The Naples National Archaeological Museum (MANN)

Our next adventure began as a visit to the Naples Archeological Museum. We'd heard a lot about this place and it's history. It is a combination of important family's collections such as the Bourbon, Murat, Bonaparte and Farnese's and added to that, all that hasn't been stolen from Herculaneum and Pompeii. What was intended as a few hours visit turned into an all-day wide-eyed exploration of European history and art that left us totally exhausted and in bed hours earlier than we should've. This must be one of the premier museums in the world. The Louvre may have some more important paintings, but in terms of artifacts I doubt there's anything that comes close. The next photo is of a bust of the Emperor Hadrian (you know, the guy who built the best wall)

There's a whole floor dedicated to huge marble statues from early Greece through to late Roman times. This next photo is of a sarcophegus with the most amazing carvings of Greek and Roman Gods doing their thing....

One floor of the entire building has a collection of mosaics lifted from Herculaneum and Pompeii (by one of the Queens I believe, as she said they were of course hers to do with whatever she wanted). Everyone has to put on paper shoe protectors like in a TV detective series. When I put them on, I said 'where's the body' to the girl handing them out, and she laughed like she hadn't heard that one before...

Here is a room from a house at Pompeii

And some gold trinkets

And here's a picture of us! Flanked by some Gods and a lion

After a very long day we headed home and stopped off for dinner at our favourite restaurant. It was a very satisfying day!