If you ever want to immerse yourself in the Italian culture and be where it's not too touristy, Naples is your answer. Not a tourist attraction what so ever and boy did we realize that even before we got on the plane! Italians have darker hair and skin and there the three of us were waiting to get on the plane. A blond, brunette, and redhead all with pale white skin. Yup, we stuck out instantly and screamed "Hi! We're Tourists and we have no idea what we are doing!"
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| Getting ready to leave! |
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| Isn't she gorgeous! |
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| Me and all the chocolate I brought! |
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| All the chocolate Adrienne brought.... |
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| Boarding the plane! |
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| Way to look normal in this picture Kelsey. |
After the 3 hour plane ride, we arrived!! We got ourselves a taxi, showed him where our Airbnb place was and we were off.
Now, I have been to Italy before and what I totally forgot until returning this trip was
1. How dirty the city is and
2. All the horrible driving!
I was clenching on for my dear life the whole time we were in that taxi cab and when I would start to relax, a motorcycle would go zooming by so close to us that I could probably tell you what the motorist smelled like! Road signs mean nothing! We would be on a street and it would be three lanes, then two, and then turn into four lanes! Sidewalks I guess are also for motorists to drive on because they did and they didn't seem to care. And people were crossing the roads like there weren't zooming cars going past them and at one time an old lady and her gals started to cross and I was preparing myself for the worst. Did it come? Thankfully not because that old lady just stuck her hand out like she was God or Moses parting the Red Sea and cars and motorists came to a halt and those ladies went on their merry way like they did not just perform a miracle. I was astonished. Completely and utterly astonished.
Did it make me a little nervous that when he entered into the taxi pick up line at the airport that he didn't just drive in like a normal person but that he instead reversed in? Yeah, that made me a little nervous.
Did it also come off to me as weird that he didn't have a meter running inside? Yep.
Did he speak English? Certainly not.
Did he really know where he was going? Nope. He had to stop and ask directions three times from locals and at one point he took a wrong turn which ended up being an ally and i leaned over to Kelsey and whispered, "this is where we are going to die. Yep, we're about to die". He finally dropped us off close to our place and pointed us to where we needed to go (since the road ended) and we were off. By luck and the grace of God, we found it and buzzed the door for our airbnb lady (Claudia). We then hauled our stuff up 6 flights of stairs (not 3 like she said) and soon entered into one of the most beautiful apartments i have seen yet. It wasn't too tiny, and it wasn't too large, but just right and the view? HOLY COW!! What a view we had indeed!
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| Made it! |
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| Kelsey hauling her stuff up the 6 flights....she struggled a little. |
It was then time to find something to eat. Claudia gave us some suggestions and then we were off. Now, that old lady I talked about earlier who stuck out her hand like she was God or Moses and all the cars came to a halt? Well I was intrigued by that and I wanted to test out the theory myself. So while we were walking to find a restaurant, we needed to cross the street with no crosswalks in sight. So I took a deep breath, remembered what the old lady had done, stuck my hand out like I knew what i was doing, and started to walk, and by golly it worked! Cars slowed down or stopped and we walked right through like we were locals and had done it our whole lives. I was quite proud of myself. We soon found a place that caught our eye since it was called "Muuu!" (Just by seeing the name we were sold). We got some pizza and for dessert we ordered some Limoncello since both Kelsey and Adrienne had never tried it before.
We then started walking back only to stop at this little bakery/store that sold croissants. They looked so yummy and after trying to communicate to the owner if I was supposed to reach in a get one myself or if he was going to do it, I finally got one with nutella in the middle (of course). It was good.
The next day we all got up early to first plan out what we were going to do and to take in the beautiful sunrise. Again, I would just like to give God some applause for the wonderful beauty he has given us.
Our first stop was to visit Napoli Sotterranea! This was a tour of the Greek Roman city underneath Naples! We had some free time before the English tour started, so we were able to poke around and explore a bit. I was intrigued by one of the little pastry shops we walked by and gave into temptation and ordered a pastry called a BaBa. What I didn't know about this pastry was that it was:
1. Cold
2. Had a spongy texture and was wet.
Why wet you ask? Because it was full of Rum. That's right readers, I had a rum filled pastry at 10:30 in the morning. What an achievement.
