The international roaming sim-card that I arranged in Australia decided to stop working in Barcelona for some reason, and that has continued here - so, much to my dismay, I've had to lash out and buy an Italian-only sim-card, so that I at least have communication for the next couple of weeks while I'm in the country. I may have to do the same in each country, but I'll try to avoid leaving a trail of sim-cards in my wake.
Naples (Italian: Napoli meaning "new city") is the capital of the Campania region and the third-largest municipality in Italy, after Rome and Milan. As of 2012, around 960,000 people lives within the city's administrative limits. The Naples urban area has a population of between 3 million and 3.7 million (most of whom want to be on the narrow roads at the same time), and is the 9th-most populous urban area in the European Union with around 4 million people living in the Naples metropolitan area, one of the largest metropolises on the Mediterranean Sea.
Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Bronze Age Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC. The city was refounded as Neápolis in the sixth century BC and became a lynchpin of Magna Graecia, playing a key role in the merging of Greek culture into Roman society and eventually becoming a cultural centre of the Roman Republic. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, serving as the capital city of the Kingdom of Naples between 1282 and 1816. Thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861. During the Neapolitan War of 1815, Naples strongly promoted Italian unification.
Naples was the most-bombed Italian city during World War II. Much of the city's 20th-century periphery was constructed under Benito Mussolini's fascist government, and during reconstruction efforts after World War II.
Naples' historic city centre is the largest in Europe, covering 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres) and enclosing 27 centuries of history, and is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Naples has long been a major cultural centre with a global sphere of influence, particularly during the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras. In the immediate vicinity of Naples are numerous culturally and historically significant sites, including the Palace of Caserta and the Roman ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Culinarily, Naples is synonymous with pizza, which originated in the city (and which of course I won't be having).
At the airport, I located a travel agency, who were able to arrange all of my Italian onward train passages, so it's good to have that organised. It was then a 20-minute bus ride into the city, getting dropped off at the central train station.
Here is a picture of the building I'm staying in; it's right in the heart of the city, about 15 minutes walk from the central train station - which will be handy for sightseeing, and also for departing for Rome on Monday. Naturally, my first stop was to the local supermarket to organise some food for the next few days.
The tunnels started life as a quarry for tufa stone (from volcanic origins - very easily cut, but strong) for building, went on to be used for some 2,400 years as an underwater aqueduct and water storage system for the city (every house had a well dropping into the system), was shut down in the early 20th Century due to the cholera epidemic, was then used as air-raid shelters during WWII, and was then used in various places as storage (for example, one of the convents used part of it as a wine cellar!). It's intriguing, and a very good tour, which takes in only about 1km of the some 400km total of tunnels.
The tour then finished with a visit to part of the old Greek-Roman theatre, which could seat up to 4,000, and hosted the likes of Emperor Nero. The theatre was lost for centuries, with certain walls plastered over, until archaeologists found parts of it incorporated into modern housing; today, some 89 families live in houses directly over where the theatre was. Only part of the theatre has been found and excavated.