There wasn’t a lot of times on our two month trip where I came across a city that I thought was so dirty that I barely wanted to walk in the streets, but that definitely happened in Naples. I come from a country where littering is the norm, so I’m used to seeing rubbish, but I was still so shocked by the state of their cobble stoned streets.
Walking through the Old Town, there was literally no gap between the stones because there were cigarette butts everywhere. There were so many that they were actually piled on top of each other in sections, that it had created tiny hills. I honestly don’t know how long people just chucked their rubbish on the what would have been beautiful old streets, but it had been a while.
A little while later, while chatting to our tour guide that took us on a free walking tour around Naples; she explained that either you love Napoli or you hate it. There is no in between and I was starting to think that I was the latter.
It did have its redeeming qualities though. I did love the food and even though I was disappointed in the pizza because I actually love a thin, crispy base with lots of toppings and the Neapolitan way is the complete opposite, we found ourselves enjoying everything else. Especially the pastries and gelato. We never got to taste the pizza from one of the best pizzeria’s in the world – Sorbillo’s, as there were hundreds of people lined up outside ready to order. Our choices where stand in a queue in the hot sun for hours on end and miss out on a chance to sight see, or just miss out on the pizza. It was an easy decision really. The Twix chocolate spread and giant croissants that we managed to find were definitely worth it. We also thought that the shopping was incredible. Streets lined with souvenirs, music, books. If we had any space in our bags or any extra money to spend, we definitely would have brought a few things home.
We did get to see a lot of the sights at least. That is why I fell in love with free walking tours in Europe. You might feel a bit exhausted by the end of the 2 or 3 hours that it takes you to get around a city, but if you have a limited amount of time at each place, it is the quickest way to get your bearings and see as many sights as you possibly can in one day and that is exactly what we did.
All I can say about our accommodation in Naples is that it was clean. I had seen the photos online and thought it was a whole self catering apartment. Oh, how I was wrong, or their photographer was just very creative. It was one room in an apartment of many and everything was squished into this very tiny space. We had a bathroom en-suite which was a big plus and a few things to cook with which was a help. The only problem was, we were missing bowls and knives and forks. I quickly messaged the host to find out that the people staying before us probably stole them. Why? I’ve heard of people stealing glasses as a souvenir from hotels, but from an Airbnb stay? That is someone’s house you know. Would you steal something from one of your friends if you stayed over? I don’t think so! Luckily the host replaced the stolen items the next day.
Our first night was also an interesting experience. We were both exhausted from our train journey to get there – we had been stuck in a train cabin with a family of four and the two little girls kept running around, pushing past our legs to get out and screaming as they went. We only had one pair of noise cancelling earphones, so the person who needed them most got them – I was that person.
Then, after finding the accommodation somewhat lacking, we had to find a grocery store close by and buy some food to survive the next 2 days. Luckily this wasn’t too much of a problem, even though we found ourselves in another dodgy area. We decided to just chill and watch Netflix that night, which was such a nice change from our hectic pace. The problem came when we tried to sleep. I could hear children crying, dogs barking and what sounded like gunshots. I come from South Africa and I can honestly say that I was more scared in Naples. It felt very unsafe and suddenly the door to our room with one tiny lock on it didn’t seem good enough to protect us from the very real dangers out there. Being true South Africans though, we found anything and everything that we could to shove against the door and then tried to sleep.
When morning came again, we felt a lot better and could get on with our job of seeing as much of Naples as we possibly could, but it still held a dark undertone for me. I’m not sure if it was because of the dirty streets or the people that were trying to sell us stuff from every store that we walked past, but just something about it didn’t sit right with me and I made dam sure that we got back to our room before it got dark.
I’ve read other articles about people having similar experiences the first time that they travel through Naples and then coming back to a completely different experience. I’ve definitely had this happen to me before with other cities, but I can in all honesty say that I’m not keen to visit Naples ever again, especially now that I know how many other stunning places there are to visit in Italy. Places like Lake Como and Cinque Terre. Places filled with flower boxes and sunsets over the water. Places that don’t have rubbish lying everywhere and where you don’t feel unsafe while walking to the shops.
Italy was beautiful and I want to see more of it, but Naples just wasn’t for me. Maybe someone else will find beauty where I only saw cigarette butts. 🙂
