Naples 

Naples is the third largest city in Italy, after Rome and Milan. It was founded by the Greeks and later became a Roman colony. Naples merges Greek and Roman culture and is a beautiful and intriguing city.

Naples is situated on the Gulf of Naples, part of the Mediterranean Sea on the western coast of southern Italy. It lies between two volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei, and is considered a supervolcano for its volume of deposits. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE destroying Pompeii, Herculaneum, Opiontis, and Stabiae, and is still an active volcano.

Jesus’ tour of the Mediterranean World, which included many of the cities on the Mediterranean Sea, lasted almost two years: most of Jesus’ twenty-eighth year and his entire twenty-ninth year.

When heading to Rome, Gonod, his son Ganid, and Jesus took a boat from Carthage to Naples, stopping at Malta, Syracuse, and Messina along the way. Gonod had multiple business transactions in Naples and needed Jesus for a few translations, but most of the time Jesus and Ganid were free to explore the city. From Naples, they proceeded to Capua where they traveled the now-famous Appian Way to Rome.

Having Jesus as his teacher, Ganid grew adept at noticing those in need. There was considerable poverty in Naples, and Jesus and Ganid distributed many alms, spoke words of comfort and cheer, and looked upon each with a compassionate smile. But there was one exception. Jesus gave a coin to a street beggar and walked away. Amazed, Ganid questioned him. Jesus had detected that the man was not of normal mind, and thereby unable to be a son of God. Jesus, at a subsequent time, explained that the mind is the gateway to the spiritual world. Without this doorway, you cannot get through.

On the journey to Italy, Jesus's first stop was Malta, where he met Claudus, a young man considering suicide. After a transformative conversation with Jesus, Claudus resolved to courageously restart his life, eventually becoming a preacher of the Cynics and later, alongside Peter, a proclaimer of Christianity in Rome, Naples, and Spain. Unbeknownst to Claudus, the man who had inspired him in Malta was actually Jesus, whose teachings he would later champion as the world’s Deliverer.

While walking on the Appian Way, all three travelers were eager to see Rome, the mistress of empire and considered the greatest city in the world.