Naples, or Napoli, Italy is one of those polarizing places and folks seem to have all kinds of opinions on it. For example, one of our taxi drivers felt it was the best place on Earth. I'll share my view later in this post. Some like Rick Steves mention that Naples exhibits some of the best attributes of Italy and some of the worst.
When we were ending our trip we took a ferry from Ischia to Naples. Once we arrived in Naples we wanted to take a taxi to the hotel to hopefully avoid pickpockets, which we had be warned about. The taxi driver seemed to make up some story about a strike but it was blazing hot and we wanted to get to the hotel. So, we made our way through the wild traffic that made us quite glad that we weren't driving. However upon arrival at Piazza Dante someone tried to mess with one of our bags right after we were out of the taxi. Once the lady was noticed, she awkwardly tried to say something about a restaurant and hurried off with her tail between her legs. Lesson two, like we've heard, watch out for pickpockets.
Two of us did do a walk around the block, after leaving our valuables in the hotel room, in what felt like record heat. We found a great coffee bar with a super friendly fellow. He told us about his family and the language native to the folks of Naples, Neapolitan. The iced coffee, Caffè Shakerato, was excellent and refreshing! I'm trying to recall but I think this was the place.
Of course, while in the birthplace of pizza we had to find some authentic pizza as well! We made the short walk to Antica Pizzeria Port’Alba . It is supposed to be the birthplace of pizza! They have amazing traditional pizza there. The older gentleman waiter was great but seemed a bit annoyed by the chatty American love bird couple next to us. One person in our group ordered a non-traditional pizza with wurstel and French fries.
We walked back to the hotel and were tempted to stop one last time for gelato but alas we were too full from the pizza!
So, what to say about Naples? I have to hedge a bit by saying that we were only there for one day basically. I would say that it's one of those "embrace the chaos" types of places. There might be better neighborhoods than the one that we stayed in but I would say that my first impression is not the greatest. On the plus side you can encounter friendly folks, find amazing food, coffee, etc... However, on the downside are petty crime, organized crime, graffiti, dishonest taxi drivers, trash in the streets, homeless, etc... Maybe someday I'll have the chance to go back and hopefully my opinion will improve. The people that I met there seem great. The city itself seems to have great potential. Hopefully, those living there can get help from local government and nonprofits to improve the city. Have you been to Naples before? What was your experience like?
I do want to say that you can certainly just use Naples as an airport hub if you plan things out. Happy travels! That brings me to lesson three, carefully plan your entrance and exit to the city for your own safety and those that you are with. Ciao.
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