Tag: naples

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La Dolce Vita – day 11

Un altro giorno a Napoli

A chilled final day in Napoli (although we still ended up walking over twenty thousand steps!) began with a metro ride after breakfast from the magnificent Toledo station …

to Mergellina, the seaside suburb of Napoli to its west, on line 6, which is served by the dinkiest underground trains I’ve ever seen – only two carriages long!

As we walked from the station to the sea front we first encountered this colourful graffiti (I must admit, I do like a bit of Italian typography – and that’s a phrase I never imagined myself typing!)

I have since learned that the Vecchi Lions are an “Ultras” group of supporters who follow (of course!) Napoli.

And then we stumbled across a lovely plant shop displaying its wares on the streets – lovely to see my favourites, geraniums and lobelia, in full flower, along with a wall of petunias and other annuals that we won’t be seeing flowering in England for another month or more.

To be fair, the seafront – the beach and the sea – are not the prettiest I’ve ever seen, but it was a pleasant amble, and I did enjoy the Napoli themed beach huts – the football team is the city, and the city is the football team!

We walked back towards the city centre with Vesuvius looking down upon us from a distance. Since landing in Capri a few days ago, it has been a permanent fixture on the skyline wherever we have gone; I don’t think I would ever tire of looking at its magnificence.

And for our “last supper” on this Italian viaggio, it had to be pizza!

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La Dolce Vita – day 10

Ischia

Today we took a 50 minute ferry ride to the island of Ischia.

Napoli looked good, bathed in sunlight as we sailed past.

Ischia itself is a pretty island, positioning itself to be like Capri, but not as expensive. It had a very chilled vibe – an amazing contrast to the hustle, bustle and noise we had left behind in nearby Napoli – and it certainly was more affordable than its more famous, luxurious cousin, but whilst pretty, it didn’t have the same stunning beauty of Capri.

Nevertheless, we had a happy day on the island.

About 3km from the port is a castle on a hill at the end of a causeway, so we ambled our way towards it, stopping to take in the views, do a little window shopping, and drink the inevitable coffees (and, to my delight, I got a high-five from the cafe owner when paying, in recognition of my attempt – which must have been understandable – to talk to him in Italiano)

“Lift kaput” said the lady as we paid our 15 euros (each) to enter the castle, so it was more upward stairs as we climbed to the top to take in the views back over the island.

On leaving the castle, we found a bakery, bought some lunch and found a quiet spot to sit and eat in the sun.

Of course, I couldn’t resist the water and before long I was “enjoying” my first swim of the year, even if the water was molto, molto freddo!

On our return to the mainland, we decided to find the “big” mural of Maradona and the shrine beneath him. It is amazing how one man can be so deified.

However, as someone who still remembers la mano de Dios, I was not worshipping!

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La Dolce Vita – day 9

Napoli

This morning we moved from Sorrento to Napoli, via the circumvesuviana train – think 1980’s London tube rolling stock, a 1 hr 15 minute multi-stop journey to the centre of a Napoli, and a step into a whole new world. Napoli is big, bustling, chaotic and fun. It is the most densely populated city in Europe, it is tourist friendly yet maintains its authenticity. Oh, and it can be breathtakingly beautiful as well as grubby and grimy all at the same time.

Lunch was some street food of Pizza frita (nice) and a “croquette” (very, very nice) and after a drink to wash that down we headed up above the city using the funicular to take us from Piazzetta Montesanto to the Vomero hilltop district, were we took in some stupendous views of the city beneath us and Vesuvius in the distance

before walking our way back down through the Spanish district

After the eye-watering expense of Capri, Naples is much more affordable and we treated ourselves to this delicious punnet of strawberries for 1.50 euros

Images of Maradona abound, he really does have god-like status in this city. Here are some of my favourites

Another figure who appears (almost) as often as Maradona is the masked clown like character Pulcinella, who was created in the 1500’s. Traditionally a servant figure, he is considered the voice of the people and an immortal spirit of Naples. I did like this image of him socking it to Ronald McDonald which, I think, embodies the spirit of the city.