifacts from Pompei, Ercolano and Stabiae in the world. In a PG-13 section of the museum, there is a room where many pieces of erotic art from ancient Rome are on display, with explanations of the reasons why certain pieces were created.
After the museum, Bruce and Sergio took us to dinner. We all enjoyed our food and Sergio told us that this was going to be our best Rotarian dinner of our time in Naples because there was no speech afterward! Another golden nugget that Sergio shared with us is that there is a saying in Italy that means that people aren’t doing anything worthwhile: fare la ricotta – it literally means to make ricotta cheese.
We went back to Denza after dinner, worked on the blog and got some sleep. Tomorrow’s a free morning so we’re all pretty excited for that.
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