City Post: Naples

Naples was an interesting turn of events for us. It was certainly not what we expected, which is probably what we get for doing zero research on the front end. We thought it would be a quaint city filled with Neapolitan pizza and tranquil strolls. Wrong. It is a bustling city with busy roads, zipping mopeds, cruise terminals, beaches, markets, and squares filled with restaurants. Our first impression was admittedly not positive. Neither the trams nor the buses were on time, meaning we had to walk 30 minutes with our packs to our hotel. Along the way, we commented on how dirty the city seemed. That's when we hit up Google and learned that the city has recently undergone a serious initiative to reinvent its reputation as a city rife with crime as one where tourists would be happy to flock to. Whoops.

Now, to be fair, we never felt unsafe in Naples. It felt very much like walking around New York City. Sure, the chance of being robbed or mugged was there if you went into the wrong neighbourhood, but as long as you stay away from those places, you'll be fine.

We enjoyed alleyway pizzas, family-owned pasta joints, and more than a few Peronis and spritzes. Naples and Rome were really the first places where we didn't have a concept of where we were eating. We just saw somewhere that looked like it had good food, decent prices, and outside seating. Sure, there were plenty of waterside restaurants whose prices had the tourist upcharge attached, but given that we were walking long distances everywhere we went, we had no shortage of options to puruse off the main tourist roads. And, of course, Jack partook in gelatos and pastries (he simply cannot walk by a pastry aisle without taking a look).

On the way in, we realised that we were passing the foot of Mount Vesuvius. We probably learned that Pompeii was outside of Naples at some point, but that didn't click beforehand, so Jo hopped online and found out we could get tickets for relatively cheap, so we booked that for our second day in town. It was a highlight of our trip. Pompeii is much bigger than either of us expected. When you hear the story of Vesuvius's eruption, you almost never hear that 18,000 people escaped the city, and only 2,000 perished (we say *only*, but that's relative). We saw massive houses, ancient fast food restaurants, a tiny brothel, amphitheaters, and more as we roamed the grounds. We downloaded a couple of audio tours to listen to along the way, and we were not disappointed in the history we learned. One thing we were disappointed in, however, is that several places were under restoration work, specifically the granary. While typical of ancient locations, the granary housed the expansive store of artifacts from Pompeii. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for restoration works on the horizon anyways, the Ministry of Culture moved them to the Antiquarium, the on-sight museum. While probably a good call, it meant we were limited in the number of things we could see. But if you go, fear not, for the famous plaster molds are still on display. In our opinion, they didn't have the same impact in the Antiquarium as they would have in the granary, but you take what you can get.

We spent almost a full last day at one of the few proper beaches in Naples. We didn't expect to find a beach, but after finding a swimming area in the harbour on our first day (where Jack totally jumped in), we hopped online to find a beach to go to. Now, the reviews online said the beach was dirty, but we didn't have that experience. It's a dark sand, sure, but most everyone did their part to keep the place clean by putting their trash in the bins and keeping it out of the water. The water was warm, there were fish along the rocks for snorkeling, and there were plenty of snack carts with decent prices nearby. Not even the hour-long walk could put a damper on our beach day with Mount Vesuvius in the background.

We had a high-speed train out on our last day, so we headed off to Florence at 300 km/h. All in all, we had a great, if unexpected, time in Naples.

Where we stayed: Hotel Ferdinando II

Jo's Favourite: Pompeii

Jack's Favourite: Pompeii

Top Lesson Learned: If you don't know what you're ordering, go ahead and order it. "You get what you get, and you don't get upset." And you'll probably like it anyways.

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