Napoli

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Happy 4th of July!

We left the port of Civitavecchia (90 minutes outside of Rome) yesterday and sailed to Naples. I got off the boat a walked around for a bit in the morning and to be honest, Naples is so dirty! There is trash lining every street and graffiti everywhere! There’s dog poo everywhere too, like it’s just not a big deal if you don’t pick up after your dog (saw the same thing in Spain). I guess it is surprising to me how there are no environmental movements to clean the city up, but yet everyone drives around in Smart Cars to reduce the smog. Anyway, I didn’t really know where I was going or what to do, so I went back to the ship and relaxed for a bit after walking probably ten miles the previous two days in Rome. Later that night I went out with a bunch of people to a famous pizzeria called Pizzeria da Michele. It is supposedly the best pizza in the entire world, however I was not that impressed. I ordered a Double Mozzarella pizza and the crust was kind of burnt, it was drenched in olive oil, and the “double” mozzarella was more like .5 mozzarella. Oh well though, it was still fun to be there and I ordered an Italian beer called Nastro Azzurro and that was very tasty, so I was happy. I’m probably just used to my Papa John’s pizza with heaps of cheese and thick crust. After dinner we set out to find a bar that was recommended to one of my friends from a tour guide earlier that day. When we initially asked for directions, we probably should have taken a hint when the lady had to draw the street because it wasn’t even on the map. So we ended up walking around for an hour and a half looking for this place! We definitely got to see Naples, but it was nice and there were lots of people out just walking around enjoying the night. We finally find the bar, a place called Le Chandelier, and had an awesome time. Took a cab back to the ship and passed out. In the end, my time in Naples was very fun, but I might not come back unless I had a reason to.

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Comments

[Dad]

Fa Napula!
Yeah, Naples is dirty. And what's really amazing is that its been cleaned up SIGNIFICANTLY from when I first went there as a kid. When I lived in Rome ('67-'69) Dad would take us to Naples every once and a while to use the Navy Exchange. I remember pulling in and smelling the place--the kind of thing that sticks with a kid's memeories. Then when I went back on MONTPELLIER it was better but still pretty bad. Then I went back last year and I really noticed the difference (much better). Grandpa Frank would tell a story about his dad (great grandpa Rocco) how when he was mad at someone he would swear at them and say "fa Napula!" Not sure if I'm spelling that right, but it means "go to Naples", and was a euphimism for "go to hell" (but worse!). Love ya kiddo! Dad