Naples, Italy: First Impressions

Let me preface this post by providing you with a little background knowledge of my travels that I have to compare to Naples, Italy. Within the United States, I have been to too many places to name, so for now, I’ll name the relevant ones – Chicago, New York City, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Washington DC. In Europe, however, our experiences have been with mainly eco-friendly countries – Norway, Switzerland, Austria, just to name a few. When we visit a new country we seek out the mountains, lakes, and smaller villages. But, I’m a Paris fanatic, a lover of Rome , and I find Venice fascinating. Basically, I tell you all of this to say that this post was not written lightly. I have experienced many different places, from mountains to sea, with bustling cities in between. Therefore, when I tell you that I loathed Naples, you’ll believe me! (Have I ever said that about a place? Not that I can ever remember!)

Things That Didn’t Go Right for Us

I was pretty pumped about our three-day weekend getaway. We hadn’t flown anywhere (at least I hadn’t) since the end of April, so I was more than ready to get outta town. Mistake number one was walking to the bus stop two streets over after exiting the airport in Naples. To save money, we decided to take the public bus to the train station instead of an overpriced taxi. DON’T DO IT. We stepped over literal piles of trash to get to the bus stop. Public transportation is nothing out of the ordinary for us. We’ve taken it all over Italy and it’s easy to take the bus. When it arrived a few minutes later, we got aboard and I asked the driver if we could buy two tickets (in Italian), just as I do in our town in Northern Italy. He had no idea what I was saying and then just said no tickets. What do you mean, no tickets? I asked if we could still ride and he said sure no problem. We got a free ride, okay cool! One up for us? Oh, except for it was a 30-minute bus ride, jam-packed, standing room only, with no air conditioning in June. Not a one up. Take the damn taxi.

Mistake number two was not purchasing train tickets in advance. We finally made it to the train station and the ticket machine wouldn’t work for anyone, so we missed the train. This resulted in us having to wait an hour in the underground train tunnel (that smelled so awful) for the next train after we finally just had to purchase them on our phone. There were gypsies walking along the side of the track that would stoop down onto the track and pick up items that they spotted from above. I swear I can’t make this stuff up. We got on the train – so wonderful to have AC and outlets – and headed towards Torre del Greco, where we would be staying for the night. The original plan was to meet the Airbnb hosts at a specific point in the port at 1 pm. We walked around the port to kill some time and for me to take photos. At around 12:45 they messaged us and said they wouldn’t be able to meet until 2. Okay, that’s fine. We had the opportunity to go get lunch at an amazing restaurant that we found when walking on the boardwalk. It was pretty much the only place we could find open, that looked like a place that wouldn’t give you salmonella or any other food poisoning, and that wasn’t under construction, which seemed odd in the summertime. San Pietro was the best restaurant with fantastic views that we ate at during our stay, without a doubt.

During the meal, they texted us again and said they weren’t able to meet until 2:30 so we took our time at lunch and then meandered our way to the sailboat. Oh, did I mention we were staying on a sailboat for the night? Stephen booked us a one-night stay on a sailboat, docked in the port of course, but nonetheless incredibly romantic of him. I’ve never stayed on a sailboat so brownie points to him! We found the correct sailboat based on the Airbnb photos and Keri, the host, was incredibly nice and showed us the ins and outs of the sailboat. How to use the toilet, turn on the outlets, where the sleeping bags were, etc. That night, we were scheduled to take a sunset sail with the Skipper, who confirmed the time for 530/6 pm. Perfect.

We also met the skipper, who didn’t speak much English. He speaks what they refer to as “Neapolitan.” We had always heard that southern Italy had a much different dialect than the north but didn’t know they referred to it as a different language. Apparently, it is difficult for Italians to hold a comprehensible conversation with southern Italians because of this.

Beaches of Torre del Greco (Naples)

We changed into our bathing suits and set off to find us a nice beach to relax on after Keri and the skipper departed. Stephen and I walked for about 15 minutes. Amongst dirt. Filth. Rubbage. I had never been so disappointed in humanity. Every man I walked past stared me down. I felt so uncomfortable. I had a very conservative dress down to my knees over the top of my one-piece bathing suit, so it wasn’t like I was showing anything!

There were dogs and cats roaming the street. People would walk right past them and never acknowledge these obviously starving animals, or the trash at their feet. I didn’t feel safe walking to the dang beach for gosh sakes.

We finally found what we thought was a beach and when we got down to it, it was completely trashed. In fact, it was so gross that we decided against even getting in the water, and it was a very HOT day. Here are the things we saw along the beach: needles, piles of trash, dead fish, dead crabs, glass, ceramics, and broken tile everywhere. All amidst this beautiful black sand that may have been because of the volcano, Mt. Vesuvius. We got to a point on the beach where we saw these three teenagers and when we got closer, noticed that they were beating two dogs. I was petrified. Mortified. These dogs were chained up, ribs showing, and the teenagers were throwing things and hitting them until they realized we were in plain sight. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I told Stephen to get us out of here!

He suggested I take pictures to commemorate this beach to show my readers, but I couldn’t bring myself to snap but only a few shots. It was dehumanizing and so awful that I had never seen anything like this before. This all hit me hard because I just wasn’t prepared. I’d listened to people talk about their experiences and read things on facebook before, sure, but those are the same people that think where we live is terrible (we live in a very nice SAFE area).

