Eventually, by nightfall, I arrived in Naples. Besides the atrocious and chaotic driving in the city (it's very true that Italians are terrible drivers), 其余的 我独自骑自行车 是平凡的. I 小心翼翼地滑行下来 the precariously steep cobblestones to my next host’s apartment. 他的名字叫杰姆·埃文·格列尔金.

He was a Turkish Erasmus student (European exchange program) that was studying sculpture in Naples for the semester. 后 骑车往南走, I arrived in his apartment, I put my bike down, and immediately took a shower. It’s hard to describe how satisfying it is to finally clean up after 长途跋涉. 之后立即, 他带我去了一家著名的披萨店, where I promptly ordered two and devoured both as we talked about the sculptures I’d observed in museums I’d visited throughout 意大利. My favorite part, however, might have been my friend Ryan from my 留学项目 顺便过来吃晚饭. He was in Naples on a trip with other people in my 东航卡帕 program.  

当晚晚些时候, 杰姆把我们介绍给他的土耳其朋友, and we had a couple drinks and attended an Erasmus student party (where Cem warned me not to get stabbed since it’s not unusual for there to be knives at parties in Naples). That’s where I quickly discovered that my body was incapable of rallying, and we trudged home. I was grateful that Cem led me through the streets because he said that if you walked down the wrong alley late at night, 你可能会被抢劫. 不幸的是，他说的是经验之谈.  

那天晚上, 我睡了11个小时, 第二天早上醒来, 而不是唧唧喳喳的鸟儿, but Neapolitans screaming bloody murder out the window to each other. Cem told me that’s usually how he wakes up, so he didn't seem overly surprised. Maybe if I had that at home, I wouldn’t sleep through my alarms so much. 后 one more goodbye, I went to Ceraldi Caffè the next morning. 两个咖啡, 两种点心, 一个三明治, and two scoops of gelato later and I set off on the last—and easiest—leg of the journey. 从那不勒斯到阿马尔菲40英里的路程. 至少计划是这样的.

As I quickly progressed towards my final destination, one fixture on the horizon caught my attention: Mount Vesuvius (the volcano that destroyed Pompeii). 当我经过的时候, 我惊叹于它的雄伟, and I kept thinking about how amazing the view must look from the top. 就像命运，我的一个人 Instagram followers sent me a DM (I stream my location on all my big bike rides on my Instagram story). 他是我在旅行中遇到的一个骑自行车的人 格拉纳达. He saw I was nearby Mount Vesuvius and asked me if I was going to climb it. I expressed my apprehension since part of me wanted to finish the ride. 然而，他告诉我的话我永远不会忘记: 

 “现在就做，否则你永远也做不到。.” 

接下来你会知道, I was hiding all my luggage in a bush on the side of the road at the base of Vesuvius and full sending it up this genocidal wall with 300+ miles of fatigue in my legs. 挑战是不可思议的, crawling my way up hairpin turns clustered with tour buses (I like to think they were impressed with the psychotic cyclist grimacing his way up the steep gradient). 但最终，这一切都值得.

从山顶你可以看到一切, 那不勒斯市, its skyline humbled by the magnitude of this volcano, 海岸沿着地平线蜿蜒而过, 和我周围的岩石山峰. 说实话，相机是拍不出来的. 

后降, I met one older Italian cyclist who I talked to in a mix of Spanish and hand gestures (road, 坏的), and he snapped this pic of me that I’ll always cherish. 

Drew Laird studied abroad with 东航卡帕 in 阿姆斯特丹 in Spring '22.