Kind of weird spending your birthday alone in a foreign place, & Napoli to top it off. A little lonely I suppose, but it didn't really feel like my birthday (though I did get a nice video from my family :). I spent the morning wandering the streets of the centro storico, visiting churches (many of them having mass), bought some pistachio torrone from the only friendly Napolitano I have found (besides the hostel staff of course). I visited the Cappella Sansevero, filled with marble sculpture-one of them the veiled Christ, which was incredibly detailed & beautiful. It was nice to be able to get up close to it, since when i saw the Pieta' in St. Peter's, not only was it far away & behind glass, but every tourist had their camera shoved in front of my face so it was hard to really appreciate it. There was also a room with these 2 skeletons & their preserved circulatory systems, creepy. This little girl kept saying "che schiffo!" (how disgusting). For lunch I went to Pizzeria Brandi, where supposedly Margherita pizza was first served to (& named after) the Queen in the late 1800's. I was a little put off by how fancy the place appeared, but the pizza was delicious, as was my beer. Happy Birthday lunch. I walked along the bay a little, then took the Funiculare up to the hill town of Vomero. The funiculare in Naples is almost more like a subway system compared to those I've seen in other towns, much bigger, more stops, different routes. From Vomero there are great views of the bay of Naples, the whole city, and Vesuvius in the distance. There's a castle & an old convent @ the top, I chose to visit the convent & its small museum. Then I returned to Naples, spent some time checking out the little side streets one last time, & returned to the hostel for the evening.
