The rain had poured down all night, drumming so loudly that it kept awakening us. After breakfast it showed no sign of stopping, so we scrapped Plan A, which had been to take the SITA bus down the Amalfi Coast. Instead, we opted for a train ride to Naples, figuring a rainy day was a good time to visit the Archeological Museum there. That's how we discovered what a great option the train is for getting around. Also, I never had any feeling of apprehension on the train or in the station about pickpockets. In fact, there was a lot more begging on the Metro in Paris when we were there last year. We did, of course, take good precautions and kept our wallets well put away in inside pockets, but I never had any sense of being watched by potential thieves.

About 20 minutes into the ride to Naples, the sun came out and stayed that way for the rest of the day. So we probably could have gone down the coast after all, but after visiting the museum, I decided that the rainy start was a message to us that we really needed to see those exhibits to help us get the most out of Pompeii. Naples had not been on our original itinerary, but I'm glad we ended up going there. In fact it was the first time since arriving in Sorrento that I felt as if we were really in Italy, because Sorrento was so packed with tourists.

Arriving at the Naples Museum around noon, we finally convinced the man in the biglietteria to sell us tickets. He tried to discourage us from entering because the upper floor was closed for lunch. I guess the Italians can't fathom that crazy tourists are willing to skip lunch to view the art. We found, however, that we could keep going fine through lunch, with maybe a gelato stop in the afternoon. Probably because we ate only one major meal a day in most places, and of course walked so much, we both lost weight in Italy, despite some wonderful food.

Anyway we found plenty of magnificent Roman, Greek, and Egyptian sculpture to keep us occupied on the lower floors through the noon hour. On the mezzanine we especially enjoyed the many mosaics retrieved from Pompeii. Supposedly you needed a special ticket and a guide to visit the "Secret Room" of erotic art. But we found the door open, and no one seemed to care that visitors were wandering in and out. So we just went on in, perused all the sculptures that looked like Viagra ads, and never used the ticket we had booked for later in the day.

By that time the upper floors had opened, and we could visit the many galleries of household objects from Pompeii. It was amazing, for example, to see so many fragile glass objects preserved over the centuries. The scale model of Pompeii, constructed in the 19th century, was also a good preview for our visit to the actual site later in the week.

After leaving the museum, I really got into the walk through Naples' narrow winding streets. I think it must have felt much the same way there in the Middle Ages, though the shops wouldn't have been offering cell phones and blue jeans. But I found it a kind of time-warp experience, just with 21st-century merchandise. Lots of shops were displaying the little lighted Christmas creches, which I later learned are a hallmark of the area. Mike was put off by Naples, finding it too chaotic and dirty. I can't say that I'd want to spend a lot of time there, but I liked the energy of the city, and was glad we went.

Another amazing visual experience in Naples was the incredible sculpture in the Sansevero chapel. The veiled Christ, and "Despair" with its marble net, inspire, as Rick Steves comments, a "howdedoodat" reaction. The Bernini sculptures we saw later in Rome had more artistry about them, but the Sansevero works did things with marble that just don't seem possible. Then, down below, there were the gruesomely fascinating corpses, with the flesh dissolved to leave only skeleton and veins.

Back in Sorrento we ate at La Fenice, a spot recommended by Alfonso at the B&B. We enjoyed being seated next to a multi-generational Italian family out for the evening -- everyone from Great-Grandma down to an infant who was being passed around among the aunts and grannies. Food was excellent -- I had an antipasto of mushrooms, arugula, and pecorino, then a huge plate of delicious mussels for the amazing price of 6 euro, with a contorno of wonderful grilled veggies. M. had antipasto of smoked cheese and tomato, followed by veal stuffed with ham and cheese, and a salad. In addition to the "coperto" bread, the waiter brought us a complimentary dish of yummy warm pizza-type bread, and at the end of dinner, free limoncello. The whole meal (with a bottle of Novello) was around 50 euro -- not only the best food we ate in Sorrento, but also a terrific bargain.