3 Days in Naples, Italy

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The last 3 days in Italy were spent in Naples, with our home base at Hotel Rex. It was another one without an elevator, but the air conditioning was glorious, as was the breakfast and location - practically right on the sea.

Our train ride from Rome included a transfer in Caserta, and some major confusion on my part. It was a pretty small station, and the signs above each platform stayed blank with a scrolling message in Italian. After typing out the message in bits and pieces, my translator app told me that from August 8th through August 29th, all trains between 2 stations (I assumed the one I was at was affected since there were no details on the platforms) were suspended and replaced with buses. After attempting to speak with a few employees who didn't speak much English, we trudged over to a different platform than what the Omio app had originally said and low and behold, the train showed up, albeit 5 minutes late. No biggie, but I guess I should've looked up the two stations in the scrolling message before jumping to conclusions.

After we taxi'd to our hotel and checked in, we packed a backpack with our swimming gear and headed out to find a beach. There was no access at all near where we were, even though we were directly overlooking the sea - the sidewalk and the rest of the city was up the cliffside a bit and you'd have to jump over the wall down to some pretty impressive and sharp/jagged boulders and rocks before you'd get to the water itself. We decided we'd try to flag down a taxi to bring us to a beach since it seemed like we weren't even close, but there didn't appear to be any coming our way on this one-way main road. We went into the town a few blocks to see if we'd have more luck and ran into a makeshift COVID-19 testing tent where we asked the people there where we could find a taxi. We'd learned a few days prior from our airline that even though we were vaccinated, we'd still need a negative test in order to board our flight home and re-enter the U.S. Eric asked if we should take the test now since we were right there, but I said nah, let's do it closer to when we leave (even though we were within the 3 day timeline noted by the airline). I had a one track mind and it was on the beach. Luckily, we were very close to a taxi 'hub' and in two short blocks we found one and hopped in.

We were brought to Bagna Elena, which I'd seen on the map, but was closing in 30 minutes and also charged a fee for everything and required using their app. I couldn't get the app to even load nor could I pay directly on their website, so once I learned they were closing, we chose to walk further up the road to what appeared to be another beach, and possibly a free one. The place closed up and we looked down to see an employee driving some sort of sand smoother machine across the beach, assuming this was very fancy sand. We never found the second beach. It was either also closed, or it was part of an apartment complex of some sort, or we just plain missed it. We cut our losses and decided to head back to find dinner near-ish the hotel. Once again we couldn't get a taxi, even though we were on a main road. Probably because we were on a main road, actually. All in all, we ended up walking over five miles that evening, and it was the beginning of the end for my legs and feet. My calves were already practically burning with each step after the tromping around Rome we'd done, all starting with the uphill trudge to the train station followed by 4 hours of standing. I digress.

We made it back to the hotel on foot and went right next door for a nearby dinner. My luck turned around when I learned that Cavoli Nostri was a 100%!v(MISSING)egan restaurant! As I did when I visited India a few years ago, I decided to go vegetarian on this trip; I neither wanted to drag Eric all around town on top of going to all the landmarks so I could find suitable vegan food nor did I want to live off plain spaghetti and/or French fries the entire time. We shared a sampler platter appetizer and each got the pesto gnocchi entree, though we should've just shared one - it was a ton of food. Delicious, but a lot for just two people, and with that, we dragged ourselves back to our hotel and up the stairs and zonked out for the day.

Our first full day was spent at the island of Capri. We took a ferry to the small island based on the recommendation from the hotel's concierge the night before when she told us that Naples wasn't necessarily the best place or known for its beaches, but that Capri was the place to be. At first we saw one of the pay-to-enter beaches just like Beach Elena, but Eric saw a sign for a free beach so we took the narrow path down to that one and spent several hours there.

There was no sand to be seen on this beach, and while I couldn't see it very clearly, I don't think the paid beach up the coast a little was any different. Walking through rocks in shoes isn't too terribly hard, but again, my calves were already/still burning. Once we changed in the single 50-cents-to-enter bathroom, we acquired some unoccupied beach chairs, dumped our stuff on and under them and very cautiously made our bare-footed way into the cool, calm and extremely refreshing water. Most of the rocks on the beach were pebble-sized, but there were definitely some bigger ones mixed in. While they weren't necessarily slippery like the slimy ones in the water you had to walk through, you were still walking barefoot on rocks and it felt like you were walking…on rocks. We stayed in the water for a half hour or so before I decided I was probably getting too much sun and should go sit in the shade.

My way back to our chairs could have been on a TV show. The shallower the water gets, the more gravity weighs down and the harder your feet press into the rocks. The shallower the water gets and the closer you get to shore, the more the rocks tumble and fall over each other as the waves roll in and out and the more unstable your footing gets beneath you. I gave up and just laid in the rocks. Twice. It was both funny and embarrassing at the same time, especially since I plopped myself practically right in front of this older man with fluffy white curly hair wafting about his head and chest and who was also overly tanned, wearing a gold chain and a green 'boy shorts' speedo. Straight out of a movie, I swear. Eventually I made my way back to my chair and I told Eric sadly I didn't think I could go back in. The arches of my feet were definitely bruised and there was no way I could make that journey two more times, into and back out from the water - regardless of how inviting and wonderful it was. He did go in a second time, wearing his crocs in "four wheel drive" as he called it (with the slingback strap behind his heel), but I knew my foam flip flops would be unforgiving in the unstable rocks.

