Our final train ride led us into Naples and we immediately felt the heat and humidity. We stayed near the train station and the traffic was crazy! The cars cared little of the pedestrians and we constantly had to be on our guard. That day, we tried to see the Veiled Christ to no avail, but got to at least experience pizza where it began! We saw the long line at the restaurant we had been recommended and booked it for that afternoon. The pizza was amazing, and cheap!
This restaurant had clothes hanging to dry above the tables!
It was bustling and busy!
Naples is known for this red pepper and it was EVERYWHERE!
This was a clothing alteration store---I loved the tape measures hanging.
Below is the pizza place we wanted to eat at.
Since we had to wait on the restaurant, we had gelato as an appetizer.
While waiting, we checked out Christmas Alley (Via San Gregorio Armeno) to see the nativity scenes. I was surprised that there was a lot more than that! There were a whole lot of different figures, many that were creepy looking!
We finally got to eat around 3:30 and it was worth the wait!
The next day we went to Pompeii (spelled Pompei in Italian), but those pictures are lower in this post. That evening, though, we took a taxi to the Naval base near Naples to see our dear friends. Eli was so excited about this for he was getting to see his best friend, Cristian, and his parents hadn't told him yet. The pics below show when Cristian first saw Eli.
My friend Wendi also came and brought her son, Grant, who Evan is friends with. Both boys were so happy!
Embry loves hanging out with Audriana, and I'm sure she was so exhausted with Embry's hyperness by the end of the evening. She was a great sport to listen to my pipsqueak!
It was so good to see Genelle and Wendi! It was such a refreshing visit and I am hopeful they will visit Germany someday soon.
POMPEII
We hopped on a very old train that took us to Pompeii. We were prepared for the heat with lots of water bottles, sunscreen and hats. Pompeii was an incredible sight to see. After reading about it in school, it was surreal to be there and actually stand in the city.
They created a boardwalk so that we wouldn't walk on the actual floors. The mosaics throughout the city are very pretty.
There she is! The volcano is so pretty, and oh so dangerous.
You can see the ruts from the wagons in the streets.
There was a man doing a documentary.
Vesuvius...sitting there so innocently.
We got our first glimpse of huge lemons. The next day we would see double this size!
THE AMALFI COAST
We booked a tour (that was not on our itinerary) for the last day we were in Italy. The driver took us to 4 cities on the Amalfi coast. The first was Sorrento, then Positano, next was Amalfi, and finally we ended in Ravello. The coast displayed breathtaking views on the drive there and back and the towns were so fun to experience! There are a lot of pictures, because it was soo purty! We definitely thanked the heavens that we didn't have to drive, though! There were some majorly tight spots, crazy drivers, and a lot of hairpin turns. And parking...um yeah...kudos to our driver cause there's no way I could have done it!
Sorrento
Limoncello
Lemon gelato with a macaroon on top.
You could get gelato in the shape of a flower!
Our driver and my boys.
Positano
"Lemonade" ended up being fresh lemons squeezed into a cup, hence the puckered lips!
This was a ceramic factory.
This photo isn't very good (taken through the window), but it shows what kind of roads we drove on. Thank goodness for dramamine!
A lot of these have a window reflection, but I am posting them anyways.
These busses had to stop and inch slowly next to each other! I was biting my nails!
Here was Danny's lobster pasta for lunch. We ate at a nice restaurant overlooking the water at the halfway point between Positano and Amalfi.
Our tour guide bought Embry a lemon and she loved it so much! She wanted to bring it home on the plane!
Amalfi
These two men were coming home from fishing in their tiny orange truck.
Ravello
Wine and drugs anyone?
I couldn't figure out why the hill looked like this. I'm assuming it was cut this way for harvesting purposes?
Seeing this picture shows everything that would be in the path of Vesuvius on this side of the volcano (Volcano to the right and not in the pic). Scary!
The kids were pooped!
FLYING HOME
Embry was excited to get a button after her and Eli got a covid test done before we flew home.
We saw this in Poland at Auschwitz and here again at the Naples International Airport. They "sanitized" us with who-knows-what. It smelled a little bit like vinegar. I'm guessing it had similar ingredients to hand sanitizer, but with less concentration.
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