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!