Time to farewell Naples

After our lovely long evening with Noemi and Michel last night, we didn't get to bed until the wee hours of the morning. So it was a late start to the day today...well for me, Shannon was still wide awake at 6am. The benefit of this was catching the sunrise over Mt Vesuvius from our apartment window.

We didn't really have a plan for the day today, our last in Naples, but had to attend to things like laundry and packing up our things. We had breakfast at a little cafe just downstairs from our apartment, in true Italian fashion - cornetti and a cappuccino.
We spent some time in our apartment looking ahead to the next week, checking tour and accommodation bookings etc. So we didn't head into the hustle and bustle of the city until well after midday. The sun was already burning bright in the sky. We decided to head back into the main centre of town and wander the streets. The streets are ever-changing, as the locals go about their daily business, so there is always something new to see and be amazed by.

By about 2pm we realised we were getting quite hungry so found a little restaurant in a shady piazza, to enjoy some lunch. We both ordered a pasta dish, followed by a pizza to share. I thoroughly enjoyed my spaghetti with zucchini and Italian cheese and Shannon had a tomato-based sauce in his with mussels. The pizza was typical of Naples, a thin base and crust, a light spread of tomato and topped with mozzarella, basil and spicy sausage. Delicious! The beer and Campari spritz topped it off. A lovely lunch that we thoroughly enjoyed before walking back to our apartment.

We have enjoyed a relaxing afternoon and will have an early night before getting up early tomorrow to start the next leg of our adventure. We pick up our second rental car, which we will have for almost three weeks, that will see our journey further south to places we haven't experienced before. I can honestly say I have a new appreciation for the vibrant city of Naples. Not for the faint-hearted, but certainly for the traveller who loves to experience life and culture.