February 4

Today was one of the most packed days that we have yet had, we spent the morning and early afternoon touring at some of the more important and well recognized sites in Naples. We started this morning off meeting our tour guide Alex in the Piazza del Plebiscito, which today is used as a gathering place for festivals, protest and other large social gatherings. This piazza is flanked by the neoclassical basilica which borrows architectural motifs from the pantheon in Rome; on the opposite side of the square is the Palazzo Reale or the Royal Palace, where we continued our tour with Alex. The interior of the palace that we saw was richly decorated with marble floors and carved ceilings, the palace is also currently the location of the national library. After touring through the parts of the palace we made our way across the street towards the Galleria Umberto I. The Galleria was built during the Risanamento period after the unification of Italy in the years of 1887-1891, by architect Emanuele Rocco and was dedicated and named after the current king of Italy Umberto I. This building serves as a social center with shopping and cafes. After visiting the galleria the next stop was what Alex described as the most important church in Naples, the Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo. This church has a long history, construction on this building started in 1584 and finished in 1601, with two subsequent dome collapses in 1688 and 1774 and a fire in 1639 this church has seen a lot of history. After visiting the church we made our way to Piazza Dante where we would be catching the metro to go and get lunch. We exited the metro at the first stop to look at some of the modern artwork that had been done recently with addition of the new metro station. After admiring the art we were back on the metro and heading to Vanvitelli where we were going to be eating lunch that day. Piazza Vanvitelli is was perhaps one of the nicest parts Naples that we visited, I would assume named after the famous Neapolitan architect and engineer Luigi Vanvitelli who practiced during the 18^th century. In the piazza we ate lunch at a restaurant name Tratorria Vanvitelli, the food was decent and the company was great as always. After lunch Alex decided to take us to a ROMA camp on the outside of the city, this was basically at the end of the metro line. After exiting the metro it didn't even feel like we were in Naples anymore, but the even larger piles of trash reminded me that we were still in Naples. After about a thirty minute walk and walking down a road to a dead-end we finally arrived at the ROMA camp which we have seen pictures of before, but being at the camp first hand is completely different than seeing the what has been portrayed to us in literature and photography in class. In the camp Alex took us to meet Dennis who operates a small makeshift store in the ROMA camp, he and most of the other residents seemed very happy to meet us and were welcoming of our presence in the camp. After drinking some water and eating some chocolate we were off for a walk through the projects of Naples for our return trip back to the city center; where we headed to the Castle Sant' Elmo. The plan was to be at the top of the castle when the sun as setting so that we would have a spectacular view of Naples and the surrounding coastal cities and islands. The view from the top of the battlements of the castle was amazing, we could see all of Naples reaching out into the distance, the islands of Ischia and Capri, and the Almafi coast. After visiting the castle we made our way back down the hundreds of stairs to the hostel; overall this was one of the most enjoyable day trips of the program thus far and was full of a wealth of information. I would like to again thank our tour guide Alex for two wonderful days of touring in Naples.