The Story of the Cameo (Andrew's words)

On our first day in Naples I went into town with 4 other HM’s. As we were walking around one of the covered Piazza’s shopping, this older guy came up to us and asked us in extremely untintelligible English if we knew what cameos were and that he could take us to a factory he worked for. He said that there was a trolley that would take us there for 1 euro. So after a little bit of debate between our group about whether we would get jumped in a back alley, we decided to take a chance and follow him. He guaranteed that we would not be disappointed. We followed him about 3 to 4 blocks to the edge of this steep hill and into a little strip mall and inside was a train station. It was an angled cable car that went to the top of the city at a 45% angle. At the top of the hill we hiked for about 1.5 miles up past a castle and a great view of mount vesuvious. One street up from the vista was the factory. The owner had a little window area that he showed how he carved the cameos they had some great pieces and there were even red carved agate necklaces and blue agate cameos. I almost went with the blue, but decided on more classic. As I was looking at what they had I asked if they did custom work… and the owner resounded,”Boot off coors! Late me shoo yuu som vedy spacial peeses!” So he pulled out a drawer and a couple of jewelry boxes with photos taped to them. Upon opening the boxes I noticed that they were exact copies of the photos for individual customers. He had portraits, landscapes, and abstract art paintings all reprocduced on cameos. They were so cool I asked how much… He kind of laughed knowing that we were sailors and said,”Axpenseeve.” I told him I was very interested. So he said 700 euro… I tried to get him down in price and he would not budge so I countered with shiping and chain and mounting all included and he accepted it. The only picture that I had of you was that one in my wallet. Luckily, it’s my FAVORITE. So how could I go wrong. I got all weepy kinda, thinking of you giving it to our daughters to wear in a wedding or otherwise. So I HAD to do it. 700 euros and month later, you have it.

Thus is the story of the cameo.