Escaping Naples

In defence of Ryan's last blog post, it was me that planned the 3 nights in Naples (hey, who are we kidding, I planned this whole awesome trip), and it wasn't by mistake. I had been here for a few nights on my big trip 10 years ago, but with the reputation that Naples has, my girlfriend Roxy and I did not spend much time outside of our hostel, apart from some amazing excursions to Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius. Being two girls, around 21 years of age, and with limited travelling experience at that stage (at least for me), the fear of heading into the Neapolitan streets is excusable, and so I thought I would give this a second chance, being Italy's 3rd largest city, one of the oldest continuously habited cities in the world, and having the largest historic city centre in Europe, amongst many other things. Also, this time I would be older, wiser and with a protective husband by my side! So I wanted to go back.

The beauty within - Naples' waterfront and Mt Vesuvius

It turned out Naples was not the scary and unsafe city that I had feared when I last visited. It's just chaotic and a bit dirty with all the locals going about their own business! Unfortunately, this is still not the kind of place that grabs me, but I am glad I went back and gave it another go (also, it is so close to so many amazing historic and beautiful townships that I have no choice but to be at least in the vacinity of Naples again!). I can definitely say this however: you will not find better pizza. Pizza was created in this city, and although it seems cliche, I actually did have the best pizza in my life in this town. It was a margherita  (massive in size) for 3.5 Euros.

Marina Grande, Capri

Having said that, we had one more day in Naples where we instead decided to escape to Capri for the day, an island 40 mins boat ride away which has been a resort island for the rich and famous (and boat-loads of tourists) since the Roman times and onwards. It was a lovely day - beautiful weather and only 40 mins on the hydrofoil we arrived before 11am (with a billion other tourists) so decided to wait for the crowds to die down and order a drink at a cafe at the marina. Still being morning I opted for a can of Coke Zero, which set me back 5.50 Euros. Hey cool, they gave us some wifi and I somehow helped alleviate the flailing Italian economy, so all good.

Ryan in front of me heading up the mountain on the chair-lift

As we drank our overpriced drinks, the queue next to us for the funicular did not seem to die, so us being the fatties that we now are decided we could use a bit of a walk uphill. The funicular up to the first town of "Capri" takes 3 mins, but the 750m walk uphill apparently takes 45 mins. Ryan and I busted it out in like 20 mins, yay! We then got the bus to the other main town, Anacapri, which was a windy road right on the edge of the cliff - I could barely look down and it reminded me of the Amalfi Coast, but it was kinda cool and had amazing views at the same time. From Anacapri we then got a chairlift up to Monte Solaro, the highest point on the island. Not being a skiier this was a real novelty for me, and I made sure to hang on to my thongs! You can see Ryan in the chair in the picture above, but the view to the right of us was just beyond description.

Vista from Monte Solaro

Up on top of Mount Solaro we had 360 degree views. It was phenomenal. One of the best vistas (although I've had many) in my life. And would you believe up the top of that mountain there was a cafe/bar with these views? I assumed for an even more obscene price than what I'd just paid for the Coke down below, but no, a few Euros for a wine or beer is all they wanted. Now being afternoon, of course I had a wine. And it was with a view that must be at least in the top 5 of my life.

Happy times!

I had read that the walk back down from the top of Monte Solaro down to Anacapri was pretty easy, and being the adventurous folk that we are, we bought one way tickets on that chair-lift! So although everyone else bought return chair-lift tickets and were heading back down, off we went down the path (there was one other couple doing the same thing) all the way down, with glorious views while working our calves at the same time. It was a great walk, and after nearly getting lost we made it back to Anacapri and stopped in at a trattoria for lunch. We had a pretty decent and cheap meal, and then got the crazy bus back down to Capri, where we walked down to the marina again. Not surprisingly, our calves were well toned (and a tad sore) the next day or so.

Even the statue is giving the view some kind of thumbs up

Once at the marina we went to the nearby "beach", dark pebbles and all. The water, although difficult to get into was lovely and warm yet refreshing. After some floating, it was already time to get the boat back home, which we did. Following our sun-kissed day, we walked back to our hotel and cleaned ourselves up, before heading out to dinner at a little osteria nearby that we had spied the day before. It was great - small and local and quiet, we shared a tasty seafood entree followed by two fish dishes.  All tasty I must say!

Ryan floating in the salty Mediterranean