Rome via Brooklyn

(847 words, 4 minutes read time, Double post)

Content warning for descriptions of an anxiety attack and mentions of pet death.

I’ve put off writing this blog post for a while now due to how difficult this day was for me personally and how much I wish that wasn’t the case. I was originally super excited to go to Naples, as it was the day of this trip I was looking forward to the most. My late grandmother Linda immigrated to the States from Naples, but I never got to experience or learn about the place she came from before. I’ve always felt a bit of frustration towards my dad’s parents for assimilating to American culture and not teaching him or my aunt Italian, but I understand why they did so when taking the political context into consideration.

I loved the vibrant street life I saw on the walk to lunch, and Nico and I quickly realized we couldn’t understand a word of the Southern dialect the locals were speaking around us. Lunch itself was alright, I’ll never turn down a free meal, but I was surprised at how thin the pizzas were. I still need to go to the pizza place my older sister recommended to me, so I’m hoping that location turns around my underwhelmed experience with Italian pizza so far. I did get to say hi to Emma after lunch, though! I’m really grateful that she got to join us for our museum visit and that I got to go out for dinner with her once we reached Pompei.

The National Archaeological Museum of Naples held a lot of things I wasn’t expecting. I went into practically every museum we’ve been to so far blind, but areas like the Secret Cabinet and pieces like the Weary Heracles were great to view, and that experience was expanded on thanks to the amazing presentations from Elena and Ace. Though I would love to giggle like a middle schooler over the phallus-shaped apotropaics we saw, I genuinely like seeing how a society’s symbols changed over time. How did a phallus symbol go from something that can be used as protection to something exclusively seen as pornographic or shameful?

Though the liveliness of Naples was great at first, this on top of the unbearable humid heat got to me quicker than I expected. Knowing that we had to catch a train I’ve never taken before a certain time, get into a whole different city, mind the Vespas shooting down every street, continue walking while my feet were hurting like crazy, why does everyone keep stopping to look in stores when we can just go to the hotel now, why can’t I just enjoy myself, why am I like this…My throat closed up and my vision began to blur before I knew it. I tried my best to reassure the others I was fine, I’ve been through this many times before, and I knew I would be fine, but I was more upset with myself than anything for getting overwhelmed. My therapist always tells me to be kinder to myself, and I understand why when I end up writing all of these thoughts down, but it’s a hard habit to follow. I ultimately had to fend off a panic attack for the next couple of hours.

We eventually got on the Circumvesuviana train to Pompei and made our way to the hotel. Compared to the blazing heat outside, my and Khadija’s hotel room was equipped with a super strong AC, which is something I desperately needed. After gathering myself for a bit, we prepared to go out for dinner at a place Emma recommended.

Dinner was absolutely delicious and is definitely my favorite meal of the trip so far. That seared tuna was something I didn’t know I needed. Also, along the way to the hotel, we saw this orange cat perched on top a tiny car that was playing with its antenna. He was adorable, and we saw him again on top of a different car later on–he reminded me a lot of my late cat, Ginger. This restaurant had its own cat named Mimi, and she had what looked to be an eye condition similar to what my cat Emily had. Both of my cats passed away last year, and though it wasn’t anything too sudden, I’m still adjusting to living my life without them when they’ve been there for the vast majority of it. I think seeing these two cats when I had a bad day was a sign of their presence still being there, though. I’ll forever be grateful to Naples and Pompei for that.