Last Day in Naples

Well, coming off of the night before’s pizza and cheap cocktail intake … I had a bit of a hangover on Tuesday in Naples. It wasn’t too bad, but the combination of a slight headache with the constant flurry of movement in bustling Naples … well that made the morning of walking around a bit unpleasant. Seriously, anything I’ve read about Naples has described it as a city full of constant motion, people yelling, Vespas zooming in and out of streets & sidewalks … and this is exactly how it was. I probably got flicked off or yelled at by Vespa drivers several times, due to my indecisive movements in these tiny streets.

We walked through the old city center around our hostel, and there were people selling anything & everything all over the place! Seriously, we couldn’t walk five feet without having the opportunity to buy something completely random from a table on the street. Heaps of belts, ties, thousands of cell-phone chargers, designer knock-off bags (ok, so I caved & perhaps bought a fake D&G even though I generally hate that type of thing), underwear, jewelry, football jerseys, candy, fresh seafood, toys, small appliances. It was insane. And the interesting thing was that they didn’t necessarily even seem to be targeted at tourists – it’s like all activity in the city centers around the art of street commerce, for locals and tourists alike.

We walked to the waterfront, through several large piazzas, past the city’s old castle, and of course ended up at another highly recommended pizzeria … Pizzeria di Matteo, where President Clinton supposedly dined several years ago (not that that fact had any weight on our decision, just wanted to pass along some trivia). This time we decided to split one pizza and an order of lasagna. Sounded like a good idea until we were served two full pizzas, once again. Novice mistake, I guess … pizzerias in Naples really just serve pizza; we assumed “Lasagna” on the menu was the dish itself but it was actually just a type of pizza. But the ricotta on the lasagna pizza was probably the freshest I’ve ever had, so I have no complaints. Voila, more pizza pictures ...

Pizza and Peroni ... ca, c'est Naples!!

Ciao, Bella!!