With the trouble I had been facing, quick over night stay over in napoli indeed the best choice I made. It was only 200 kms away from Rome, the point where I started my journey but never had I imagine the tiredness in my head. Everytime the rain started, I had to pull over and stop till the rain stopped. So I counted it was almost 4 times I had to do so. 200 kms felt like I have been driving the whole day..So I just chose what ever Hotel available in Napoli and rest for the night. I did not even had the time to enjoy the beautiful city of Napoli, because time was my enemy.

Napoli is a place of contradictions and contrasts... in everything and everywhere in the city...
And even the simply metro system becomes here untransparent piece of several metro companies which are running their lines separately.
Metronapoli (line 1 and 6 and metro-like funiculars) Circumvesuviana (3 and 4) Ferrovie dello Stato (2) Cumana (5,7)

Ok, now the story...
The line 6 is pretty new which means it's modern, clean and just very nice (although very short and in fact still only partly opened). I was riding it and at every station i made pics, inside the train and at the platform, but at one station a driver (when changing the sides) said - it's forbidden to take pictures there (LOL!) I knew it's a pretty bullshit cuz 5 minutes earlier i took tonns of pics standing just 3 steps from the security guard and it was ok, he didn't mind it. But i said now 'ok man' put my cam into my backpack and walked 5 steps - the guy was gone and so i continued my work;)

I checked out from my hostel in Napoli Mergellina and brought my luggage to the station and left it at the left luggage office. Then i headed to the center - to discover all those places i didn't manage on the previous day.
It was really another strange experience of the life in Napoli. Now i know exactly why my italian friends from northern parts of Italy warned me from coming here hahahaha
But it's an interesting stay here in the south...
I was walking the Via Umberto I then turned to Duomo and visited cathedral, which is really pretty, meanwhile i saw how the bus driver tryed to go through wrong parked cars, was swearing and scriming laudly - he was using probably the worse words , which i didn't know, cuz in the local dialect but finally he could go through.
Then i turned again in order to get some real everydays life shots and i was lost in the mess of narrow streets, mostly very dirty and dark, but there was the life as well, so i didn't mind and was going forward. There were many small shops and bars, in one of them i drang very good coffe. Some of these strrets served as a local market with any kind of food. I bought some fruits for my journey home and tryed to go down toward the port. Then i was suddenly at the university (that's why i know there is not toilet paper even in this place hahahahaha - look the 'contras' on my previous entry). Next stop was port and the castle there, Piazza Plebiscito with the royal palace and back to Via Toledo.
the time was running so fast and i had to go back to get the plane on time. I choosed metro to go to the station - took my luggage and went to the airport bus.
Now - after few minutes of bus ride i was in wonderful place - maybe the most clean place in the entire Napoli - airport! And its toilets were even cleaner hahahaha! (But don't get too happy - there was no toilet paper even here in this 'place of miracles' LOL)

The plane was late, some germans kids on their school travel were going home to Berlin - making it impossible to sleep on the plane, but first we got a wonderful view from the aircraft just after take off - we were flying over the city around Vesuvio! And i could look inside the crater! This was really nice surprise and a pretty unexpected nice end of the Italy trip!

I came to Napoli few minutes before midnight. In Rome i have checked how far is it to my hostel... and it's really very far! besides i had no city map and only my own poor draft taken the day before in order to manage to the hostel on my own. The metro's running usually only till 22.30 - 23.00 and even if i were here 1 hour earlier it wouldn't helped cuz there is sciopero = strike of all transportation means:////

