Naples

We parked in a sosta in a suburb of Naples (€18) with nice clean toilets and showers (€1), behind big security fences. The road to the sosta is a nightmare of double parked cars, blind bends and suicidal motorbikes. English driving goes out the window. It is push push push even to get off a roundabout. Once parked up it’s a 20 min walk (or a bus ride) to the metro which give a first impression of Naples, no pavement, rubbish filled gutters and once you got near the metro a whole row of piles of car glass where windows had been broken. Don’t leave you car here. A lot of central Naples is made from black stone, the roads black blocks and the buildings likewise, on damp and wet days it all has a rather gloomy look about it. On our first day we ate our picnic in the park and watched the rats at play. I realised why the coach tour I did 30 years ago missed Naples. However after 2 days of wandering around the city grew on me. Typical of Italy it has a lot of small narrow lanes to wander around, and it also has a nice wide sweeping sea front road. It was a free day at the national museum so we went and looked around at yet more sculptures along with pieces recovered from Pompeii, mainly wall frescoes. You get lots of nice street food and cakes in Naples so my diet went out the window.

All metros have pick pockets, I’m pleased to report the one that tried to have a go at my empty pocket failed.

And the best bit of Naples, while walking to the metro in a downpour a man stopped and gave us a lift.