Museo Capodimonte & Catacombe di San Gennaro

 Race, Dante and I ventured out to explore the catacombes (tombs) of San Gennaro. The above picture is of some frescoes that were painted on the ceiling for decoration.

 All of the cutouts were tombs.  There were larger 'rooms' for the very rich people that died.  Some of the 'rooms' had beds and other accomadations because it was believed that the dead needed a comfortable place to 'rest'.

 Above and below: inside the church of San Gennaro. A sculpture of Calvary

 Mass was held in this place, not too long ago.

 Statue of San Gennaro along with some Italians taking advantage of a photo op

   After we toured the catacombes, we walked up the hill to the Museum of Capodimonte.   One of many great palaces in Naples owned by royalty centuries ago.  The palace, now, is a large museum filled with paintings and sculptures as you can see below:

 Do you see a resemblance?!

         such a ham...

   I thought this was especially interesting. The side panels of this piece have dual sides and there are mirrors that reflect the artwork on the backs.

 (So sorry for the blurry shots. I was using Juilann's camera and I think I accidentally changed the setting away from 'Auto')   The boys were entertaining themselves, while appreciating the art, of course, by walking on the perimeter of each room or by trying to keep the floorboards from squeaking..haha

Castel Sant Elmo & museo Duca Martina

(fun pic at the entrance of the castle)

     One of the first things we saw when we came to Naples, was a large castle at the top of the city. I don't know if it's technically in the center of the city but it seems like it is just looking at it.  We ventured to the castle last week.  It is one of my favorite spots here! The pictures below don't it justice, but the views from the top of the castle are spectacular!!

  For those of you who are friends with Race on Facebook, please forgive the redundancy of these pictures.  I don't know I didn't take a camera up to the castle..so we had to use his tablet to catch these shots.

view of Naples toward Mt Vesuvius. You can also see part of the museum building.

view toward Capodichino airport. It was really cool to see so much from the castle. It's not clear here, but we saw so many domed buildings around the city. We couldn't even count them all!

Facebook shot..haha (good job Juliann :-)

Race and Dante just enjoying the view. Seriously, we all just walked around the castle top and looked around for almost 2 hours. Fabulous!

 Inside the castle

 We also went to the museum next door but Race didn't want to take pictures so there aren't any.. It was cool. There was a large church with lots of paintings and decorations. One room was filled with artwork completely made of wood(like Intarsia wood art). There were also big fancy carriages that the well-to-do families rode around in centuries ago.  I would have felt sorry for the horses that had to pull those heavy things! wow! (wish I had pictures to share :-(

Caserta Reggia & Gardens

("The sun, it burns us" said Race and Dante..haha)   Caserta is a place about 30min outside of Naples. The big draw, for us, in Caserta is the palace and gardens there. I don't know how many hectares the gardens take up, but we walked around and explored for several hours and we didn't see everything. When someone asks Race's friend Ryan, who has lived here with his family for 15 years, he says, "Caserta Reggia" (Reggia is the palace).

It is a place that I could gladly visit again and again! In fact, we didn't get to see the palace itself too much so we do need to go back again. We spent most of our time in the gardens-it was wonderful!!

That is a waterfall coming down the hill. From a distance it just looks like rocks.

Dr Seuss tree :-)

These were taken in a 'secret' garden area.

I just liked this tree

For those of you who have seen Juilann's room in Washington, does this look familiar?! cool, huh?!

more trees that I liked

Alyssa, Cecily, Vincenzo, Ryan and 1/2 of Dante..hehe

Entrance of the palace

Guess what was the first thing I noticed as we walked into the gardens?

Above: view from the palace out to the gardens. Below: partial view of the back of the palace with the beautiful and sweet Cecily and the fun and kind Vincenzo!

Such fun people to spend time with...

A large pond where we stopped for a picnic. Hoping to see the resident swan but saw the goose couple instead (which didn't make it in a photo)

Here is my thoughteful friend, Cathy. (Not in the photo is another great friend, Jacki)
   We all had a great time at Caserta Reggia and gardens!!