Napoli Crapoli

Bill and I arrived in Napoli yesterday. We had finished our attempt up the Amalfi Coast and passed Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius, and were about to descend on Napoli when the crappy google directions told us to get on a highway that didn’t seem to exist. We ended up driving through the center of the city, which only made us determined to never leave our hotel.

Let me start by saying that when we left Porto San Giorgio and told the innkeepers there that we were going to Napoli they gave us a look like we were crazy. This was clearly a sign that we should’ve paid more attention to. Another sign was that the guide book starts the bit on Napoli by saying “Despite its hopeless overcrowding, unemployment and crime rate, Napoli continues to draw visitors.”

Napoli reminds me of Tijuana. The city isn’t cared for - there’s graffiti all over monuments and public statues and there are huge amounts of garbage littering the streets and sidewalks. Driving there is an exercise in futility - no one pays attention to pretty standard laws like the traffic light colors indicate and there are litterally children riding Vespas in and out of traffic. The whole city is just dirty and a little scary, and Bill and I have found our only refuge in our tiny hotel room.

Luckily our hotel had a pool, which was awesome, but unluckily, you are required to wear a swim cap! Which meant, I wasn’t going to go into the pool. Bill decided the humiliation was worth it and popped it on, and he actually looked pretty good.

The second day we were there we ventured out of the hotel to try and find something to redeem the city. We left our hotel and looked down the four different streets we could walk down, and as we made our way down the best looking one, we took this photo. Yes, this is the best of the four directions we could’ve walked down.

We found a little place called Edenlandia, which is a sad little fairground with sub-par rides and questionable food. We wandered around laughing about our predicament, and thanking goodness we would leave for Rome the following day.

OK. Now I have to edit this post because we’ve received word that we were in the crapshoot of Napoli, and there are, in fact, some very lovely areas of the city, particularly near the port. Our friend Jon, whom you’ll read about later is from that area, and he says it’s downright lovely. So maybe head to that area the next time you go to Napoli.