Eat Pray Love...Naples

Eat lots of pizza and gelato
Pray Mount Vesuvius won't erupt
Love the liveliness in Naples

The view from our hotel was beautiful. The bay of Naples was home to a million people, and the buildings stretched on till they faded away. The calm water flowed on to the horizon, and in the sunset was truly beautiful. I instantly knew I was going to love our 4-day stay in Naples. Aah, Naples. Yes, it was Naples..

In Naples we had hired a private tour guide to take us around and tell us all the interesting histories or legends of Naples. Milena, our tour guide took us to a famous pizzeria in Naples for lunch. Naples pizza was fantastic. I shared a spicy salami pizza with my mum. It was soooooooooo good. Thin? Tick. Spicy salami? Tick. YUMMY? TICK! It was officially the best pizza I'd ever had.

In our Naples city tour, we drove through Margellina, a part of Naples that was famous for ice cream. Margellina was also famous for the it's cliffs. They were made of tufa, which is a yellow coloured rock. Tufa was a sandy colour, and scarce shrubs could be seen growing on the cliffs. I thought they were really cool .

We went up to the most expensive area of Naples, where the famous veteran actress Sophia Loren owned a huge villa. All the houses overlooked the beautiful bay, and most of them had pools. Multicolored villas and bungalows sat on the cliffs that teemed with trees. We went to the northern part of the district, to look at the panoramic views. They were extraordinarily panoramic. Mount Vesuvius snoozed menacingly across the bay, civilization seeping up about a fifth of the volcano. The bay of Naples stretched out before me, and the islands of Ischia and Capri were to be seen in the distance. I really liked it.

South of the area was really panoramic too. The only other thing I could see that I hadn't seen before at the north side, was the north side. It was really pretty with the different coloured houses. So pretty.

After we came back down from the expensive district we began walking around Naples. We reached the main square of Naples, Piazza del Plebiscito, and studied all of the important looking buildings. There was the Church of San Francesco, a large, round, domed building that surrounded half the square, and the Royal Palace, a huge, maroon coloured palace with hundreds of windows and a huge piece of land. But, then, of course, my mum saw the pasticceria where Eat Pray Love was filmed and asked the tour guide what pastries were the specialties of Naples. Sfogliatelle, a cheese filled triangular puff pastry, and Baba, a rum soaked cake. My mum dashed in and bought them, before we saw anything else. So my mum...

We walked into the Royal Palace and saw the grand interior. Marble columns and tiling, statues and more. The gardens were small but charming too. Full of lush plants. There was this one tree, from 1843, that, legend had it, if you touched it, positive energy would flow from the tree into you. I rubbed against the tree as hard as I could. I felt very energetic after that!

We went to the shopping district (oh yeah!) to explore. The Galleria Umberto was the main shopping centre, with streets of shops surrounding it. The Galleria Umberto was exactly like the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele 11 in Milan, just smaller. The glass domed roof, the shady coloured paint, the cross shaped building, everything. The only difference? This one, underground, used to have an illegal can-can theatre. The windows were still on the floor of the galleria though. So cool.

We explored the shopping streets for a while, where I bought an umbrella. It was very colourful and I loved it. The streets, on some corners, were piled with rubbish. They stank! Ugh. Horrible. I wonder when the garbage crisis in Naples will be resolved... Luckily, the area around our hotel was very clean, and very picturesque.

We also visited a couple of castles. The first one, Castel Nuovo, was a huge mass of six round towers, painted yellow, with brown towers. On one side, in between two of the towers, was a beautiful white arch, complete with statues and sculptures. It was in honour of one Italian king. It was really beautiful. The other castle was right opposite our hotel, which is called Castel dell'Ovo, means The Egg Castle. This is the oldest castle in Naples, built 1st century BC. The castle's name comes from a medieval legend which tells that the Roman poet Virgil, who develop a medieval reputation as a great sorcerer as well, put a magical egg in the foundations to support them.

When we walked around the city, I noticed an excavation site, which had uncovered an ancient Roman ruin. I asked the tour guide what they were doing, and she told me that it had been part of a railway project. They had been digging the start of a tunnel, and bada bing bada boom! They found an ancient ruin, buried for centuries. Made of arches and yellow brick, some walls made up the little part of the excavation. How cool.

Naples had been good. I had really enjoyed it.



Tried and Tested...My bed was as comfy as my parents



My blogging station...



View from our hotel room



View from our hotel room




Mt. Vesuvius in the background, surrounded by cloud



Beautiful bay of Naples



Sophia Loren's villa



Margellina built on tufa - yellow colored rock



Piazza del Plebiscito



Remember this setting from the movie 'Eat Pray Love'?



Julia Roberts was standing here in Eat Pray Love!



Inside Royal Palace



The legend tree giving off positive energy



Galleria Umberto



Spanish quarter



Chili Chili



Castel Nuovo



I have seen the garbage crisis, I have been to Naples.




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