FRIDAY, JUNE 21
Our long walk to the Peace Museum near the Castello Nuovo proved futile. It’s not really a museum as advertised. Hungry from our long walk there, we decided to finally try the famous Napoli pizza. Yum. The tomato sauce was so fresh and sweet.
Our return route took us past the massive main post office building and other large Mussolini-style buildings and more rough and tumble Naples buildings. Occasionally a Roman ruin poked up in a park. Garbage spilling out of bins onto sidewalks. Military and police stood on guard at some piazzas and in front of certain churches. We didn’t know why.
The streets teemed with people. Motorcycles and cars zoomed by on narrow as well as wider streets. It was chaotic and noisy. I looked up the population of Naples. It feels like such a large city, condensed and crowded. Turns out the population is under one million.
After all our travels, this is the first city neither one of us care to return to. We thought about how difficult it would be if it were the first place we had visited, dealing with jet lag and culture shock. Our arrival to Europe, arriving in London to friendly Londoners and an easily navigable city, and then drifting into our long stay in a remote region of Ireland, seemed so blissfully easy compared to what it could have been. We could have handled Naples, but it would have been challenging.
We walked through a large street market, people yelling and jostling, stands blocking the sidewalks, to the Spagnuolo Residence, a super cool building that Chloe found in “Secret Places of Naples.” Peering through windows, we saw grand, ornate apartments. The building itself was fantastic with playful ornament and details and a sublime combination of pale green, white and black. The courtyard was calm, hard to believe when so much life pulsated just outside.
Naples is a city that fills the senses. Depending on your level of receptiveness and sensitivity and where you stay, it can feel stimulating or assaultive.
