9/7 - Pompeii-Naples (Part 2)
I then went to the Naples archaeological museum. There was an erotic collection - "the secret room", where reservations were supposedly required and from which children under 14 were banned.
I was quite shocked. Most labels had no date!
The museum should be renamed the Pompeii exhibits museum, since the best and most unique stuff is all from there.
Ritratto colossale di Vespasiano
The most number of similar statuettes I've ever seen. One's Mut and the rest are Isis ('Iside'). They were very fond of this, with many themed shelves.
Unknown sculpture. This was outside a gallery, in the dark.
Statue of Athena (Athena Farnese). Roman copy of 430 BC by Pyrrhus. Dedicate 'da' Perikles (?)
Information panels mounted on the walls were in English, but those for individual items werenot.
The museum had a very big coin collection, tracing the development of coinage in Italy. The tracing was both thematic and chronological.
Fulloni al Lavoro, Pompei
Bottega del Panettiere da Pompei (Shop of the Baker)
Mosaics from Pompeii/Vesuvius area (mosaics aurcing [?])
Musici ambulanti from Pompeii, Villa of Cicerone
Memento Mori. Pompei, Bottega (I 5, 21 Triclinio)
Alexander mosaic, house of the Faun, Pompeii
Statue of the Dancing Faun, Pompeii. House of the Faun
I walked into the erotic room despite not having a reservation and no one stopped me.
Tintinnabulum bronzes (privo ora di campanelli) raffigurante il dio mercurio polifallico, Pompei. 1st century AD
Winckelmann on dancing ithyphallic male statuette: "Perfection so complete that Michelangelo himself could not have produced anything more accomplished".
Quadretto erotico da venereum in edifici privato. Pompeii, 50-79 AD
Scena erotica, du venereum in edificio privato. Pompeii, 50-79 AD
Bassorilievo marmoreo con scene erotica
Satiro che abbraccia una menade. Pompeii, 1-50 AD
Ass mounting a lion. 1st century AD, Pompeii. Shop sign representing these motifs - "The world outside down" / "Patience triumphing over strength"
Piatto attico a figure rolle, 5th c. BC
Gruppo marmoreo di Pan e Pafni. 2nd century BC
Fauna Marina. Pompeii.
Leone e Amarini tru dionisio e menadi. Pompeii, House of the Centaur
Combattimento di Gulli
On the top floor there was almost no material in English. Why is it always like that? Maybe they figured English speaking visitors wouldn't bother visiting the whole museum.
There was a panel about garum. Heh.
Il panettiere Terentius Neo e la Moglie
Reconstructed Roman food outlet
The sign reads: "M HOLCONIVM PRISCVM II VIR I D POMARI VNIVERSI CVM HELVIO VESTALE ROG", which expands to "Marcum Holconium Priscum II virum iure dicundo pomarii universi, cum Helvio Vestale rogant". This means 'all the fruit sellers, along with Helvius Vestalis, want Marcus Holconius Priscus the duumvir as mayor'. Electoral posters stated that so-and-so was supported by members of the various collegiae (professional associations).
Blue vase. Pompeii, 1st century AD
The upgrading of the museum didn't seem to be systematic - 2 Egyptian items popped up at the top floor despite the Egyptian collection being in the basement.
Unknown. No label.
Gruppi figurati con perona e avicane (? - avicone?), Pompeii. Woman breastfeeding a dwarf?
[Addendum: "Not a dwarf, her father. I forget the names, classical story, father sentenced to death by starvation in prison, daughter breaks incest taboo to keep him alive." - dave in comment
This story is probably:
Roman Charity - "Roman Charity (or Carità Romana) is the story of a daughter, Pero, who secretly breastfeeds her father, Cimon, after he is incarcerated and sentenced to death by starvation. She is found out by a jailer, but her act of selflessness impresses officials and wins her father's release. The story is recorded in Memorable Acts and Sayings of the Ancient Romans, Book Nine (De Factis Dictisque Memorabilibus Libri IX) by the ancient Roman historian Valerius Maximus, and was presented as a great act of filial piety and Roman honor."]
Unknown medallions. No label.
Roman flute
Farnese Atlas. Roman copy, 2nd century AD.
Considering how important an archaeological item this is, it's a mystery what it was doing in a dark, unlit hall at the top of the museum, with little else around it. Must be an Italian thing.