We got back to the sailboat as fast as we could, around 5 pm after walking what felt like forever. We relaxed outside of the boat because inside the cabin was too stuffy and the air was stale from the humidity. 5:30 came around. Then 6. Then 6:30. Stephen finally messaged our hosts and asked if they were still coming and Keri responded that the skipper was on his way down. We thought this meant that he was on his way down the dock. We waited and waited. 7:15 rolls around. We don’t have much to drink besides the one water bottle and it’s been hours since we’ve had lunch. I suggest to Stephen to cancel our sunset sail because, at this point, we’ll never make it back in time for dinner and the sun was already setting. The skipper comes down at 7:45 and brings a pack of pastries with him and asks – in his broken English – if we still want to go. For a short ride. For free, he says, since he was so late. He doesn’t give a reasoning for his lateness by the way… Since this was the thing I had been looking forward to the most, of course, I agreed. It was being offered up for free. And he brought pastries.

I Can Find The Good Here

The sunset sail was spectacular. If I could ever recommend doing one thing in Naples, this would be it. Although, we didn’t actually sail since there was no wind. Not certain if this would qualify as a sunset sail, but we’re going with it. I sat on the front of the boat, enjoying the sea splashing me every now and then along with the breeze blowing through my hair. Snapping away at every inch of my surroundings. These are some of the best shots I think I’ve ever captured.

The Good Is Short Lived

About halfway through the trip toward the sunset, things started to get very animated in the back between the skipper and Stephen’s conversation. The skipper knew very little English and spoke in mostly Neopolitan, but this is what I gathered from their conversation. He believes that Naples (Napoli to Italians) is superior to the rest of Italy. We made the mistake (I lost count at what number this is) upon first meeting of telling them we currently live in Vicenza (northern Italy). Come to find out, he hates Northern Italy. He told Stephen about some of the histories of Naples, Pompeii, and the wars, but of course, he could only understand bits and pieces as he was speaking mostly in Neopolitan– which we don’t speak….He started talking about the economy of Naples and how it has basically turned into a filth and shithole since Italy forced them to join their country and so today they have a weak economy. He spoke of northern Italians working too hard and only care about money.

Whoa, hold up. I mean hey they work hard up here, but hello riposo. Every time I need something it just so happens to be during riposo time or they’re closed because of holiday. They live pretty nicely up here. Just my opinion. And they take such good care of their land, nature, and public spaces.

Anywho, enough rambling about that. The sunset was beautiful despite the hostility towards northern Italy and I’m not even Italian! Pictures may do this one justice!

Gypped

We arrived back into port around 11 and were starving – pastries aren’t the best for a rocking sailboat and sea legs. We thanked the skipper and then he asked us to pay. Pretty sure my jaw hit the floor. What. We weren’t sure we were understanding him correctly, so he shook our hands and said an abrupt ciao after tying the boat up for the night. Not 3 minutes later, we receive a text from our Airbnb host Keri that says we were supposed to pay him cash on the spot and he was apparently waiting. We didn’t have 150€ in cash for that, plus he had told us it was free. Without arguing, because we were exhausted, Stephen wired her the amount.

What a day. We hoped Saturday would be better.

Saturday, finally.

We were scheduled to go for a horseback ride up Mt. Vesuvius, but unfortunately, I had a terrible heat rash and knew that I would’ve been miserable riding a horse for 2 – 3 hours so we decided against this. We instead took the train into the port of Naples, where we were staying closer to the airport Saturday night. We had a very early flight out Sunday morning. In the actual city of Naples when we stepped out of the train station, it was mass chaos. I tried to hold Stephen’s hand and he shrugged it off. When I asked him about it later, he said that he needed both his hands free in case anything happened. That’s how uncomfortable we both felt in the crowd of people. There were beggars, street vendors, and tourists all on top of each other. Graffiti painted everywhere. We passed a beautiful water fountain, like the kind you would see in Rome, except it had graffiti all over it and when we looked inside…oh, that was a mistake. It was filled with trashy water and what looked like feces. I almost gagged. How could these beautiful pieces of history, that are SO well preserved in other parts of Italy, be cluttered in this city.

Grafitti fountain in old town Naples

We checked into our hotel at Hotel Mercure and had the most refreshing shower ever. The sailboat didn’t have running water and I felt incredibly disgusting from the last two days. Reception gave us a great recommendation on lunch – La Lazzara – which she said even the locals eat. No brainer. We headed there, and I got my first Napoleon pizza. It was to die for! It had so much sauce, flavor, much more vibrant than the pizzas around where we live. The crust is much thicker, and I usually prefer a thin crust, but it was just so delicious.

After a post-lunch coma nap, we set out for an aperitif at the café that we could see across the street from our hotel. We enjoyed fresh gin fizzes and mojitos along with some bar snacks before heading to dinner at Trattoria Medina. Saturday was a much better night, mainly because we just ate great food, drank decent wine, and rested as much as we could.

Sunday required waking up around 4 am to head to the airport. We caught a cab, which Google Maps said would take 25 minutes to get there. It took 8 minutes. I think we got into a race car. A few times I thought to myself “holy shit we’re going to crash.” I just closed my eyes and waited. Stephen swears the cab driver knew exactly what he was doing and how to drive but good lord. People were right when they said southern Italians drive differently….

Been There, Done That. Never Again

Let’s just say we’re glad we went to Naples because we can say we’ve been. But we’re never going back. I wish that we had done more research and as soon as we landed in Naples, used Viator to book a tour down the Amalfi Coast. It was so cheap for us to fly to Naples so we thought nothing of it or that it could possibly be a bad experience. Lesson learned. As always. This weekend we head to Belgium / France which I KNOW won’t be a disappointment!

Have you ever been to Naples, Italy? What was your experience like? Similar or completely different? I’d love to hear in the comments below!