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I went to Naples to celebrate my 40th with my BFF Marianna and my friend Francesca from high school. A long weekend away where I could be just myself (not a parent, not a wife, not even a teacher) , eat lots of food and explore a new place in the company of two of my oldest friends was, quite predictably, FANTASTIC. It was also the perfect chance to take my new - used - mirrorless camera for a spin!

What can I say about Naples, it's one of the oldest and most densely-populated cities in Italy, with only two full days we barely scratched the surface of what to see...I had an inkling I was going to like it, but I didn't expect how much. It was just SO familiar. A city squeezed between the hills and the Mediterranean, with a vast historical city centre made up of a maze of alleys...Yeah, it does ring a bell. As I wrote over on Instagram, Naples basically feels like Genova on steroids, lol. It's so busy, bordering on manic, and full of the zest for life we all associate with Southern Italy (I'm sure it's played up for the tourists), the traffic is as mad as you expect... Quite often the sheer quantity of people (locals and tourists) felt overwhelming. Must be because it's been a while since I was in Rome or Venice last, but I honestly didn't remember the crowds there being this exhausting. It might be a sign of me getting old. :P

Anyway, we decided to skip Pompeii and the other archeological sites on purpose because next year Gaia is studying Ancient Rome in school and I want to come back with my family and just explore the Roman bits. So mostly we walked all around downtown Naples kinda aimlessly, stopping only when our feet hurt too much (we walked over 20K steps each day) and/or we wanted to try one of the many culinary delights on offer.

I must report I'm pretty happy with my mirrorless Canon (which is an old model I got second-hand off Francesca's dad), it's light enough and my back didn't bother me at all despite all the walking. This is MASSIVE for me, the main reason I no longer carried my DSLR was that my back hurt too much. I stuck to mostly automatic settings and the all-purpose basic lens it came with, but considering I'm most definitely not a pro I can already tell it meets my basic requirements. Most excitingly, I was able to download my pics via bluetooth/wifi immediately and edit them on my phone in our B&B, which is the sole reason I'm now posting them in a timely fashion. I miss a wide-angle lens, I do have an adapter mount to keep on using my wide-angle lens (and all the other cheap lenses I bought for my DSLR, this is the main reason I stuck to Canon), but I didn't bring all of that with me this time. I mostly used my Pixel 7 when I needed a wider angle.

The inner courtyard of the building our B&B was in, in the Spanish Quarter, a working class area turned very touristy, but still clearly inhabited by the locals too. This is what I liked about Naples the most - while it was clear that mass tourism is a thing, somehow it seems to coexists with Neapolitans still living in their city, Naples is not the open-air, empty museum Florence or Venice often look like.

More Spanish Quarter

Castel dell'Ovo along the promenade (temporarily closed for renovations).

Umberto I gallery with yours truly and my BFF and Teatro San Carlo in the distance.

the Duomo (cathedral)

San Gennaro street art by Jorit.

The Cloister of Santa Chiara, a monastic complex now turned conference centre where the company I used to work for before becoming a teacher had organised a convention for dietitians and I bumped into my former colleagues, wtf.

Naples is full of 'edicole' (those of you who are into Latin stuff, yes, in Italian we still use the same term that the Latin used for their shrines for their Lares and Penates, we just changed deities, lol) this sort of little altars devoted to the Virgin Mary, a saint, or sometimes even Maradona, lol. Talk about mixing the sacred with the profane.

San Gregorio Armeno, the street where they sell nativity scenes all year round, and they have secular figurines too - those are Mare Fuori characters! * g *

Banksy's Madonna with a gun

We went up to one of the neighbourhoods on the hill overlooking the city centre, Vomero, unfortunately the Vesuvius was covered by clouds. You can spy some more art by Jorit, though.

On our last day we took one of the guided tour to underground Naples. People excavated tuff, the volcanic rock the underground of Naples is made of, for millennia to build wells and cisterns and aqueducts creating an extensive network of underground caves and tunnels spanning the whole city. They fell into disuse at the end of the 19th century when indoor plumbing became a thing but found a new use as anti-air-raid shelter during WWII and in the past couple of decades they became a tourist attraction. It was a fascinating visit, our guide was very passionate young guy with a wicked sense of humour, our two-hour underground just flew.

Since it was a sunny, cloudless day we decide to go to the promenade...but the whole of Naples seemd to have the same idea. The crowd was frightening. We stopped for a quick lunch on the rocks with a vista on the finally-visible Vesuvius and then decided to take another funicular to one of the hilly neighbourhoods, hoping to catch another vista and escape the crowds. It was a good idea.

Awful selfie with the Vesuvius (it was a bit weird to think that weekend actually marked the 80th anniversary since its last eruption).

Villa Floridiana, a popular spot with the locals for a Sunday afternoon stroll, and from where we could enjoy some nice views over the Naples bay, towards Posillipo.

Don't ask me what that island is. I'm rubbish at geography. Capri, Ischia or Procida. :P

Then we made our way back down towards the crowds and a taxi to the airport.

Of course you can't go to the South of Italy without seriously overating. But this entry is too long already, so I'll simply link you to the relevant IG post.