I asked a taxi driver at the station how much would it cost - but the price seemed to high for me (i was almost running out of money haahah) so i decided to try other possibilities (huh? what other possibilities? there were none at that day - or better say night!!!!)
I was walking toward my hostel, but then i saw some ppl at the bus stop (hm... if they were waiting - so maybe there is a hope for a night bus??) I asked a napoletano (resident of Napoli) and he said me:
"The new shift starts at midnight - so maybe they won't strike any more - it's almost 24 so wait and we'll see" then he asked me where did i want to go - and said me the bus number i should wait for - so my Napoli adventure seemed to begin pretty lucky:)))
Then we talked about this 'sciopero' - i asked - "where do i have to buy a ticket?" "forget tickets today - nobody will check it after strike hahaha" and in a while the buses began to run. He went first home, then my #401 nightbus came.
from maps.google.com i knew  aproximately where i should start to ask about my stop - so i didn't care for a while - cuz there were other things to care pretty much;)
If u will be in Napoli - and u need some adrenaline, some big adventures - u just can't miss a night bus ride there! Even for this one ride was it worth to wait hours for train and then be late and so on - the bus drivers there must have smoked something or just came from psychiatric hospital hahahaha - he was driving that crazy - without paying attention of anything (it seemed so) drove in narrow streets between wrong parked cars that fast as it were on the 7-lanes-wide-highway! This was really a blast! For some ppl this 20min. long bus ride could shave some 5 years of their life hahaha
Finally i came to the hostel - and felt asleep.

In the morning i went to Pompei (see my next entry) then came back to the city...
I should divide here the page in two - on the left write the 'pros' and on the right the 'contras' cuz this is probably the worse city in Italy (at least those which i visited) and on the other side ... it has something... maybe it's the Vesuvio, maybe the sea or the hills...
I better start like this:

You shouldn't come to Napoli:

- 'cuz they throw all the rubish on the streets - newspapers, cigarets boxes, food, everything, the streets look more like place after typhoon attack than the city in EU (in fact i would exclude the urban from EU hahah)
- 'cuz you can't get any informations - there are no maps in the metro run by Ferrovie dello Stato (national railway), so you never know where to change for other lines, you have to see the internet site and print the map urself or just learn it
- 'cuz every clock here shows different time - you cannot count of them even at the stations, nor at the city hall
- 'cuz you never know when will pass ur bus, you won't find any schedule at the bus stop (and forget of course about transportation maps - ask better people)
- 'cuz there are no semafors and no road signs in this city telling you how to drive and who should go first - they just force other drivers to give them free way - and they are driving as foul! If you come here in car - driving here will be for you like bloody hell!
- 'cuz there are NEVER (and when i'm saying never it means really never!) toilet paper - neither in your hostel, nor at the station, at the university, bar, pub or at any other place!!!
- 'cuz urban and suburban trains are always delayed
- 'cuz they have slums here in the city center, not renovated and dirty
- 'cuz don't care (fortunately only sometimes) about you when buying or asking something - are often rude and unpolite
- 'cuz the metro runs without any frequence (M2) or stops its service early in the evening (M2 22.50) (M6 at 20.00 i couldn't even get into the station! LOL - 20.00 in the evening!!!! in such a big city!!!!)


  You should come to Napoli:

+'cuz it's a city with a huge potential there are lots of possibilities here for visitors and you can enjoy being here
+'cuz it's not far from excellent sites like Ercolano, Pompei and Vesuvio or islands like Ischia or Capri
+'cuz there are many nice people who is ready to help you (even drunken guys in the middle of the night show you the way)
+'cuz there are 3 nice castles here
+'cuz there are a lot of beautiful buildings and even some boroughs like those on the hills (metro station Vanvitelli on M1)
+'cuz they have nice funicolars which can take you to the hills in few minutes
+'cuz there are wonderful views from the hills over the city with the beautiful Vesuvio in the background
+'cuz the night bus ride is a real adventure!
+'cuz the newest stations of the metro are really cool sites with modern look and nice - fresh ideas of design
+'cuz there is so much life on the streets, lotsa ppl!
+'cuz you can get good coffe at every corner

Now, when i'm back home - i'm thinking about Napoli. And this is really horrible and at the same time sort of magic place. And you should make ur own opinion. But  i don't regret i was visiting it. at least i'm aware now, that there are more different places in Italy than i could immagine...

