Today is Vatican day! I was excited to go and see the coliseum, where lions and men once met their doom in fated battles of wit and brawn, and to visit the Vatican Museum where Dan Brown once perverted the history of a religion. I went to the Coliseum first and got a ticket to go inside. It was interesting how they kept the lions underground to make them sensitive to light and I liked how organized the levels were, it reminded me of our broken Metrodome. After the Coliseum I traveled onward to went back to the Vatican so I could explore the museum and the Sistine Chapel. I took the metro and on the way bought some 20 euro sunglasses for 4.60. After that I entered the Vatican museum and immediately got crazy déjà vu from the Louvre. It seemed nearly as endless and also full of incredible statues and artwork from all over the world. It seemed only a bit more religious in nature and I liked how there were more information placards in English. I was most impressed by the Sistine Chapel and some of the famous statues and contemporary pieces that were housed there. It was incredible to see so much in one day. As I left the Museum there were some homeless people that were really hamming it up for the religious museumgoers I watched them for a while as they were looking extra pitiful and rolling on the ground etc. only as museum patrons walked past. I really struggle with giving money to the homeless now days because there are just so many beggars in Europe and all of them seem completely able to work. I always think of the scriptures when Christ talks about giving to the poor and wonder what he would do to help the people who beg today. At the beginning of the trip I gave more but now, especially when I see them play acting, it’s hard for me to give to them. I keep getting the feeling I’m not donating to the poor and needy, I’m just donating to con men. When I get home I’m going to make it a goal of mine to personally interview the homeless and beggars and find out how truly worthy they are of donations.
Anyway, after that I decided I better be on my way if I wanted to get to Napoli that night and still find a Hostel. I had grabbed a flyer from the previous Hostel I stayed at that had a tiny map of Napoli and a Hostel called the “Pizza Hostel” on it. I was excited to go to Napoli because I had heard that they had the best Italian food in the world, so that’s what I was thinking about on the train there. I finally got off the train at about 11pm and everything was closed including the booths that have maps. As I stepped out of the train station I immediately checked if I was even in Napoli. It looked like a war zone or as if there had just been a riot. I walked down a street covered in piles of trash up to my waist and people peeing on the buildings. It was rough, and the only people around looked pretty for off the beaten path. I walked down the road and found a bigger map on a sign. I tried to orient my small map to the big one and then to my surroundings. I ended up walking West toward a main street. It just got darker and darker and it soon started to smell bad and then I saw fires right in the street with bums getting warm by them. The best was when a group of prostitutes tried to wave me over, I politely declined. Eventually I found that I was walking in the wrong direction and so I started walking the other way. I walked through a weird market with tons of kids toys and candy and so I bought some strange bags of stuff, it was ridiculously cheap, I think I paid one Euro for all of them. I decided I had better head back to where I was and so I walked back. On the way I stopped by the prostitutes and tried to take their picture. They didn’t like that at all. The big one (she was Colombian, so I could talk to her) told me that I would be robbed if I had my camera out so I put it away. I thought I better find a Hotel and try to get a map from them. They are almost always open and they usually have small maps for their residents. I got a map from a nice manager and he told me or at least pointed where I needed to go and where I was. I was on my way again with me 60 lb. pack (I recently weighed it and that’s how much it weighs 27Kg or 60 Lbs. ughghgh). I walked the wrong way twice before I finally thought I might know where I was going. It was tough because in Napoli there are no street signs at all and the streets in the old part of the city and so windy and convoluted that cars can barely get through. They have to honk around every turn and people walking have to duck into doorways. So I eventually knew what street I was on but it was about 3am by now and I had been walking forever! I asked some random guy and he asked his friend and then he asked his son who was driving past on a scooter and then the guy on the scooter said hop on! I did no hopping with my pack and I had to awkwardly hold on to this poor guy while he whipped around the streets but soon he brought me to a hotel and I wiped my brow. I then climbed 5 flights of stairs to find that this wasn’t the right place at all. Grrrrrr. BUT! I was pretty dang sure I knew where it was. So I walked around the corner and promptly got lost again. To make a long story short, I found it a bit later and checked in and passed out in one of the most comfortable rooms ever, or maybe it was just the journey that made it so comfortable.
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