Why Naples? Why Italy?
For my Wife Kathryn’s 50th Birthday trip, she chose Italy as her destination of choice and more specifically Naples as she had always wanted to go.
We had four nights and three whole days in Naples which is more than enough to explore the city.
We booked our trip through Trailfinders who always come up trumps in setting a good itinerary and their ability to help if you need anything while away.
The Itinerary
We created a two week trip comprising of more than just Naples. Also on Kathryn’s list was Sorrento and the Amalfi coast with intentions to visit Capri, Pompeii, Vesuvius, Positano, and Ravello.
Photography Side
Gadget lust had got the better of me, and I had flashed the plastic just before this trip and purchased a Nikon retro-style camera with a 28mm prime lens to take with me, with the potential to replace my Fuji X100V.
Other than impulse, my thinking was that a full frame retro style camera would deliver better images and align my set up in the same Nikon camp enabling sharing of lenses.
I’ll write more about my experiences with this camera later on in a future blog.
Day 1 – Kathryn’s Birthday
Our first day involved a booked private tour at the Duomo, the Cathedral of Naples. Unfortunately, the tour guide didn’t turn up and we were very annoyed as we skipped breakfast to get there on time. However, we did our own tour and really enjoyed looking around inside, and we were informed by Trailfinders of a refund.
The Baptiste section for which you pay a modest fee to enter takes you down some steps to witness the stunning view of the mosaics on the ceiling.
Like many places, the best way to experience a new place is to wander and explore, which is exactly what we did.
One of the things you quickly get used to is mopeds and small cars travelling up and down the narrow alleyways at fast speeds. You need to keep your eyes peeled as the Italians don’t like to be hindered or held up getting to where they’re going!
Below is a typical street, or what we would probably call an alleyway!
While wandering around, there are plenty of opportunities to capture the amazing street art and murals.
A mural well worth a photo stop is by Jorit Agoch, for whom his favorite topic is the face, which he believes the looks can be very emotional.
This famous mural is a portrait of his friend called Gennaro. He gave the face of his friend to the patron saint of the city, San Gennaro. This mural is painted on a wall at the start of Forcella.
We decided for our supper we would call in at the famous Lantica Pizzeria Da Michelle, said to be the best pizza in Naples. We had a 50 minutes wait so bagged our ticket and wandered off for a coffee.
On our way back to the pizza place, I spotted some reflections in the mirrors of mopeds and stopped to get some shots:
We got into the pizzeria and enjoyed our pizzas which were really good, and cost us only €22 including drinks!
On the way back to our hotel, I thought I’d have some fun trying to capture some moped riders.
I saw Napoli on a wall and grabbed the shot below which I think with the state of the wall, the art and the sense of speed fro, the moped riders, sums up Naples in one shot!
As we got close to our hotel, I tried to capture some individual riders by more panning shots. I found 1/125 to be a decent shutter speed to get something half decent.
Most of the moped riders didn’t spot me, but one put his hand out as if to ask “Why?” while another game me a stare and clearly didn’t want a photo! I’ve not shown that one as the look I got was a clear statement of not wanting to be photographed.
We had packed a lot into our first day and were pleased to get back to our hotel for a rest.
My Garmin watch occasionally automatically triggers an activity if it detects exercise more than 10 minutes and it’s been great to be able to look back at some of maps (sample below):
Day 2
We used the underground rail system to make our way to Castel Sant Elmo via the Funicolare Centrale (the Funicular railway) which would take us to the area of Vomero and a view over Naples with Vesuvius in the background.
The underground escalator scene (below right) looked familiar but I think there are a few of these across Europe which some photographers post on Instagram, and this one would make a stunning scene at a time when no people would be in view.
The view did not disappoint and we spent quite a while here just soaking up the view and taking some photos. A poor attempt at a two shot pano is below.
As we left to make our way back to the Funicular railway, it started to rain quite hard so we grabbed a coffee and some shelter.
Once we caught the train back, we took further shelter from the rain in the Galleria Umberto I with its distinctive roof.
There were some interesting mosaics decorating the floor of this indoor shopping centre.
With the relentless rain continuing but easing off, we made our way back to the hotel via a stop off for supper first.
We found a lovely side street restaurant where I had one of my favourite meals of the holiday, Ragu Bolognese. Kathryn had a mushroom pasta dish which they unfortunately served up with Italian sausage but she picked those pieces out and handed them over to me. The restaurant refunded her meal and it didn’t stop her wanting to return.
Day 3
We did more wandering around the city on our last day.
I was looking for some suitable scenes which might meet one of the club’s POTY round of ‘urban jungle’.
There were quite a lot of high-rise balconies with residents growing plants on them which made for interesting scenes.
I think I have bagged a shot which looks like it could the one – see below.
It will need one hell of a crop and work in post-production though.
Edit: I did use this shot – blog post on the work to get to the final shot here, and a copy of the image below:
There are many murals and tributes to the Argentinian footballer Maradona who made 188 appearances for Napoli scoring 81 times (a goal every 2.3 games) between 1984-1991 made him a cult hero.
We decided to go and take a look at the famous Maradona mural and witnessed something almost akin to a shrine.
I particularly liked the shot below, which combines Maradona and a classic Italian street with moped!
We then made our way down to the Piazza del Plebiscito main square, which has been host to musical artists such as Bruce Springsteen and Elton John.
We went into the church to view the amazing 53m high dome which is said to be similar to the Pantheon in Rome.
Having now been to Piazza del Plebiscito and the Pantheon in Rome, I can say that I think this is equally as impressive.
We took pictures of the statues outside for which the one below is of Carlos (Charles) VII of Naples – this guy held a number of royal appointments – see here.
We had a very nice coffee and pastry in the nearby café and then walked down to one of the castles, the Castel dell’Ovo.
About Castel dell’Ovo
Castel dell’Ovo (“Egg Castle”) is a seafront castle in Naples, located on the former island of Megaride, now a peninsula, on the Gulf of Naples in Italy.
The castle is located between the districts of San Ferdinando and Chiaia, facing Mergellina across the sea.
The castle’s name comes from a legend about the Roman poet Virgil, who had a reputation in the Middle Ages as a great sorcerer and predictor of the future.
In the legend, Virgil put a magical egg into the foundations to support the fortifications. It remains there along with his bones, and had this egg been broken, the castle would have been destroyed and a series of disastrous events for Naples would have followed.
We realised later that this wasn’t the castle we were aiming for but nevertheless it was an interesting sight.
I had fun testing out the camera by trying to see if I could get movement in the incoming waves crashing against the rocks.
Supper Time
It was getting dark at this point so we debated what to do next. We decided to call in at a bar called Cantine Sociali Santa Lucia and ended up eating there too.
On arriving, we were served with a tray of olives, sliced carrot and chicory plus some crisps and nuts.
I had a very nice variation of Moretti, the Rossa (Red) version which was really enjoyable, and Kathryn had a gin, and we also had a limoncello too – well, when in Naples eh?
Polishing off our main meals, we decided on a taxi back to the hotel rather than a walk back in the dark.
This concluded our Naples visit.
We both really enjoyed Naples – it’s hectic, dirty, smelly and busy but fantastic too! Highly recommended.
Onwards and upwards…