 We arrived in Napoli fairly late, but just managed to catch the train to our hostel that the Aussie girls on our ferry recommended to us. We wandered the streets for a little bit, and almost passed the unmarked door to our hostel. We later found out from Giovanni (the owner) that he doesn't have a sign because the Mafia demands money from private business owners, so he is a little undercover. He depends on one website and word of mouth for business. Cool, eh? Anyways, we finally found the place and met Giovanni. The hostel is actually his apartment, which is an entire floor of a building in downtown Napoli. There are only 3 bedrooms, about 25 beds total, so it's small. Giovanni welcomed us in with homemade pasta (mmmm), and drew us out a map of the city complete with a highlighted walking route for us to follow and his recommended sites to visit. Very helpful! After about 2 hours of listening to him go on about the wonderful Napoli (keep in mind that it was very late and we'd been traveling all day), we finally crashed into bed.

Our first day in Napoli we started out with breakfast at a nearby bakery (that 2 americans in our hostel recommended). We went for a fritata, which we both thought was kind of a potato pie. Turns out, it's pasta pie. Not what we expected. The cappucino fredo (iced cap), however, was delish! We then set out to follow Giovanni's map through the city. Napoli is quite a pretty city, except for a slight garbage smell (and big piles of it in some places), which has something to do with the mafia influence. The city is lots of narrow streets, churches absolutely everywhere, and tons of REALLY bad drivers. I honestly couldn't say enough about how bad the driving is in Napoli. The traffic rules there are really more like guidelines. Red light? Just a suggestion. Right of way? Only if you feel like it. Pedestrian? Moving targets! There are more mopeds and motorcycles than cars, and they weave in and out of traffic like they're invincible. Many have 2 people on it, rarely wearing helmets (among the teenagers, the fashion appears to be to wear it on your arm). I actually saw an entire family on one moped. Dad driving, mom behind with a baby sandwiched between her and dad, and a 5 year old boy hanging off mom's back. Insane! Anways, we bobbed and weaved our way through the city to follow this map. On the way we stopped at, and got kicked out of, 2 gorgeous churches. Apparently the Catholic church frowns on young ladies (us?) wearing sleeveless shirts. We made it pretty far around both of them though before we got booted, so at least we got to see them. Some other highlights from the first day included the gelato (mmmm), the pizza (we didn't get to have the BEST pizza in Napoli though, we got there after they closed), and the castles and churches. One castle we visited had an archaological site on the grounds: they had discovered another church UNDER that chuch. Giovanni told us that a lot of the older cities in Europe are like that, built city on top of city, like an onion. Very cool.

Day 2 in Napoli, we headed out to see Mt.Vesuvius and Erculeum (a city buried by Mt.Vesuvius at the same time as Pompeii). We did Erculeum first, since it was closest to Napoli. This city was closer to the volcano than Pompeii, and was preserved much better. Though Pompeii is mostly just streets and walls, Erculeum had full buildings that you could walk through, paintings that were almost as bright as when they were new, and cobbled streets. It was so incredible, how ornate it was and how well it was preserved. Also sad, to see such a beautiful city that was destroyed at its peak and was the site of so many deaths. From there, we headed up to Mt.Vesuvius. We took a crazy taxi up to the top (drove like everyone else in Napoli, but on a single lane, 2-way street up a mountain), then hiked the last little bit up to the crater (in flip flops, oops). It was crazy hot, and we had a ton of lava gravel in our shoes...but the view was worth it times 10. The crater was incredible, and you could see all of Napoli and the ocean in the other direction. We wandered around the top taking pictures, then wandered back down to grab our crazy taxi back to town. On the way home we stopped to buy a watermelon for dinner, which we ate with our sporks and loved every spoonful! After dinner, Giovanni offered to take me on a motorcycle ride through the city. We hopped on, and drove for at least 2 hours around all the sites, and up on a hill for the best view of the city at night. We stopped at the best gellateria in Napoli for some cinnamon gelato (soooo good), then headed back home to bed.

Day 3 in Napoli we took the train headed to the Amalfi coast, a gorgeous stretch of coastline with sheer cliffs and beautiful beaches. We meant to go to the end of the train line, but we soon realized that there were a lot of locals on the train who were wearing bathing suits. We made the decision to ditch the hot tram and jump off wherever they did! We did just that, and followed the crowd down to a great local beach. On the way, a couple of young italian girls asked us where we were from, and we befriended them and they guided us to the “good” section of the beach. We hung out there all day, swimming and tanning, then headed back to town in time for Gino Sorbillos, the BEST pizza in Italy. I have to say, I think it was! The pizzas were huge, oozing over the sides of the large plates. I got the classic Margherita pizza (sauce, cheese, and basil), and I polished that huge sucker off. It was SO amazingly good. We then rolled back to the hostel so Ness could go on her motorcycle ride with Giovanni, and I could hit the sack!

