Rome to Naples

Packing and showers are on the agenda for this morning. Because of the EU meetings and demonstrations we will not be heading over to the old city, we will stay on our side of the river. Andre went out and got some things for breakfast, we are all out of eggs, and some bread to make sandwiches for the train ride later today.

We went for walk back up to church on the hill behind us to see views of Rome one more time. Lots of security around, can't imagine what the other side of the river must be like. It is early and quite a few tourists out here already. Not much will be open today, many museums, Vatican, Colleseum all closed because of EU meetings. We see the helicopter fly over quite a few times as well which we assume is security as well.

Love that they didn't take down trees for sidewalks

Monument about 10 minutes up the hill behind our apartment

We tried to get in to visit this twice, both times the gates were closed

Where we had supper last night seated outside

Breakfast menu presentation

Door to our apartment building, love the huge doors all over Italy

The owner of the apartment has arranged a private tour operator for pickup to take us to the train station, she couldn't get a taxi booked because of the EU meetings, and all the road closures.

We arrived at the train station very early. I had booked super cheap tickets for this train as well, but this meant we couldn't change the train and go earlier unless we wanted to spend another 55.00 Euro each, our tickets only cost 9.90 Euro each so no way we were going to pay that. We found a place to sit upstairs to kill the hour that we are here early. It is nice and quiet compared to downstairs in the terminal and free wifi so it was not a bad wait.

We are now looking forward to Naples. Total step count in Rome – 176,500 steps or 130 km walked, ouch no wonder my feet are sore! We walked everywhere, only used taxis to and from the train station.

Rome train station, this is a huge station

Killing time in Rome waiting for the train

If you ever have time to kill in Rome train station head up the escalators, hardly anyone here

The hotel had sent an email asking about arrival times. I sent the time for our train arrival and asked them how much a taxi should cost. They gave directions to Burger King, and told us to phone them from there when we arrived and they would look after getting a taxi there for us with a set fee of 10 Euro.

We arrived at hotel, very cute, great area, booked cheap room, no view at all. 2 free drinks and a package of pasta for booking directly with them. Really nice garden, breakfast included as well

Courtyard at our hotel in Naples

We are off to explore as we have limited time. Walked towards the water, and on the way there it is a very busy shopping street called Toledo.    Part of it is pedestrian, and part cars, it was so busy. Along the way we ventured off of Toledo and into the Spanish Quarters. We loved this part, extremely narrow streets, densely populated, high buildings, lots of laundry hanging out, and lots of little markets and shops.

Wendy wanted some licorice at the food fair, she say someone buy a little bag for 13.00 Euro, so we moved on

Lots of markets on the street today

Spanish Quarters

Andre would have loved to eat here, Wendy not so much

Next we made our way down to the Palazzo Reale, we lucked out as a wedding was just about to start at the beautiful church here. The bride and wedding party were getting ready to go inside, a gorgeous day for them. Lots of beautiful orchids outside for decorations, rice hanging in little sachets for decorations, must be a sign of good luck we think.

Palazzo Reale



Love the sign

Amazing decorations outside Church, I can't imagine what it would have been like inside

What a venue for a wedding!

Next we walked down to the waterfront. There is a nice walkway here that is only for pedestrians today, and they are out by the thousands. It is a gorgeous day, nice and warm. We make our way to Castel Dell'Ovo and of course climb up to the top of the castle. You can see where the cruise ships dock here, it is really close to the old part of the city.

Beautiful views of Mount Vesuvius

Castel Dell'Ovo

Lots of Italians out walking on a gorgeous day along the waterfront

This is a tough project for renovations

No matter what country or language bubbles are always fun

Toledo Street - so many people out shopping or just walking

A few buskers out as well on Toledo Street

We walk back up to the hotel and stop for a break in the garden and have our free drinks. We both order spritz, I really hope Andre can duplicate these when we get home.

When we checked in earlier today the front desk told us the best place for pizza, but it only opened at 7:30, she said go and get in line before 7:00 or you won't get in. So we planned our walk before dinner to get back here for pizza.

Square outside our hotel

Supper plans

We walked towards the Duomo with a couple of stops along the way. We were going to go into another church as well but they wanted 8.00 Euro for tickets, not sure what was in there, but we didn't see it, that is the price of our pizzas for tonight! Again the Duomo is really big, it is from the 1300's and no charge here. The silver in here was amazing. We are now totally done with Churches.

Lots of silver in this Duomo

Next I wanted to go see Castel Capuano and Porta Capuana that I had read about. I had heard about how dirty and lots of garbage there was in Naples, well we found the spot. It was terrible here. This seems to be where the homeless hang out, and we're not sure what all the shoes and clothes were on the lawn here. It looked like maybe they were donations for the homeless maybe, there were dozens of pairs of shoes all mixed in with the homeless hanging out. It wasn't the homeless that bothered me, it was the piles and piles of garbage in the street. It was really sad, we thought Naples had such potential, it is on a nice hill with fantastic views, too bad it isn't cleaned up a little bit.

Porta Capuana, a not so nice end to our time in Naples, so much garbage

Next we head back to the restaurant as it is now nearly 7PM. We ended up getting there around 7:15 and surprise it is open and there is no lineup. We got one of the last 3 tables, and they were all full by 7:30. We had 2 delicious pizza, a bottle of wine and both of us had dessert, a great way to end our meals in Italy.

Amazing last pizza in Naples

Desserts served in jars

Glad we ate early, these were the unorganized line ups to get in when we left

Back to the hotel, it is now 9PM, which is really 10PM because the time is moving forward 1 hour tonight in Europe. Our wake up call is for 4:30AM, it is going to be a very long day for us tomorrow.