One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was after many people on the beach had left and I had an unimpeded view of the water. The gentle waves rolled in and slowly headed back out, pebbles tumbling over each other as they tried to find their place in the tide. When an especially big wave would crash on shore without one following quickly behind, the whoooosh the pebbles made sounded like an intense form of the fizz you hear after you crack open a can of soda or when you pour it over ice. That. That was my favorite.

We ferried back to Naples and walked back to the hotel, stopping at La Piazzetta for dinner about a block away. We shared a spectacular mozzarella appetizer that was in the middle of a ball of pizza dough then fried and topped with pesto, tomatoes and parmesan. Eric accidentally ordered the most American heart-attack-in-a-sandwich possible, and I swear the kitchen was laughing at us. He thought he was ordering some cow thing but it came back as a foot long panini with chicken fingers, french fries, and mozzarella inside. He loved it, but we were also mildly embarrassed to have ended up with such a non-Italian meal. My dish got lost, so we just cancelled it since the app was more than enough and went 'home' for the night.

Our last day in Italy was spent at the Pompeii ruins. We took a train and based on our quick tour of the Colosseum a few days prior, Eric assumed we'd be in and out in under two hours. Boy was that an underestimation. It was another hot, sunny, and humid day, though only 90ish instead of 100ish, and my legs and feet were in quite a state (definite bruising on the arches and everything was starting to swell too). After going a portion of the way up one of the main streets, Eric left me sitting in a shady spot to venture down a side street, assuming he'd be back in 15 minutes or so. Nope, he went all the way to the end without stopping, he said, and didn't get back to me for a whole hour. I entertained myself by people watching; there was a spot in the stone road where about every fifth or sixth person would step incorrectly and almost fall. It was pretty funny (nobody actually fell nor got hurt).

We walked the rest of the way up the long main road so I could get a closer shot of Mount Vesuvius hovering in the distance, then we called it a day. Once again, I wish we'd done the audio-guided tour like I regretted in the Colosseum, but I also wish I was more mobile at the end of the trip and able to actually make use of such an addition to the visit.

We had a little over an hour left until we had to catch our train back to Naples, so we shopped the souvenir stands and bought some trinkets and had some gelato and fresh lemon slushies. Oh the slushies! We had multiple slushes over the week - the first ones we both tried the green one, assuming it was lime, or at worst watermelon or green apple. Nope. It was MINT. As in Spearmint. A spearmint slushie. It was like toothpaste and not at all what we were hoping for. The next time we got slushies the flavors were either labeled or we asked what they were and went with lemon each time. The lemon was so fresh you'd think all the shops had lemon trees in the back and they were squeezed right into the slushie machine. Oi! We'll both miss those lemon slushies.

When we got back to our hotel I asked our concierge if he knew where we could get COVID-19 tests. He gave me info for a pharmacy in the area and informed me they'd open at 10:00am the next morning. I asked if they were open still tonight (it was 6:00pm) and he said no. I asked if he knew of anywhere else because our flight was at 6:05 am. His eyes got big and he goes, "Madam! It is very late now," and shook his head. I said ok no worries, I'll check around, I think they do it at the airport - they do, but they didn't open until 2 hours before the first flight and our emails told us we needed to be at the airport 3 hours before departure, so my hope was some CVS/Walgreens like place would be open still. Newsflash, nothing is open that late in Europe except restaurants. I knew that but it was in the foggy archives in the back of my mind. Oh well, we'll do what we need to do.

For our last dinner in Italy, we went back to La Piazzetta so Eric could redeem himself and get a Napoli pizza instead of an American accident posing as a sandwich. We took some pictures of the sea when the moon was out, and I'd have to say it was probably the perfect ending to our trip.

The next day we woke up at 3:00am so we could get to the airport to take our required COVID-19 tests to get back home. Not only was the testing site not open yet, but the airport itself wasn't even open yet, and there was a huge crowd gathered outside the front doors. Our taxi driver said he'd never seen such a thing, so I don't know if he'd just never been to the airport at that time of day or if it wasn't a normal occurrence for the airport. We got our tests, negative results of course, made our way into the airport, dropped our bags, went through security and eventually boarded our plane. The flight home was uneventful, including the five hour layover in Paris, though my legs and feet became so swollen that by the time I got home I could barely walk or bend my knees and ankles. Two days later I'm pretty much back to normal, but still feel the bruising in the arch of my right foot from my excursion on the rocky beach.

Lessons learned:


• Know what you're ordering at restaurants
• Get the audio guide, but not the actual guided tour
• Get the COVID-19 test at the earliest convenience, don't wait til the last minute
• Don't let your teenager carry anything important. Ever.
• Go to Italy when the weather is cooler
• Bring water shoes to Naples/Capri beaches - don't expect sand
• Build in more down time - don't expect a day at the beach to be a day at the beach 😉



What a great week. Memories for a lifetime.

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Photos

Bagna Elena (closed)
Naples beach from above - you can see the guy smoothing the sand on the beach at the bottom.

Cavoli Nostri
Vegan ristorante - delicious appetizer. Mi piache!

Free Beach on Capri island
This beach had no sand - only rocks

Beach on Capri island
Beautiful view

Pompeii
Ruins with Mt. Vesuvius peeking out in the background

End of the Road
Mt. Vesuvius from the farthest point on one of the main roads in the Pompeii ruins

Ruins
Pompeii ruins

More Ruins
Pompeii ruins

Moon over the Tyrrhenian Sea
Great view after dinner on our last night

Translation
The message at the Caserta train station made me believe we'd have to take a bus to Naples.