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Published: July 16th 2017
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With our 10:30 shuttle bus from the airport for our lunchtime flight from Split to Naples, we didn't have much time to do anything in the morning other than shower, pack up and eat before walking down to the bus station. The journey and flight were uneventful. The only things of note being that we pwere please and lucky to get the last few seats on e shuttle bus and Split airport is one of the smallest, strangest airports I've visited, beaten only by the shed on the tarmac that was Milos in Greece.
Once we landed in Naples we got a crammed bus down to the central train station from which our hostel/B&B 'Robbie's House' was walkable. The area by the station looked pretty dirty and uninviting, as areas of big cities near main stations often do, so we crossed our fingers that our place was far enough away to be out of the worst of it, which thankfully it was. We checked in and had the tour/rules from our eccentric host Roberto who was a really nice bloke and was very helpful throughout our stay. Having not eaten since our disappointing breakfast in our AirB&B this morning, we
were both starving so we decided to forget all other plans for now and go find pizza!
We walked up the Main Street by Robbie's 'via del Tribunal' looking for a Pizzeria recommend in my Lonely Planet book called 'sop' which, after a slightly longer walk than anticipated, we found. However, the staff member blocking the door way explained they were closed (Lonely Planet need to update their listed opening hours it seems, damn you again print based media!). We wandered back down the street a few blocks to another decent looking pizzeria and got a drink and a pizza there. I went for 'Vesuvio' and Dan had some sort of posh Quattro Frommage with Serano ham. The pizzas were decent but the service left something to be desired. I actually felt sorry for a few groups and couples who were badgered by the waiter who had no patients!
Bellies full, we popped back to Robbie's to cream up, change and make a plan, which was basically just to walk through a series of streets of the historic area of town which would take us past a number of the notable buildings and statues shown on our tourist
map before making it down to the bay of Naples to see the coastline and Mount Vesuvius in the backdrop. We hadn't expected an awful lot from Naples and were predominantly visiting here for the benefit of seeing Pompeii (a half day excursion we have booked for tomorrow). I had some reservations when we were walking from the train station and sadly, these early thoughts were only justified further the more we walked on, that Naples was a bit of a dump! There were numerous buildings and views which once were or could have been impressive and beautiful but were spoilt by a mixture of graffiti, rubbish, 'looky looky' men, tramps or all of the above.
That said, here were a few nice sights amongst all of this, including a particularly impressive church, a little castle like building surrounded almost entirely by sea and the view outwards of the bay of Naples, Vesuvius and the surrounding landscape. As expected, the roads (and 'pedestrianised areas') we nuts, it was the Wild West and there were seemingly no traffic laws (at least not enforced ones). Every 10 seconds or so a scooter would fly past you on one of the narrow
cobbled streets, half the time there would be a whole family on one scooter and we even saw two adults and a dog riding one! We saw idiots beeping at other idiots whilst waiting at red lights, one man almost getting run over by a scooter on the pavement and a number of idiots doing U-turns through the zebra crossing gap in the concrete dividers (whilst the crossing was full of pedestrians of course)!
Having walked around for 4 hours in the sun sweating our clothes through, with only a 15 min respite in the A/C of H&M, we were worn out and headed back to Robbie's. Neither of us were hungry yet after our late pizza lunch so we thought we would shower up and head out later. I had been particularly tired all day and without meaning to, I conked out and fell asleep for an hour before waking up at 9. We headed out in search of somewhere good for dinner, it turned out our first choice was A) takeaway only and B) absolutely mobbed, so we went in to a small traditional looking restaurant just next door. It was exactly what I'd expect of an
old family run Italian, with a little white haired old man shuffling around taking food orders and presenting the food on the tables (he was clearly the owner) and a simpleton of a chef/kitchen help popping out a few times delivering food to the old man, who spoke almost no English (nor did the menu). Our food was just as simple, I had Penne Arrabiatta which looked exactly the same as you would expect the result of a 5 year old who'd been asked to draw tomato pasta to look. It consisted of the plainest penne known to man (not even miniature ridges in the pasta shapes, 100% plain tubes) and a sauce of cherry tomatoes with some garlic and spice. It was nice enough though.
Whilst we were sat there someone had set off a big firework display in the street just outside which went on for 5 minutes or so before the polizia arrived to shut the show down. We both intended to get Tiramisu for desert but they had sold out so we got the bill instead and got a gelato on the way back to Robbie's to catch some zzzz's.
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