Our first trip into Naples

We finally made it to downtown Naples today and we had a great time. Claire came away a bit sleep deprived and perhaps a bit jostled after being pushed in the stroller over cobblestone streets for several hours, but other than that, things went very well.

My first impression is that it reminds me of parts of New York. Not the shiny, fashionable parts, but it seems to be a slightly dirtier, crazier, and bigger version of Little Italy (ironically, enough) and Chinatown. Many of the buildings also feel like some of the older buildings of New York too with similar architecture. It certainly has more of a New York vibe than we thought Rome did and in some ways it is more like New York than London is. London is a bit more like the nicer parts of New York, while Naples seems to parallel the grittier parts of The City.

But, in my opinion, gritty is good.

My favorite part that we visited today was the market section of town where the small, narrow streets were filled with individual vendors selling fruit, vegetables, fish, cheese, toys, clothes, lawn furniture, and just about anything else you can think of. We didn't buy anything, but I definitely plan to return on a regular basis because it seemed like there were some great deals.

We also made it to the Castel Nuovo (New Castle) which was very old (but apparently not as old as the "Old Castle") and beautiful.

Then we wandered through some of the narrow streets of the neighborhoods of Naples on our way back to the subway.

Naples is a very interesting, hilly city with very narrow cobblestone streets. The streets are densely packed with small apartments and laundry hanging from every balcony and Italian flags strung across alleyways. It was just fascinating to walk around and look at things. There is certainly a lot more to see, and I can't wait to go back!

Movies on the Support Site

Andy and I have decided that the Naval Support Site here in Italy is kind of like an eerie utopia of an American community, a "Mayberry" if you will. It seems to have everything an American town would have, but in a smaller, cheaper, and more uniform package. The housing is clean and uniform, the grass and the parks are nicely mowed and well maintained (well... for Italian standards), and each little store in the mall is different and useful.

This includes the movie theater.

The movie theater has two theaters and it shows first run movies for $3. You can even get a punch card so your 11th movie is free, and you get free popcorn every time you come. It cycles through a number of movies, so I think you can see virtually every movie that is out in the states.

So, last night, Andy and I decided to take advantage of the cheap seats before we move out of the Navy Lodge, so we arranged for a babysitter and went to see Pelham.

Thank goodness we were pre-warned, because had I not been, the start of the showing would have shocked me. Before they show every movie here they play the national anthem and everyone stands respectfully, just like before a baseball game. The thing that made it even more odd was that along with the anthem, they showed a little "yay Navy" music video film reel complete with aircraft carriers, soldiers at attention, and a huge diving submarine.

Intense. Certainly an odd start to any movie.

Slow Moving Italy....

It seems like I haven't really gotten this blog up and running yet, but my limited access to the internet has truly slowed my progress. It certainly seems to match the pace of things here in general, though. We've been here for nearly three weeks and we've spend much of our time on the Support Site, which truly feels like a little Utopian slice of America. It seems like there are a lot of obstacles to overcome here in order to get anything done, but Andy is doing a great job trying to wade through everything.

We have decided on a house in Lago Patria, which we are excited about, however it looks like the process is going to be extremely slow. I'd be shocked if we were in the house in a month from now... it will probably be more like 6-8 weeks. I'm determined to be the squeaky wheel, however and I vow to call the housing office every day in order to keep things moving along for us! Hopefully they'll just get sick of me and move us through!

Claire is having a great time at the playground and the pool interacting with all the other kids. She has become a much more confident walker, even though she only took her first independent steps just under four weeks ago. She has also taught herself to crawl up the stairs and go down the slide by herself. Yay!

We are starting to meet some great people here too. Everyone is really friendly and very helpful, especially when they hear that you've only been here for a short period of time. It seems like people are really willing to reach out, which is great.