The next day we hopped on a train to Rome, to meet up with Mat, the Aussie we met in London. More on Rome next time!

Our train ride to Napoli lasted a little over an hour, which surprised me. For some reason I had been under the impression that it would be a much longer trip, perhaps because of the significant gap between Rome and Napoli on the maps I had seen. It could also be that the train I was on was a high-speed one, although if that was the case it was nothing like the "bullet" train in Japan. Regardless, the train was very modern and comfortable and the view of the Italian countryside was very enticing. It definitely inspired me to return to Italy someday and visit Tuscany and the other, more rustic rural areas that Italy is known for.

As we approached Napoli the scenery began to change a little bit. The first thing that attracted my attention was one of the biggest packs of stray dogs that I had ever seen. There must have been at least twenty dogs running together! As they ran behind a building and eventually disappeared, something else caught my eye- an increasing amount of trash bags in big piles. The trash began to increase in concentration and then came to an abrupt halt in front of a bunch of fences. On the other side of these fences were buildings with multi-colored laundry hanging out of the window and children playing soccer in the streets below them. This appeared to be the city limits of Napoli, which was confirmed as the train began to slow down and enter the graffitti-covered station area. A few minutes later the train came to a stop.

As we stepped out of the train, we became aware that this city was very different from Rome, perhaps even its opposite. Overwhelmed by strong smells, loud voices and people rushing by us (as well as crashing into us), we felt a rush of adrenaline surge through our veins. We could already tell that Napoli would be exciting not only in terms of culture, but also in terms of the unprecedented... and perhaps even danger. Although we were a little intimidated by the things we already knew about Napoli and our first few impressions, we walked out of the station welcoming the next three days in this city with open arms, and became part of the colorful chaos.

The Naples National Archaeological Museum contains a large collection of Roman artifacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum..

The Museum has a particularly rich collection of Greek and Roman sculptures.

The museum's Mosaic collection includes a number of important mosaics recovered from the ruins of Pompeii and the other Vesuvian cities.

Napoli is city of contradiction. Beautuful Mediteran sea and old buildings. it look just like that rats become kings. Crazy city. Absolutely!! Lots of houses, ..to many houses if you ask me :) But, every house is just like some old man who smiles on crowd below. Cars are driving everywhere, including sidewalks. You can see whole family riding on one bike. Traffic is so dense that they have red, yellow and green light for pedestrians.
Everybody sound a horn in their cars and everybody smiles. :) And policemans, oh i almost forget, ..policemans hold up every car. Reason for that is clear, traffic is so bad that everyone makes some mistakes.

Napulj grad kontrasta izmedju ljepote mora i oronulih zgrada. Kao da su pacovi zauzeli dvorac. grad lud!! Potpuno. Natrpan kucama. Sve se guraju jedna do druge i smijese se na narod koji pravi takvu guzvu da ne poverujes. Automobili voze i po pjesackoj zoni, vespe voze svuda i po trotoaru. Promet je toliko gust da postoji zuto svjetlo za pjesake.
Ulice su kaldrmisane, asfaltne, kamene.. i protezu se na sve strane bez nekog reda. Svi trube i svi se smiju. Afrikaneri prodaju torbe i razne gluposti. Trafike su prepune novina. poslasticari iznose kolace sa sumskim jagodama. Djeca se voze na vespama sa tatama i mamama cije torbe od spize veselo se klate u njihovim rukama. I svi se smiju. I svi trube, a policajci zaustavljaju sve redom i pisu kazne jer mora da su zgrijesili nesto, nije vazno sta jer ionako niko ne postuje nijedno pravilo. Svi automobili su cuknuti bar malo.
...A more ih gleda i ljulja se.

So I was quite sad to leave the great hostel I stayed at, but then I was going to stay with some family friends who are missionaries in Naples, and it was so fabulous to stay in a real house for a couple of days!

