The thing about Italy is that it is both so antique and so alive. You can choose to be statued to a standstill or else to let the days wash past in seafront sunshine and pizza.
Mid-August, temperatures white-blue, we ripped ourselves out from under the umbrellas of apathy and girded up the little Fiat for an expedition to Pompeii.
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There are more eyes in Naples than there are doorways. In August there is the space to feel them both as they sit out the heat, and watch.
This artery, the Via San Gregorio Armeno, is dense with the past. Like all of Naples it has seen centuries of armies, rebels, rogues and kings sweep through and back again, trailed by plagues and starvation. It has survived them all, and its buildings and treasures are now protected as part of the Centro Storico by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
The Phraser 