We've just returned from a a few days staying in Naples. It is perhaps one of the most vibrant places I have been.
We arrived on Saturday afternoon and the main tourist street was blocked with traffic. There were blue lights in the distance. That is something that we noticed was common over the next few days.
Saturday, and every day that we were in the city, it was full to the brim with peoples, I assume mainly tourists and the trades catering to them. Most side streets had restaurants cafe's or coffee shops. Most of them tiny places, squeezed into every available space.
The old, tourist, district of Naples was noisy and I have to say, untidy. Along with the din of people talking, restaurant and other shop owners encouraging us to frequent their establishment, there was rumble of cars, mopeds and the odd lorry along the uneven cobbled streets.
The streets were full of dips and bumps that made the cars, lorries and especially the vast number of mopeds and motorbikes, take circuitous lines adding to the apparent chaos. The driving was as always described of Italy. It looks and feels like madness, but somehow it works. The locals know the unwritten rules of the road, the horns are frequently used but there is no malice, it's just the way it's done. Crossing the road took a bit of getting used to. At their equivalent of a zebra crossing the cars only stopped if you stepped out in front of them. Mostly they went round you, if they could and only stopped if there was no alternative.
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| Breakfast in our hotel Palazzo Doria Suites |
On our first evening our hotel had booked an up market restaurant for us to dine at. It took us several loops round where Google maps told us it was and we still had to ask another shop owner where the entrance was. It looked like a tiny tourist shop specialising in pasta. Out the back and upstairs was a tiny, restaurant where we sat at the bar, immediately in front of the two chef's. A good experience and very good food.
We had been recommended to go and visit Giardini La Mortella on the island of Ischia. That's a 45 minute crossing on one of the faster ferries. It was a great view looking across the bay, with Mount Vesuvius on one side.
The first thing we noticed when we landed on Ischia, was how much of a contract to Naples it was. It was clean and presentable and almost organised.
We took a taxi from the port and even then, through the narrow roads, the driving was calm and collected. The driver knew this routine well. He booked himself in for the return pickup. He suggested two hours but we were glad that we opted to push that out to three hours in the gardens.
Back in the town of Ischia we had a few hours to kill. We walked up the main tourist high street and back then settle in at one of the harbour front restaurants for a drink and pizza before we returned to Naples.
Monday we spent in Naples. I have to say, I am not impressed. As a tourist destination it is disappointing. It lacks pretty much anything that we would find interesting for more than a few hours visit. Nothing wrong with what we did find to do. The Catacombs of San Gennaro were very interesting as were the museums but that's about all we could find.
Anyone reading this as a travel guide to Naples, should take note. In my opinion Naples is just the staging point. Doing it again, I would spend all my time on trips away from Naples. The islands, Vesuvius National Park, Pompeii and Herculaneum are all stunning and the places to go.
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| Entering Pompeii |
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| View across Pompeii |
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| Just before the exit from Pompeii |
On Tuesday we had organised with our hotel to be taken to Pompeii and Herculaneum. They had arranged our driver for the day, Luigi and our guide, Federico. By a lucky coincidence, they came from the same town and knew each other from playing in the same football team :-)
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| View across Herculaneum to the modern town above |
Luigi asked us a few questions and then suggested that we go to a vineyard for a wine tasting and meal inside the Vesuvius National Park.
The whole experience at the Cantina Del Vesuvio, with the wine tasting and food against the backdrop of Vesuvius, felt like luxury.
The trip to the outskirts of Vesuvius had made the city of Naples feel a bit dull. We decided that we would like to go on another boat trip, which we did on Wednesday. This time to Capri. We were told that Procida was a nicer island to visit for a day, but the ferry times did not suit us, so we stuck to our plan for Capri. We were very glad we did.
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| Capri |
We had no real idea of what we would do on Capri, so I'd picked a couple of tourist attractions, apparently within walking distance of the port. I'm glad we opted to get a taxi there, rather than walking. We walked back and it is a 20 minute walk down a very steep path!
We had no idea what to expect from Capri. It was clean and posh, full of expensive looking boutique hotels in art deco style buildings. The streets, mainly alleyways, were interesting just to walk down and experience the vibe.
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| Sorrento Port |
The ferry ride back sent us on a detour. We were told pier 3 but the Naples boat left from pier 4. Our route meant that we spent 20 minutes in Sorrento port and got another ferry from there back to Naples.
For our last day in Naples, we went for a wander. The only thing of note was that we queued for a pizza at, supposedly, the best pizza in Naples.
It was a good pizza, but I'm not sure by who's reconning it was the best.
With our short experience of Naples, I can confirm that there are lots of good places to eat but if I was going again, as I've said above, I would plan to spend all of my time on the islands or the surrounding countryside near Vesuvius.
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