Port'Alba

A 4.30am start at the Premier Inn Gatwick North and we were in the air at ten past seven and still somewhat shellshocked two and a half hours later when a man in a high-vis jacket waylaid us on the way to the Alibus shuttle and we ended up instead sharing a dodgy collectivo before we even quite knew what was going on. Welcome to Naples! Still it all worked out alright and he even dropped us fairly near to the Central Station so that we could commence with hauling our cases across Garibaldi Square and into the crowds on the Via Tribunale. We eventually surfaced at a café in the Piazza San Gaetano where we spent a leisurely hour over coffee and had our first run in with the famous Neapolitan pastries – specifically a fairly dainty Sfogliatelle (the crunchy version) and a huge Zeppole with vanilla custard and cherries on the top. Eventually we mustered enough energy to make it up to the Piazza Dante and get the Metro to our very pleasant AirBnB up the hill in Vomero, where we had little else to do but take an early evening stroll to check out the pre-sunset view over the city from the brow of the hill beneath the Castle of St Elmo before going in search of pizza…