Naples Day 1

12:08 PM July 29, 2011 lying on the beach in Capri.

I would have blogged yesterday but I was just really tired.

Naples is a rough city--there are gypsies and pickpockets and the you-know-what. HOWEVER, it does have great things, if you know where to look. Or a good guide book.

Anyway, we walked around Naples with our class and I am convinced that Naples is the city of historical architectural stairs. We saw a bunch of stairs. The interesting thing about Naples and it's historic buildings is that people actually live in them and make them their own. Basically, these buildings were reclaimed by the people.

Naples is the birthplace of pizza. Naturally, i had a local favorite, the Buffalina d.o.c. It's got mozzarella made of water buffalo milk, fresh tomatoes and basil. YUM!

It started to pour after lunch and we continued our journey around Naples and got SOAKED. I looked like a wet rat.

Naples reminds me of a cleaner (much cleaner) Manila, like Divisoria or something with the narrow streets and street vendors. Naples still has pretty dirty streets though.

Naples is my first real hostel experience complete with the sharing of the bathroom and bunk beds with random strangers (ok I'm sharing a bunk bed with Chelsea).

The hostel and the hostel owner make me feel like I'm staying with an old Italian relative. He's really nice and gave us a little lecture on what to see in Naples.
When we got there late, he scolded me and I should have called. I felt like I got in trouble by my grandparents hahaha
He is a staunch Napolian(?). He is all about Naples and gave us statistics from the Italian government showing Naples as a safer city than Rome, Milan or Florence. He also told us that Almafi and Sorrento are over rated. They are expensive and have very little to offer you for the amount you pay. He compared the coastlines of these cities to Australia and parts of California and they look the same. It pretty much looks like Big Sur.

I don't think Naples is horrible. Just get away from the train station and you'll be fine. It's got cool things to offer (you just have to look) and you can get to cool places from here (like Capri).

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