This underground city was started by the Greeks who dug deep into the ground to carve tufa stone blocks to build Naples's city walls and temples. The Romans then came in and continued digging and ended up creating a 400km long aqueduct system. The aqueducts was closed due to the cholera epidemic in 1884 and it was abandoned. It wasn't until WWII that the caves were used as air-raid shelters to take cover from all of the bombings.
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| We were given candles to get to the aqueducts |
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| Had to squeeze through some tight spaces to get to them! Yay for being skinny! |
After we saw the aqueducts, we went back up the 127 steps to the surface and across the street to where the Roman Theatre used to be. There are still parts remaining of it, but most of it was destroyed.
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| This was a passageway actors used to get from one side of the stage to the other |
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| What a view! |
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| Our "Ahhh we are in Naples Italy" photo |
While were walking along the coast, we saw a group of girls go by on one of those 4 person bikes. Instantly, Kelsey and Adrienne turned to me with wide eyes and said that we should do that and what did we do??? We rented a 4 person bike. The 2 people on the outside would pedal and the person on the left side would be in charge of steering and ringing the little bike bell which would warn people to get out of the way (I took that seat). The middle seat was just an enjoyment seat. We took turns trading on and off to give our legs a break.
Another thing you should know about Naples: there are street sellers all over the place trying to sell you cheap crap and at the same time avoiding the police. They are annoying and they don't get the hint that you aren't interested.
Example: While we pedaling along on our bike and laughing it up, a street seller selling flowers and crappy handmade bracelets started to come towards us offering us his cheap goods. We said no as we were still pedaling along and did he get the hint? NO! Instead he starts to keep pace with us and had the audacity to put his arm around Adrienne to try and make her slow down. This is when all hell broke loose ladies and gentlemen. Adrienne started screaming, Kelsey started shouting for us to pedal faster, and I was slapping at the man's hand on Adrienne's shoulder and yelling "GET YOUR HAND OFF OF HER! GET YOUR HAND OFF OF HER!!" We escaped and it was at that moment that I was reminded how thankful and blessed I am to have gotten to travel with these two ladies.
So after that whole fiasco was over, we started pedaling back to where we needed to return the bike. Before returning it though, we got some gilato and leisurly made our way back. We dropped off our bike and I got another gillato since they are just so yummy!
It was then time to start heading back towards our flat. We had a couple miles ahead of us and boy were we feeling it.
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| The creepy and loud highway tunnel we had to go through |
On the way we stopped by a castle (no idea what the name was) to get some photos as well as a jumping shot for me.
We finally made it to the main road that would lead us towards our flat. While walking along and looking at all the shops on either side of us, I kept seeing people with these cones full of french fries. One after another would pass me and I will admit, I was curious. So when we saw the french fry place up ahead, I gave into temptation once again and I do not regret it at all. I got a small cone with cheese on my fries and it was fantastic!
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| Yep. Found this in one of the stores |
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| Me and my fries! |
We got back to our place, put our feet up, and relaxed until it was time to go out for dinner. Claudia had recommended to us a restaurant 15 minutes away that was both cheap and good. We looked it up online and all of the reviews raved about this place so we went!
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| Our view just before the sun went down. |
So we got to the restaurant called Trattoria and instantly we understood what all the online raves were saying when they said it was a loud and friendly place. All the waiters were shouting at each other in Italian, laughing out loud, and it was just fun to watch. We think it was a family owned business, but we weren't sure. From what we deciphered from the menu, it was split into courses and the waiters would come out and get everyones first order and then bring them all out. While waiting for our second course to come (took some guessing and hand motions with the waiter to figure out that the second course included salmon), music started playing and soon Kelsey was swept off her feet by one of the waiters. It was a great to see and soon we decided we were full. We paid the bill (which was very reasonable for the amount we ate and drank) and were off for the walk home (and some more gelato)!
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| Stopped for one more gelato |
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| The little door we had to go through to get to our courtyard |
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| Goodbye Naples :( |
- Claire
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