A couple of months ago we went on a trip to Naples. Yes – I admit: I have been lazy again with blogging. Now I want to catch up before embarking on the next trip…
Naples had been on my „wish list“ for long time already. I’ve always wanted to see Vesuvius, explore Pompeii and eat the best pizza of Italy (and therefore: of the world!?). We managed to do all this and a little more in the 3 days we had, even though 3 days were a little short for the region – there is just so much more to see and do! To see everything properly, I would recommend staying for at least a week.
Unfortunately the first day was a bit grey and rainy-ish, which was OK for sightseeing in the city since you always end up going inside in between.
We took a walk through the historical center and visited a couple of churches and monuments. While we were not too convinced by the highly praised Dome and the Capella Sansevero, we did find the Complesso Monumentale di San Lorenzo Maggiore and di Santa Chiara quite pretty and interesting. Often, you can visit the „basement“ to tour the excavations and old ruins while on top there is a beautiful church or chapel.
We took a drink to re-energize at Piazza Dante before heading of in the direction of Toledo and the Spanish Quarter. The Spanish Quarter is well known for its little alleys where you will often find laundry hung up to dry. However, the little streets in the historic center are already really photogenic as well!
We walked across the square in front of the Royal Palace and further into the quarter of Santa Lucia where we originally wanted to visit the Borbonic Tunnels. Unfortunately we realized that the tunnel was not open today, hence we were ripped off when buying the global ticket before 😦 Slightly annoyed by this fact as well as by the useless and out-of date map in the Lonely Planet, we at least had a bit of a look at the Castel dell’Ovo and the quarter Chiaia. We took a difficult to find funicular up to Vomero where we visited the Certosa e Museo di San Martino. We had expected a bit more since the guide book described it as a must see – but at least the view from the Vomero hill is really nice!! You can look over the whole city, with Vesuvius looming in the background… 🙂
The next day was dedicated to Vesuvius and its destructiveness (=Pompeii). First we took the Circumvesuviana to Ercolano since we had originally planned to see the ruins of Herculaneum after Vesuvius as well. But we had definitely planned a bit too much for one day! 😉 It took a while until the bus left to drive up Vesuvius and also until we finally arrived at the highest parking lot. The mills grind a bit slower here in Southern Europe… 😉 From the parking lot it’s a 30 min walk along a dusty trail to the crater rim. The view in all directions is amazing!! This – and not really the crater itself – is what we liked best. If you have already seen a couple of volcanoes in your life, the Vesuvius crater is not too spectacular anymore.
When we arrived back at the train station it was already early afternoon so we realized it wouldn’t be realistic anymore to see both the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii on the same day. It seems that we planned a bit too optimistically! So of course we decided for Pompeii, where we again went by train. Just next to the station there are some snack bars and the entrance to the ruins so that we could directly start with our sightseeing after a little snack. Pompeii really surprised us! Simply amazing what still is leftover of this city – and how big the city was back then! We somehow imagined it all a little smaller 😉 The sun was burning down but we braved the heat and visited all the most important areas in the following hours. Here are some impressions:
We took it slow on our last full day and left at 11 am only by ferry to the little island of Procida. Unfortunately we got onto a closed ferry on the outward journey, but on the return trip we got an open one where you could sit on the deck and enjoy the view – much better and therefore recommended!! 🙂 In Procida we first walked to the Marina Corricella where you can see the famous pastel-coloured houses (typical Procida-picture). We spent a while admiring these houses – the view from on top of the harbour is a dream and the little harbour sooo cute!! 🙂
Afterwards we took a bus to the other side of the island to the beach – unfortunately with grey sand and rather windy, but still nice to relax for a couple of hours. As mentioned – on the way back we got a much better ferry and some great views from the deck! One last pizza in Naples (yesss – definitely the best pizza I ever ate!! And you don’t even need anything special on top – just Margherita is delicious!) and that was it! One day, I want to return to the region – there is just so much more to see than we had time for! 🙂 And here you can find the full photo album.
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