It’s wise to ensure you have the correct Naples when checking weather info for your upcoming trip. My iPhone’s weather app defaulted to Naples, Florida, but that was the wrong Naples in our case.

The plan for Naples was easy: to eat good pizza, sightsee as much as we can cram into a week’s stay, and take in as much of the culture and the sun as possible. But we did plan ahead of course since a lot of attractions do require booking a ticket ahead of time.

Our plan was:

• Day 1: arrival, finding our apartment, pizza and spritz
• Day 2: Rome and the Vatican (who does that when in Naples?)
• Day 3: Naples: sightseeing, more pizza and spritz
• Day 4: Naples: you guessed it, pizza and spritz
• Day 5: Pompei and Mount Vesuvius
• Day 6: Amalfi coast
• Day 7: Capri Island and Sorrento
• Day 8: early morning flight home

I will write a post showcasing each topic, but I’ll gather all of Naples below.

Naples is warm and welcoming. It’s dirty and sticky. It’s vibrant and lively, but it’s also loud and obnoxious. As with most things, you either love it or hate it, but being that we chose to go there we decided to love it for what it is. The touristy old town is extremely packed with vendors, small shops, restaurants and carts offering cold spritz for one Euro.

At 2,800 years old, Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, and its ever changing architecture reflects this rich history. Walking among old stone apartment buildings we frequently encountered churches, statues, and other gems that always had us wondering what else is hidden just around the corner. Not too many parks or green areas, though. Dogs of Naples have it rough with walks on always-warm cobblestone.

And you can’t walk around Naples without bumping into food at literally every corner. Pizza is the name of the game here, after all, this is the city that invented a Margherita pizza back in 1889 during a visit by Queen Margherita of Savoy. Of course there are better and worse places to eat a pizza in Naples, but really the pie tastes pretty much the same no matter where you go.

Most places here have wood burning ovens, most follow the same dough recipe, and most have the same fresh awesome Italian meat, veggies, and cheese on hand. We had pizza from a variety of places here and all tasted very good.

We didn’t have the best of luck with seafood, though. It seems that it was readily available and fresh all over the place, but once ordered, it came in a cone of fried stuff that all kind of tasted the same. We tried a couple of places, but in the end the taste did not match the beautiful sea creatures on display.

One of the days we rented a scooter. The plan was to ride it Italian style along the coast with Ania taking some cool photos from the back seat. The reality hit us hard in the form of rain and slippery cobblestone streets. After 4 hours of riding we had both come to the “fuck it” realisation, though Ania had arrived at this much, much, sooner, I’m sure. I returned the scooter and was happy that I cancelled the next days’ rental as well since the weather only got worse. Naturally a couple of days later it was back to being beautiful outside…

If you look closely you’ll notice a Polish “PL” license plate on the scooter. No, we did not ride a scooter from Poland to Italy. It turns out that Italians, especially in the south, pay exorbitant amounts of money for vehicle insurance. Consequently, many locals register and insure their vehicles in Poland where it’s much cheaper. This has its challenges, but I was astonished by the number of Polish license plates around me.

Couple of honorary Naples mentions. One, Maradona. Diego Maradona that is. Mr. Maradona transferred to SSC Napoli, a local soccer club, in 1984 and led Napoli to two Serie A titles, a Coppa Italia title, and a UEFA cup as well as an Italian Supercup. Having been offered a much more lucrative deals, Maradona stayed in Napoli where he now has a God-like status. There’s even a bar where a smal lock of Maradona’s hair is held behind a glass and on display. It just goes to show you how crazy this town is about him.

Another mention goes to the Spritz. Aperol Spritz, Hugo Spritz, and the Limoncello Spritz. To be honest, we only knew of the Aperol Spritz going in to Naples. But boy were we in for an alcoholic treat. Limoncello is everywhere in Naples, as lemons are a symbol of the nearby Amalfi coast and the Capri island. And the Spritz is ever present at every corner market or a stand. You can wake up and drink the Spritz all day long, for cheap too.

I’m gonna hit the Publish button now before I get sidetracked further. I haven’t posted in quite some time, and figuring out the system to get photos off of my Mac, resize them, upload them again, show them in the galleries above, etc., has been a little tricky and time consuming. I’m sure I’ll get better with practice, so up next I’ll write about our quick Rome and the Vatican day trip.