I heard a lot about Naples but I am starting to realise that most travel literature talks rubbish. I particularly remember Bill Bryson hating the place. The general view is that it is noisy dirty and crime ridden with depressing levels of poverty.
I really liked it. I wish I’d booked more time. It was actually a cheap flight to Rome that I had, and I took the train. Train was actually quite pricey and I had to stay in Rome for the last night in order to catch my flight and that was a total rip off. It would have been much better to get a pricier flight direct to Naples.
Naples is indeed very littered. The whole place looks like a market at the end of the day. Everyone is selling – from Africans selling D&G belts and handbags from sheets on the pavement, old boys selling junk from trestles, through to street stalls, market stalls, tiny shops selling only a handfull of things all the way up to proper shops.
The traffic is bad, and the constant hooting is irritating. The one thing I disliked was the amount of dog shit on the pavements – and Neopolitans must be pretty stupid about it cos it was usually smeared.
But that apart it’s a buzzing vibrant place. It’s dirty noisy and busy but that’s because it is a real city with real people living and working there. London by contrast is just a show put on for tourists. No-one can afford to live there and there is very little local industry. The local cafes are nearly all gone and we have Starbucks in their place.
I had a day and a half wandering about the streets and photographing the buildings and another day to visit Herculaneum and Vesuvius. The view from the hill should have been good but it was very hot and hazy.
I am quite pleased with some of the pictures and you can see more here.
