Bella Napoli!

Scusami il silenzio in questi giorni, però Rachel (la mia coinquilina perugina, ormai texana di nuovo) ed io abbiamo fatto il nostro viaggio annuale in Italia! Quest'anno abbiamo scelto la bella città di Napoli e dintorni per ritrovare i nostri piccoli amori italiani! Ormai io non riesco più di pensare in inglese. Comunque, ecco i miglior momenti dei cinque giorni lì:

Apologies for the silence of these past few days, Rachel (my Texan housemate from Perugia days) and I were on our annual return to Italy. This year we chose the beautiful city of Naples and area in which to rediscover our Italian favourites. Now, however, I seem to have lost the ability to think in English. Oh well, here are the highlights of the 5 days there:

• Naples is like the vespa in the photo above, scruffy and falling apart, but quintessentially Italian and so you love it anyway. This is the REAL Italy, with helpful and friendly locals who bend over backwards to make our stay pleasant and trouble free. Everyone, it seems, has an opinion on what to do, how to get there and what to avoid...
• Everything they say about Neapolitan driving is true. It's unbelievable that there aren't more collisions. The key is to just do whatever you like. 'No entry' sign, red light? Why are they even there? Memorable journey from the Airport to Laura's house round the suburbs, involving a clever 'reversing backwards down a busy road onto a roundabout' move. This being Napoli, no one batted an eyelid at the manoevre. (I wasn't driving you'll be relieved to know)
• We stayed with up-and-coming diva and all round singing sensation Laura ( http://www.laurabazell.moonfruit.com) and Roberto (la fonte di tutta la sagezza napolitana), new friends of ours. Roberto became our guide as we explored the fascinating excavations at Herculaneum, although we ended up spending 4 hours in the sun instead of the planned 2 hrs there. Together we discovered more than we ever wanted to know about Roman clothes washing methods...
• Roberto also organised his friend Luigi to give us a nighttime tour of the centre of naples, which involved more adventurous driving, including a tour round the bars on the island near Castel del'Ovo in the car! (comunque, Grazie tanto per l'esperienza, ragazzi!)
• The chances of Vesuvius erupting in the near future have been minimised (see a previous blog) by our apathy in not climbing up to the top. The haze or clouds would have prevented us from seeing anything at all, so we were content to admire from afar. The city extends right up the slopes though and this is the most densely populated area in all of Italy. San Giorgio a Cremano, where we stayed, has a population of 59000. That's about the same size as Leamington, but in an area smaller than Warwick Gates. Along with many other 'comunes', it's right in the middle of the 'danger zone'. The experts reckon that they can give a month's warning of a possible eruption, but neapolitans being how they are, it will be quicker to walk out of danger than attempt any other means of travel....
• Pompeii, boat trip to Capri and Sorrento, pizza, mozzarella di bufalo, gelato, vino... all played their part in making this by far the best Italian stay yet...
• In fact, my luggage loved it so much that it didn't bother to make the transfer from naples to Milan and thus is still soaking up the Italian sunshine... (giving me the perfect excuse to go shopping and purchase some new school shoes, make up, etc etc... thanks Alitalia!)