Last Full Day...

... in Napoli. This is a crazy place, with people and scooters and cars and a constant cacophony of noise, but I love it. It has made us both exhausted every day but we keep searching out more.

We wandered to a more northern bit of the city to go to the Cimiterio delle Fontanelle. Before we got there this group of women tending the church next door insisted I take their photo and insisted that Tim join in. This was one of the most economically deprived parts of the city we’ve been to and we were greeted with nothing but friendliness and warmth.

The link above provides much detail about how this place came to be (including a plague in 1656 that wiped out half of the city’s 400,000 population), but I was still not prepared for it. I’ve never been to anywhere like it. The sheer number of skeletons - actually, skeletons isn’t the correct term. The sheer number of skulls and various leg and arm bones stacked up was simply staggering. We’ve visited many highly decorated churches on this trip, dripping in gilt, yet this place in its stark simplicity felt more beautiful. Each of these long since dead people, many never properly buried or documented, felt cared for with much tenderness. I think it fair to say we both left feeling moved.

I’ve included some extras of the Cimiterio and others parts of this radiant city. Please do not see them if the sight of human bones makes you feel uncomfortable.