One of the stops on my recent 7-day Mediterranean cruise was in Naples, Italy. Naples is the third largest city in Italy behind Rome and Milan and most importantly it’s the birthplace of PIZZA! We made the most of our one day in town and explored some amazing places.

From the docks, it’s hard to miss the imposing medieval castle of Castel Nuovo. We were able to join a tour right as they opened at 10 a.m. and there was already a line beginning to form. The ticket purchasing process was strange and you have to purchase an upgraded ticket so see anything other than the courtyard and the museum. Unfortunately, they didn’t have an English-speaking tour guide so we received a 50% discount and tagged along with an Italian guide. One of the extremely kind Italians took mercy on us and translated a few times which was super sweet and helpful.

From what we gathered, it’s a Medieval style castle built for Charles I of Anjou. I thought the most interesting parts were below ground where they had unearthed Roman ruins and an old cemetery. The dungeons were also pretty cool and legend says that rogue alligators from Egypt would swim under the castle walls to eat the prisoners. Turns out that was all untrue but it does make the dungeons extra spooky.

All in all it was an OK experience and I’m sure we would have enjoyed it a little more if we could understand the guide but it did get us out of the rain for a bit.

The tour took about an hour so we had just enough time to grab some Neapolitan style pizza near the castle. The restaurant owner even brought us some fried mozzarella balls to enjoy and mmmm my mouth is watering just thinking about it. It’s a super thin style of pizza so you are encouraged to eat an entire pie all on your own. My dream.

Most people have heard of the ancient town of Pompeii. It was buried under yards of volcanic ash after the sudden eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. and because of the ash the entire city is extremely well preserved. We spent a few hours walking around with our tour guide but you could spend all day in Pompeii and still not see everything, it’s that sprawling.

There are so many details that remain. She showed us how to differentiate the shops from the homes. You can still see fountains, frescos and grooves in the roads from the chariots. The two main things missing are anything organic and the marble that was taken and repurposed by scavengers.

Speaking of things that are missing. As the archeological teams were digging they realized that there were pockets of air in the hardened ash. Using plaster they filled the holes and found that they were perfect molds for human and animal bodies, wooden doors and basically anything made of carbon. At the end of the tour we walked through the museum where we were able to see some of the molds.

Our guide said that normally you can hardly move within Pompeii because it’s so crowded so we were fortunate that it was a rainy day. But because of the rain, we never got a clear view of Mount Vesuvius.

We were hardly able to scratch the surface of everything there is to do and see in Naples. It’s a fascinating and historically significant location in Italy and I would love to return one day to learn more…and eat more of the incredible pizza!