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.

( Pics under here, a mix of camera and smartphone shots )

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.