Monday, June 24, 2019

On the Road Again, This Time to Napoli


Monday, 24 June, 2019

With Venom Camp and truly 80% of my American football duties this season now behind us, it was time to do a little extended traveling to wind up Year Two of coaching our beloved Varese Skorpions.

Thus Bart Iaccarino, Laurie and I got a taxi to take us and all of our luggage to the train station in Varese for our shared journey to Milano Centrale train station.

 We made it!

Bart was off to Roma to visit a friend before heading home to Barcelona to reunite with his family.

As for us, we were off to Napoli to enjoy the warm temperatures of the south of Italy now that was officially Summer.

We were going on two separate trains, so we said our goodbyes at the train station and then we were all off to new adventures.

 Our train was zipping through Tuscany

The posted 300 km/h equalled 180 miles per hour!

Eventually we arrived in . . .

. . . Vibrant, lively but most of all
chaotic Naples

It was fun to be in the South again.

After settling in in our hole-in-the-wall but well appointed, centrally located B&B, we hit the streets.

Naples has about 990,000 inhabitants who seemingly were all out on the streets tonight.

They were about to unveil
a new statue . . .

. . . with veteran Alpini as part
of the ceremony

Cool door carving

 Finally found a store
for BIG men's clothing

 The Castel Nuovo or, as locals call it,
the Maschio Angioino

It was built in the 13th-century

The Castle Nuovo, not us.

Above the Castel Nuovo's main entrance

 Intricate but showing its age

 Darth Helmet, is that you?

 Murals are big in Italian castles

What an entry door!

 Art abounds . . .

. . . everywhere

One big edifice!

Who doesn't love a good horse statue?

Lemons are BIG South of Roma

 Danger, DANGER!

I think we have shopping in there.

Cool lights on the
Palazzo Reale di Capodimonte

The spacious Piazza Plebiscito

This photo was taken from the front of the Palazzo Reale di Capodimonte which was originally built to be the hunting lodge for Charles VII of Bourbon.

On the front of the Palazzo there are eight huge statues of various rulers from hundreds of years of foreign domination of what was once known asa the Kingdom of the Two Sicilys.

Nice sword, not a good
day for chain mail pants

It was still toasty in Napoli!

I liked his crown

Regal

Is he begging subtly?

Hi, I'm your new King

A bit of a dandy,
don't you agree?

He likes tight pants

If you are going to pose with a sword,
you might as well wield it

 Just a typical royal fountain

Piazza Plebiscito as seen
from inside the
Palazzo Reale di Capomonte

 Guard Station

 It looked like a good spot
for a cool beverage . . .

. . . and it was!

We were strong, but I don't know why

We are on vacation after all.

 Nice poster

 Back to the lively streets
in search of a pizza

Inviting but not a pizzeria

 We headed up this promising
side street

Meat Sí, Pizza No

Cool little market in front of our
finally found Piazzetta Sant'Anna
Trattoria - Pizzeria

Laundry Day for the locals
was also . . .

. . . PIZZA NIGHT for us!

It was SO good!

Napoli is the birthplace of pizza you know.

 All pig parts only 4.99 Euros/KG

Back to the Napoli Galleria

All the shops were closed.

Damn.

The Castel Nuovo at night

A gorgeous fountain to end
our wonderful day in Napoli!

We leave Napoli tomorrow morning via hydrofoil to the island of Ischia for three days of doing absolutely nothing.

We'll do it well I believe!

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