Napoli is a very Italian city, the old quarters (Centro Storico) is filled with family own stores which were passed down for generations, clothes lines hang over your heads and you can smell the freshly washed linen. It is also here you see the real Italian lifestyle – close-knit family, warm, down to earth and practical.
Amidst all these hide under the city a rare gem – the underworld of Napoli. A group of scholar and enthusiasts run regular tours to the underworld.
First on the list is a half buried ancient Roman theater, where its existence were unknown for centuries as new apartment blocks were build on top of its after it was ruined by earth quake. People have been living on it for years until some scholar found it and start excavating.
Then we make our way down a long flight of stair, 40m to be exact to explore a maze of dark passages and caves. These were originally used as aqueduct in ancient Rome and Greek time to provide drinking water for the wealthy. In World War II it was used as bomb shelters, as Napoli was one of the worse bombed cities in Italy.
The most interesting part of the tour was a 15 minutes candlelight tour through extremely narrow passages, where you really cannot tell what are you stepping on or what is ahead of you. My faith lied with the tour guide and keeping up with the group is essential to keep my fear at bay. Imagined if it were a ghost tour!
This is by far, the most unusual experience I had in all my travels! 🙂
~:~Iyeping 爱彬~:~ 