Naples

24 hours in Naples: San Martino

/ 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?

Looking out to Mount Vesuvius

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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24 hours in Naples: Wandering the streets

/ 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:

Piazza Dante and Convitto Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II

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24 hours in Naples: The museum

/ 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.

Painting from the House of Pansa representing fish and game

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Looking back on 2014

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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.

With Dad at Jays game

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Naples in 24 hours: The pizzas

/ 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:

First taste of Naples pizza from Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba

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Looking ahead to Italy

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My wife and I each keep  a “top 10” list of the places we most want to visit.  It’s a list of destinations that is the answer to the question, “If you could only make ten more trips in your life, where would they be?”  Once or twice a year, usually fueled by a bottle of red wine, we pull out scraps of paper, recreate our lists, then compare them.   Where they intersect is usually where we focus some planning for an upcoming travel adventure.  A couple of years ago, it’s how we ended up touring Scandinavia for two weeks.  It’s here I have to make a confession – although our big trip this fall is to Italy, that country or any of its charms has never made any of my previous top ten lists.

Flying in and out of Rome, this trip will combine the Eternal City, a quick stop in Naples, and a stretch of time based in Sorrento to explore the Amalfi Coast as well as Mount Vesuvius, the ruins of Pompeii and the island of Capri.  As I’ve been planning this trip, I’ve come to realize the error of my earlier thinking.  I’m giddy at the thought of visits to the Roman Forum, Colosseum and Vatican as much as I am for simply exploring Rome’s neighbourhoods and piazzas.  I have starting creating what seems like a never ending list of food and wine to sample and am wondering how much pizza a man can eat in 24 hours in Naples (I can almost assure you it will be one too many).    I’m practically trembling with anticipation for the Lazio football match on the Sunday afternoon we arrive as a novel way to work through the effects of a red eye flight.  In my mind, I am imagining sitting on patios high up above the Amalfi Coast and Gulf of Naples sipping limoncello and local wines while looking out to sea without a care in the world.

So Italy, I’m sorry you hadn’t made my previous top ten lists.   But I’m coming to visit you anyway and couldn’t be more excited for the experiences I’m about to have.  Here’s to seeing you in October and to a couple of weeks of la dolce vita!