24 hours in Naples: San Martino

January 21, 2015January 21, 2015 / Greg / Leave a comment

There was one last “must do” on our Naples list – a perfect outing on our only morning in the city. A short walk from our B&B, we took a funicular up San Martino hill to explore a neighbourhood that feels a lot different than the historical centre. It’s a neighbourhood a lot less congested and much less hectic than down in the centre of Naples. This big draw for us to scale San Martino was its view over the city. How’s this for a way to start your morning?

Not only a spectacular view of the city, but that is Mount Vesuvius over on the right. Even the morning haze on another scorcher of a day couldn’t diminish the experience of standing here looking out over the city.

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Overlooking Naples

January 15, 2015 / Greg / 3 Comments

Favourite 2014 travel photos. Naples, Italy. October 2014.

24 hours in Naples: Wandering the streets

January 12, 2015January 12, 2015 / Greg / 1 Comment

Let me be perfectly honest. I had low expectations for Naples. Plenty of people I spoke to with extensive travel experience didn’t speak highly of the place, warned me about rampant pickpocketing and described the city as a congested and dirty place not worthy of more than a passing visit (if a stop at all). I should know better than to listen to others, but these were people who’ve seen a lot more of the world than I have. Because of the archaeological museum (and the pizza!), we were always going to stop here, but our time in the city was much more enjoyable than I expected. Truth be told, I really, really liked Naples.

With only twenty four hours, a good part of our visit was spent wandering the historic centre of the city. If we weren’t in the museum or I wasn’t eating pizza, we were doing some urban exploring. Here are some of the sights we took in on a long day in Naples.

Between our centrally located hotel (Monteoliveto B&B, can’t recommend it enough!) and the archaeological museum, we first walked past Piazza Dante and Convitto Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II. This public square usually had a group of kids playing soccer each time we walked past:

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24 hours in Naples: The museum

January 6, 2015January 6, 2015 / Greg / 2 Comments

The one night we scheduled in Naples was primarily so we could visit the National Archeological Museum. In and of itself, it wouldn’t be the type of museum that would bring me to the city, but I knew that visiting here would give much added context and background to a visit to the ruins at Pompeii that would be coming up a couple of days later.

The museum houses an interesting collection of artifacts from Pompeii – from large works of art taken from the site to every day tools and utensils. We spent a couple of hours browsing the collections and it was a great investment in time that I can’t recommend enough. When we visited Pompeii two days later, we could stand in the ruins and recall the mosaics, paintings and statues we had seen a few days earlier.

When we were at Pompeii we kept thinking back on the vividness of the colours in much of the art and how the pieces we had seen would have looked in context in the ancient city. A great example is this painting from the House of Pansa representing fish and game. At Pompeii, the House of Pansa is in a fairly poor state of repair – thinking back on this piece helped us visualize a bit better.

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Favourite travel experiences of 2014

January 1, 2015January 1, 2015 / Greg / 1 Comment

As each year draws to a close, I like to think back on my travels and distill down my favourite memories and experiences. It’s part simple reflection and an exercise in gratefulness for the past year. It also helps to plan future trips as I continue to learn about what makes me happy and what I cherish in experiences. As I was doing so this year, it became pretty evident that many of my favourite travel memories this year ended up revolving around food, wine and drink. In no particular order, here are my ten favourite travel related experiences from 2014:

1. Drinking on the roof of a church – And not just any church… I shared a couple of shots of liquor on top of St. Peter’s Bascilica in Rome with six German women. Better than the liquor were the laughs shared and the feeling of cheating a lightening bolt for such behaviour.

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Looking back on 2014

December 29, 2014December 29, 2014 / Greg / Leave a comment

By just about any measure, this past year was an interesting one for travels and exploration. It was a bit of a grab bag of locations and for a good part of the year, I was packing my bags about every month en route out of Halifax. Here’s a quick look back at how I accumulated a few more passport stamps, some frequent flier miles, but most importantly, some great memories.

Toronto – Two separate trips to a place that feels like a home away from home let me experience some new restaurants, finally see my first Leafs game, and take in part of a Blue Jays home stand with my Dad. Of all the great memories, sitting with Dad and swapping stories over a few Steam Whistle pilsners is what I’ll remember most.

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Naples in 24 hours: The pizzas

December 26, 2014 / Greg / 4 Comments

A mere twenty four hours in Naples, Italy… This brief stopover on our way from Rome to Sorrento existed for a couple of reasons – to visit the Naples National Archaeological Museum in advance of visiting Pompeii a few days later, and for me to try as many pizzas as I could. I’m proud to say I managed to squeeze in four delicious pizzas, even if for one of them it meant creating a rarely used meal between lunch and dinner.

The first pizza of the visit was a proper street lunch at what many believe to be the world’s first ever pizzeria, Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba. Back in the mid 1700s this restaurant replaced street food stands and brought their wood fired pizzas out to the street to sell. Here I am taking my first bite of a Neapolitan pizza:

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Spanish Steps

December 22, 2014 / Greg / Leave a comment

Favourite 2014 travel photos. Rome, Italy. October 2014.

Afternoon in Trastevere in photos

December 20, 2014December 20, 2014 / Greg / 1 Comment

Wandering aimlessly through a city neighbourhood is one of my favourite things to do when traveling. On another spectacularly beautiful Roman afternoon on our recent trip, my wife and I crossed the Tiber River and found ourselves in a charming area of cobblestone streets and medieval architecture. Here’s what a couple of hours in Trastevere looked like through the lens of our camera.

Santa Cecilia (a 5th century church) and its idyllic courtyard:

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Monti: Home away from home

December 15, 2014 / Greg / 2 Comments

I sometimes spend too much time fretting over which neighbourhood to make as a home base when visiting a city. For our trip to Rome, I went back and forth debating where to stay. Not to pat myself on the back too much, but sticking with my gut on staying in Monti is one of the better travel planning decisions I’ve made in a long time.

I completely fell in love with this area of Rome. Monti started to pull on my heart strings immediately, even as I was jet lagged and dragging my suitcase from the subway to our hotel on the way in from the airport. There were cobblestones (I’m a sucker for cobblestones), small shops lining the narrow streets, people spilling out of bars enjoying a drink and not a chain store or restaurant anywhere in sight. The visuals of this place will be what I will always associate with Rome. Below are a few of my favourite photos in what turned out to be far too little time in beautiful, quaint, Monti.