Day 4 - Naples

9th July

This was the last day we spent in Naples and so were looking forward to an awesomely full day today!

After breakfast we planned what we wanted to do. We wanted to do what dad wanted to do, and he wanted to do what we wanted to do, so we did have a bit of a dilemma choosing what to do ;)

First stop was the highest mountain within Naples, so we took a metro to the funicular stop. We wanted to go to the mountain because there is a castle called 'Castel Sant' Elmo' and a convent called 'Certosa di San Martino' up the top which apparently have amazing views. Harri said so, anyway. And we follow him: our personal tour guide of Naples :)

Taking the funicular to the top of the mountain

When we arrived at the top we were greeted with lovely breezes and flowers galore. A nice surprise seeing as the bottom of the hill was extremely hot, and, well, the flowers are a lovely bonus :)

We were guided along by some locals to the "Castel de Elmo" first.

The castle itself is not that pretty really, and contrary to the signs there is no cafe. There were amazing views from the castle though, which Harri promised us. Good job Harri!!

This is us at the palace looking over the city of Naples.

Port of Naples

Mt. Vesuvius in the background behind the polluted fog

After we left the castle, well really when I told everyone that I was thirsty and NEEDED to go to get water (which you couldn't get at the castle), we had a lovely cold glass of water/lemon slushy and some interesting pastry that looks like a croissant but tastes fuller, called "riccia". I will try to take a photo to show you in my next post.

After this we went to the convent 'Certosa di San Martino'. 

I had never been to a convent before, and actually to be honest I thought that the last place that we went to (Castel Sant' Elmo) was the convent. The actual castle had some very thin slits for light to come in through in the walls every now and then, which convents usually have, right? haha. 

So I am more and more convinced that these two places are mixed around, as the convent looks so extravagant, like a castle, as you can see in the pictures below:

One of the halls of the main part of the convent

Amazing paintings adorned every surface, even the ceiling!! How would they paint such amazing pieces up there? That would be difficult ;) 

This is the courtyard. It was so picturesque :) 

There was a huge garden in the convent, and I found this kitten and the mother cat roaming around it :D I also found two bowls of water in another part of the garden, so they must be convent pets. Perhaps they are descendants of the actual cats in the convent when it was an actual convent ...

Amazing view of Mt. Vesuvius from the gardens of the convent. Imagine being a nun here? I definitely wouldn't mind, as long as I could still come and go as I please ;) 

After we left the convent, we wanted to go down the mountain. As we still had time before lunch, we decided to walk down the hill. Apparently a lady said it should only take us 15 minutes ...

Here we are at the top of the mountain, about to climb down

There were doors of houses all along the walk down, so it got us wondering how people got up and down the stairs with their groceries ...

At one of these houses we saw a booth selling drinks. I would say at this point we had been walking for ten minutes, so needless to say it took much longer than 15 minutes to walk down the mountain ;) 

A grapevine we found going down.

Amazing flowers that were spilling out from a garden. If anyone knows what flowers they are, please let me know!

These are amazing colours!! I love these flowers :D 

Almost at the bottom.

When we finally did reach the bottom, we were super hungry!! If we knew how long it would take to get down the hill, I don't know if we would have done it ;) It was an amazing view though.

Here we are on one of the old town street looks for a restaurant to eat lunch.

After that we had a lovely walk through the old town streets, which are long and narrow, so it takes forever to get down a street you think wouldn't take that long.

We needed to have an early night, because the next day we would be going to the Amalfi Coast. We were hoping to leave early, so that we could get to the coast and have half a day to get some sightseeing and swimming in the Mediterranean done :D

That plan didn't work out so well though, because we started watching this disney movie called "College Road Trip" on the television, and it was just so funny that we watched it all and didn't go to bed till late.

Oh well ;)

We will be fine tomorrow I am sure. Hopefully.

Now you are uptodate,

Laura

xoxo