Feeling much better after a good night's sleep, we headed out in the morning to do some exploring, stopping first of course for coffee and chocolate croissants.
First, we did some more exploring in the Centro Storico and then headed over towards the Spanish Quarter, stopping in to see the impressive Gothic church at Santa di Chiara.
After exploring some of the little streets in the Quartieri Spagnoli for a while, we stopped for a sandwich at a cafe on the Via Toledo, a main pedestrian thoroughfare. We then headed off the find the "funicolare" train to take us up to the Castel Sant'Elmo for some views of the city and surrounding area. Of course I forget that tourist maps are not really done to scale, so after heading south almost to the water and then doubling back going in and out of side streets we finally came back in from behind the cafe where we had lunch and there was the station--literally right behind where we sat and had lunch, if only we had turned around! A quick ride up and then a stroll up a little farther to the castle, but along the way we met a man who had a family business of a cameo "factory" up near the entrance, so we stopped in and got a quick lesson from his brother, who was working carving the cameos from slices of shells cut from large conch shells. Very interesting.
The views from the castle of the sprawing area around Napoli, and out to Mount Vesuvius and Capri, were amazing. It was a bit hazy in the distance, but still impressive. There was also a small museum in the castle, Museo di San Martino, so we had a look. We stopped at a nice bar outside the gate of the castle and relaxed while taking in some more views and then headed back down on a different funicolare line, then head home to get cleaned up for dinner. We chose another one of our host's recommendations for dinner, a little local place in the Spanish Quarter called Taverna del Buongustaio. It was not nearly as good as our previous night's dinner. Food was good, but nothing special, and overpriced for what it was (and the wine was homemade and not very good). Stopped for some very good ice cream just up the street from our place and headed home.
2025-02-10