Florence/Naples.. July 3

The Train ride experience
   Unfortunately on this day we were unable to get into the Academia, the museum that has the statue of David because reservations had been booked for weeks. Barrett Caroline Annie and I ate at another restaurant in the Rick Steeves book.. I got the best bruschetta with tomatoes and ham and mozzarella and a bowl of papa soup.. it looked like mush but tasted as if glory danced inside of my mouth. We ventured to the Duomo and paid to light a candle (prayed for the fam). To Barrett’s dismay we decided to hike up 463 stairs to the top of the dome. Barrett stayed behind and ate gelato stating “why would I pay 8 euro to exercise” Even though sweat encompassed parts of my body that I didn’t know existed, the end result of standing on top of the dome was breathtaking. Afterwards we got our bags from the hotel and I fought with Barrett to walk to the train station only 10 minutes away (I won).
   The train ride was an experience in itself. All of our tickets got mixed up in seating so I sat in a group of four with 2 stereotypical looking Italian men and an African American woman. Barrett sat across the aisle with 3 italian boys in their 20s. to make a short story, the men on my side started yelling at the men on barretts side… pointing their fingers and not acknowledging my personal space. Thankgod for the woman across from me who knew English.. She said the men were fighting about drugs in discothèques. Obviously the older men wanted it to stop while the younger boys thought drugs were a choice.. (apparent as all their eyese were bloodshot)..  it was a hilarious 3 hour train ride…the older men, with broken english and hand signals, warned us about the huge crime rate in Naples.. that was scary..  we got into Naples late and took a cab to the boat.. another day going to bed exhausted.