Lyndsay, Myk, Becky & Pip have stayed with us in Australia a few times, and when I told Mum I was in Naples, she reminded me that they were here.  A couple of phone calls later & I found myself in a nice Italian apartment, being offered cups of tea.  It was just so good to relax and not worry about sightseeing and have more in-depth conversations than just "so where are you from?  How long have you been travelling?  Where are you going next?..."

Everyone always says that Naples is a terrible, scary place, and it certainly was a lot grittier than other places I've been, but I hadn't experienced anything particularly bad.  So it was interesting to chat with the McKenzies and hear some of their first-hand stories about the corruption and the problems within the city.  It was also interesting to see the outer suburbs, which are even more grittier than the inner city - eg: heaps of trash just dumped along the roads. 

I arrived Saturday and was presented with a lovely Italian lunch, then I lazed around & even took a bit of an afternoon nap!  On Sunday I went to their church & it was quite interesting to have all this singing & sermons etc in Italian (although Steve, who works with them, did quietly translate the sermon for me). 

Afterwards we all headed out to "the boys' house" for lunch.  The core of the McKenzie's work in Naples is working with drug addicts, helping them get off drugs & get their lives back in order.  So they have about 15-20 guys (I think) living out in this old villa - they have quite a set routine & they work & they all help to keep the house running etc.  They all seemed very nice guys (though none really spoke English), and every Sunday they cook lunch for whoever turns up.  There's actually a couple of Spanish guys in the house & this week they cooked a full-on paella for lunch - out in the back yard they'd built a little fire & propped the huge paella pan up on a circle of old roof tiles.  It was a really really good lunch!  And a very pleasant afternoon. 

In the evening the McKenzie's neighbours/landlords came over - they seemed very lovely too, although they also didn't speak English - I sat in the corner catching up on emails & photos & whatever, and found it quite relaxing to let all the animated Italian conversation whirl around me.  (Plus they brought a Ferrero Rocher cake with them, so really they're my new favourite people). 

I really would have loved to stay a few more days and just chill out, but I'd already booked some accommodation for the rest of the week, and time is ticking away, so onwards and upwards…

THANK YOU McKenzies!!!  You guys are awesome!

My first few days in Naples I stayed at a hostel named "Hostel of the Sun" (HOTS).  Lonely Planet had listed this hostel as their pick for the city.  The Hostelworld website lists it in the top 10 hostels in the world, and has at least once awarded it number 1 in the world - based on ratings/reviews from people who have stayed there.

So it had a lot to live up to... and it really did.  I'm not sure I'm authoritative enough to say it's the best in the world, but it's certainly one of the best I've stayed at (and I've stayed at quite a few now).  The size of the rooms & the beds were fairly average, the bathrooms were individual ones, which is always nice (no need to try to get dressed whilst still in the shower), the kitchen was quite nice too.

But the thing that really set it apart was the staff and the atmosphere - as soon as I walked in, they were so friendly & welcoming & made me put my bags down and get settled in the room before worrying about check-in & passports & whatever.  Carla highlighted all the things I needed to see on a map & explained all the best ways to get to Pompei & Capri & Amalfi etc.  The next day as someone was already using the washing machine in the morning, she told me just to leave my laundry & I came home to find it all hanging up drying!  They managed to remember everyone's name & say "Ciao Erin!" every time you walked through the door.

There was a nice lounge area crammed with cushy seats & beanbags, which a large TV & a big DVD collection - so everyone staying there just hung out together & was very friendly.  On Thursday night the HOTS team cooked (free) pasta for everyone & then we all sat around drinking wine & playing games all night.  On Friday basically the whole hostel went out to Di Matteo for pizza (Naples is after all where pizza was invented) - and it was really really good! 

It was really quite sad to leave.  So if you've ever in Napoli... Hostel of the Sun!

The S'move is a popular night spot Located in the heart of Napoli. Its been around since 1992, owned by three former DJ's who pioneered the house music movement in Napoli. The bar is innovative and eclectic - no charge to get in just buy a drink! I recall the bar when it had only one bar area and an upstairs. With recommendations from friends, inspiration from vacations and more the Bar has gone through many changes. