Naples (aka the Garbage Tip?)

Heading to Naples, I have to say I wasn't sure what to expect. Some say the South represents the true Italian lifestyle, "la dolce vita - the sweet life" while others label Naples the Garbage Capital of the South, so who is right?

The truth is somewhere in the middle - the south is a lot poorer than the north and it shows. On our arrival Alfredo, the hostel owner, gave us a quick lesson in the art of pick pocketing and told us not to have any more than twenty euros on us while travelling around Naples and to keep an eye on our bags, wallets and other valuables. With this knowledge we headed out into the mean streets, side stepping street hawkers, a guy trying to sell us a laptop (obviously stolen from a tourist) and of course the never ending supply of garbage!

The city does have a garbage collection problem which isn't helped by its citizens disposing their household wastes in the neighbourhood piazza. Seriously, I witnessed a man dump his queen size used mattress in the middle of the neighbourhood piazza! However, the food in Naples was fantastic we had fabulous pizza in local eateries and ate some great cheese with some local vino of course!

As the Italian summer slowly began to heat up we decided to head out of town for a couple of days and visit Pompeii and the Isle of Capri. We were also getting a bit wary of Naples as we had seen some dodgy stuff happening on the streets, including a women being assaulted by her boyfriend in broad daylight and what seemed to be clandestine meetings taking place in a local church.

The Market we had to negotiate on the way to our hostel (you could get a knock off of anything here!)

The Local Castle

The great pizza!

The rocks around the port covered in locals soaking up the mediterranean sun