We had breakfast at the hotel on the 10th floor. The room overlooks the harbor, and the views are striking.

A view of Naples from our hotel

A view of Naples from our hotel

A view of Naples from our hotel

We took a cab up to the Museo Nazionale, which houses the archeological treasures from Pompei and Heracleum among others. They allowed photography, so we took a lot of photos.

One of the statues in the museum (and something in marble)

A detail from a famous mosaic from Pompei celebrating Alexander the Great's victory over the Persians

A famous mosaic taken from Pompei at the Museo Nazionale

A fish mosaic from Pompei

There’s a really nice numismatic collection at the museum, encompassing many rooms and exhibits. The text is in Italian and English. At the bookstore, I asked about books on the exhibit as it is one of the best I’ve seen. The person behind the counter told me no, all the texts are in Italian only, and that I was quite lucky to see the exhibit as its usually closed! I bought the Italian book and I’ll see if I can get someone to translate it for me.

The numismatic collection was one of the best I've ever seen

The statues of the daughters of Danaus were originally thought to be dancers or performers. Later it was learned that these are statues of the daughters condemned to perpetually pour water as punishment for murdering their bridegrooms and cousins at their father’s instigation to revenge himself on his brother Egypt.

Statues of the daughters of Danaus

A detail from one statue

There was a special show up on sexual images from Pompei; we had seen a television show about this a few weeks ago and it was really cool to see some of the work live. Its obvious that the ancients had a very different view of portraying sexuality than we do today.

An erotic image from the special exhibit from Pompei of erotic materials

An Attic red bowl

A small erotic wall painting

A funerary monument - note the metal penis! This is the herma of Caius Norbanus Sorex

We ate a so-so lunch at Bellini Ristorante e Pizzeria at Via Costantinopouli, 79/80. We walked back to the museum and caught a cab up one of the hills to the Capodimonte, which was a pallazo for, I believe Murat during Napoleon’s time among others, but is now a large art museum and park, Napoli Museo di Capodimonte. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures and there was no postcard of my favorite work in the collection, a Madonna and Child done by Leonardo Grazia of Pistoia (if anyone has an image of this please email it to me).

Colantonio, by the studio of San Girolamo

San Ludovico di Tolosa by Simone Martini, 1317

The views from Capedimonte are incredible!

Aviva made me take a picture of her face to show how her eye looks after her fall yesterday (she’s using her bangs to cover the cut on her forehead). At least she says it doesn’t hurt.

Aviva took a horrible tumble yesterday and the blood sagged around her eye. Yech!

The grounds of the museum overlook Naples – it was beautiful there, if not quiet (the airport seems to be near enough that every airliner banks just a little away from the museum).

We had dinner again at Hosteria Toledo, and again it was very nice; the owners are very friendly and the food is very good.

A view of Via Toledo at night on Sunday - note how many people are just out strolling, which is a popular thing to do in Naples