Last Stop: Naples

Before going to Naples we had heard two things about the place: the pizza is very good, and it's a shady, crime-filled city. Both of these things we found to be very true.

We went to the beach a few times - had a great view of Vesuvius from one of them, ate pizza a few times -and it really was delicious (I don't know about best in the world...).

While walking around the city we came across a random chicken and a kind woman, who as far as we know was completely unrelated to the chicken. The woman bent down, picked up the chicken so that we could take pictures of it, put it down, and then went on her way. All this with no words exchanged between us. Shortly after this we walked past a cafe where a small old man was playing a beautiful piano cover of "I Will Survive." We went inside for breakfast and the man started speaking French with Carla without having any reason to have suspected she spoke French. As we were sitting there sipping our espressos and eating pastries the man started to play "The Star Spangled Banner." This was outrageous because we had been talking about it quite frequently over the course of the past few days (Carla insistently wanted to refer to things as "star-spangled"), and the old man seemed to know that Lizzie and I were from America. I am convinced the man is a wizard.

By the end of our stay in Naples our nerves were shot. The driving alone was terrifying enough to keep us nervous for a week, but this wasn't what really put us over the edge. On our way back from Sorrento, Matteo (our friend we met in Venice, who joined us for the last leg of our journey) was jumped by a thief who ran off with the necklace from around his neck. The thief jumped on a scooter and zoomed off. The rest of the walk back, anytime we heard the sound of zooming scooters get louder, we gripped our bags close to our chests and picked up our pace. We made it back to the house we were staying at with no further incidents, but continued to be startled by the sound of fireworks going off nearby - apparently the way the gangs in the city communicate to one another. If this weren't enough, as we were trying to relax and grab a few hours of sleep before heading to our early morning flight, a tremendous thunderstorm rolled in and stayed right above our heads. Giant peals of thunder crashing through the night kept us wide-eyed awake. It was clear that our time to leave Europe had come.