This was an archaeological museum, but the top floor had a hall with paintings. Most seemed Neo-Classical, but most were not labelled. Some hung near the ceiling and the lighting was awful (the hall was naturally lit poorly - dark)
Nichole de Napoli. Death of Alcibiade. 1839.
Dancing women. 1st century BC.
At 645 I was at the entrance to one section on the top floor but they were closing (this for a museum supposedly closed at 730 - does one see a pattern here?). The man at the door asked me to go look at the mosaics, but I said I'd mosaics finito, so he let me in to look around (yay). I didn't note down what these were called because I was rushing:
Head
Boar
There was also papyri from Herculaneum, which was nice.
I went down to the groun floor and reached one section (Classical sculpture - the only bit I hadn't fully seen) at 6:55, but I got kicked out again. Gah. Luckily I'd left it to the last. So despite the museum officially closing at 7:30, I went out to sit on the steps.
Vive la Italia! This was in the Museo station on the night of the finals.
Naples street
Naples has so many slums. Seeing a church rising from and surrounded by slums is quite amusing, especially:
Church with rubbish bins in front
xxoos would like this 5kg jar of Nutella - even better than the 3kg one I saw in Germany (?)
Almost everywhere was closed on Sunday, following in the continental European tradition. There was one street which was supposed to have good food, but only 1 pizzeria was open (probably due to the World Cup) - it was almost as bad as Brussels on Easter day.
At the time when we were looking for a place for dinner near Naples Garibaldi central train station (the only place where there were actually restaurants open), I doubt the match had finished, but the Italians were celebrating anyway. 50m from us, people were firing fireworks into the sky from the street. Perhaps on purpose, one fragment flew onto someone's car's windscreen, and some sparks flew onto restaurant tables near where we stood. Unfortunately I was too slow to capture this digitally.
There was a place with "horse" d'oeuvres. "d'oeuvres" was also spelled wrong, but unfortunately I can't remember how.
In the end we ate at Restaurant Isis. The service was horrible - the waiters were watching the World Cup, but then only one spoke English anyway. When we asked for the tourist menu (which had only stated that we would get 4 courses, and not that the choice was restricted) and then tried to order, he brusquely told us: "I choose [what you can choose from], not you." When, despite this rudeness, I tried to thank him, he snatched the menu away. Maybe he heard me complaining to Andrew about the service. When we got our salad, we found that it was only iceberg lettuce with a wedge of lemon. Gah.
The worst bit came when we got our bill. Andrew was very sure he had given the waiter 2 €20 notes for a bill of €24,90, yet he came back with €0,10 change and insisted we'd given him only €25. We tried to speak to the manager, but it looked as if this waiter ("Mario") was the only one who could speak English, and seemed almost as high in rank as the manager. We asked for our bill to be printed out again, but it only had the final charge printed on it, not how much we'd given him and our change. We would've kicked up a fuss, but it was his word against ours, we didn't speak Italian, the Italians in general didn't speak English, it was 10+pm and the guidebook didn't have a number for the tourist police. My father commented that Naples is a run-down city, used to be a City of Thieves and has a lot of gypsies, so that may explain things.
Fireworks in the streets. I'm not sure if the match had ended by this point.
Despite the conception outside Italy of pasta being a main course, in Italy you order a first course and a second course at restaurants. The first course is almost always a pasta (I saw soup a few times though) and the second is a meat or fish item.
For some reason, when we reached the train station at 10+, the trains had stopped running (2 of the staff told us this after running down the deserted tunnel high-fiving us). So we had to walk back to our hostel near Cavour - a 1/2 hr walk in a hilly city, and where most of the street lights were off/not working (wth?! Maybe it was a World Cup special. Even Malaysia is not that tak boleh).
Capoeira in Naples Hostel
Capoeira in Naples Hostel
Celebrations
People were ecstatic over Italy's win. People raced up and down the streets blaring their horns and waving flags. Each motorcycle had at least 2 people on it; many had 3 and I think I saw one with 4. There were also like 20 people in a car - the boot cover was removed and people were standing in it (it reminded me of a Technical from Command and Conquer Generals, or alternatively of 20 clowns squeezing into a car). The air was smoky and gunpowder could be smelt in it.
Sign in the hostel: "This hostel tends not to bother the guests... Do not throw cigarettes, hair, or other items out of the window [neighbours can be dangerous!]". Hair?!
Travel tips:
- Give exact change in Naples, or use a credit card