End of July we spent a long weekend in south of Italy - Naples & area: Capri, Pompeii and the Vesuvius -, a place which fascinated us for a long time.
We were prepared to face "one of the most dangerous cities in Europe" with huge piles of trash everywhere. As we arrived, Naples presented itself as a very typical southern Italian city with run down buildings covered by clothes hanging in the windows, sidewalks full of street vendors, noisy motorcycles, and ... yes, trash was all over the streets. But overall, we did not have a bad impression or any sort of fear from walking down the streets in the evening. As we learned already while traveling around the world: getting prepared for the worst makes it easier to accept - and enjoy - the local flavor.
As soon as very arrived to our hotel, we dropped off our stuff and went out to explore the city. We headed off to the funiculare de Montesanto taking us to the Castel S. Elmo, from where we enjoyed the amazing views over the Bay of Naples with Mount Vesuvius in the background:
Later, walking down the streets of Naples, we discovered the beauties of the city: galleries, churches, statues at every second street corner, castles and last but not least: Porto Santa Lucia, in the neighborhood of Castel dell'Ovo:
one of the coziest areas with plenty of local restaurants inviting for a typical Italian dinner, like for example our "Aperitivo di Napoli":
Next day, we woke up very excited about our trip to Capri island. No wonder. If you were to ask us what was the favorite place we have been visited during our travels so far, Capri will surely rank among the top 5 for both of us... it's truly like a little piece of heaven. Most of the streets in Capri are only walking streets with cobblestone and both sides covered by beautiful gardens, trees and flowers everywhere - amazing and very different from what we are used to.
As we arrived, we were debating for a while about renting a scooter or using public transport (e.g. funiculars and local buses) to get around the island - in the end, we (Emese) decided on the latter... so we ventured off. Hop on, hop off the funicular and headed towards the ruins of the Tiberius' villa on top of the mountain... and we hiked through very narrow streets ... and hiked... Our first stop was at a breathtaking scenic lookout point, where we saw dramatic coast lines and fancy yachts lining in the bay.
Later we took a bus to Anacapri and a chair lift up to the top of the highest mountain on the island. No comment to the view, the pictures should speak for themselves:
Pretty exhausted, it was time for all of us for a little rest...
... to get us prepared for the 800 Phoenician steps leading us from the Villa San Michel
back to the Marina Grande:
It's been a very long and exhausting "walk", and we were ready for our well deserved Italian pizza, after which we took a boat ride around the island; unfortunately that day the water level was too high and tourists were not allowed to visit the famous Blue Grotto, so we opted for a boat tour instead (it proved to be a very good choice as we had the opportunity to see the dream island from a completely different angle)
After the tour, it was time for us to take the ferry back to Napoli with another exciting day in Pompeii and Vesuvius waiting for us next (2nd part of the story coming soon...)
See all pictures from our trip to Napoli-Capri-Pompeii & Vesuvius
here.
