In advance of our second Amsterdam-iversary I'm going to blog some of the highlights since... November (yikes!)
Naples is a pretty disgusting city. Luckily, the food is delicious and there are plenty of lovely things to see just a quick train/ferry/metro ride away. We also lucked out with incredible weather. It was gorgeous and sunny and perfectly warm the whole time we were there.
Our first stop was (obviously) pizza.
Then we did a lap around the city center and decided we were pretty done with Naples. There's garbage everywhere, reckless moped drivers, tons of cigarette smoke -- despite amazing food, it is for sure a pass-through city.
Day 2 was the reason for the whole trip. Since Danny has been a kid, he's wanted to go to Pompeii. Having already been on Escape from Pompeii, the Busch Gardens thrill ride when I was 12, I felt like I had already experienced it... but I was happy to tag along. In retrospect, Pip was exactly the wrong age to take with us. We went without a stroller which was good since the uneven ancient Roman streets do not lend themselves to flimsy umbrella stroller wheels, but she didn't want to be carried, and she was still only crawling (also not great on the ruins). Plus we missed the audio guide somehow (probably because she was throwing a fit and we just wanted to get out of the line of people as fast as possible). So the first hour was just her crying, Danny trying to download a guide, and me wondering where the Ancient Roman winebar was. After she had had her fill of putting stuff in her mouth and faceplanting into 2,000 year old masonry we got her into the ergo and did some proper wandering.
Pompeii is much bigger than I was expecting. It is really a city that just doesn't have most of its walls or roofs. I loved all of the paintings on the wall that were still visible, and the little road-side food stands with the cutouts where they would put coins. It made it feel very real. Once the little tyrant had woken up, we went to a restaurant where everyone was dressed in "authentic" outfits and the food was meh.
Day 3 was my pick. I had known I wanted to go to one of the islands. Capri is the obvious choice, but since it was the off season, I figured our chance of seeing the Grotta Azzurra was really low. We'll come back to the region eventually (can't move to Europe and not visit the Amalfi coast) and get a proper day in Capri. For this trip we went to Ischia. We got on a ferry and then onto a bus that dropped us near Aragonese Castle. The castle was also not stroller friendly but P did slightly better in the carrier and enjoyed some more open places to crawl around. It is a gorgeous castle with lovely views of the island and the Mediterranean.
The perk of traveling in the off season is no tourists. The drawback is nothing is open. We wandered endlessly trying to find a restaurant that was open and google maps is zero help (it doesn't recognize "summer hours"). we had to break into the stash of chocolate covered lemon peels we were supposed to be bringing back for coworker treats to survive. The place we found was perfect. I tried a local rabbit dish and had a cocktail. While I know every says Capri is the best, I think Ischa would probably be just as lovely a place to spend a day or two in the warmer months.
Day 4 was a bit of a gamble. Knowing that we wanted to stay out of Naples, we had considered taking another train and trying to see some of Sorrento but didn't want to spend so much of another day commuting, so we hopped on a metro to the castle in Caserta. All we knew about it was that it was super big, and had been in the crappy Star Wars movies. It ended up being a perfect way to end the trip. The castle was very castle-y, but also stroller friendly. It had a massive staircase which was perfect for our little newly-minted stair climber (big ups to Dad for carrying the stroller up all those stairs). It was all shiny, with good light fixtures, and ceiling art. We had a great time taking pictures and learning a bit about the history of southern Italy (not that I can remember any of it now). The garden was a whole other level. We spent another hour or two walking around before taking a bus back to the castle (that's how big the gardens are, you can take a bus from one end to another).
We accidentally ended up in a super fancy restaurant for a late lunch and then wandered around the tiny adorable town of Caserta before getting some much needed gelato and heading back to get ready to fly home. Apparently, the days of "sleeping baby during flight," are behind us. I will miss them very, very much.
Naples itself is heartbreaking. So much beautiful architecture, lovely people, amazing food -- and it is all covered in garbage and unemployment. I cannot say I recommend it, but I do - because there is so much amazing stuff to see in the vicinity. And the wine is very good.
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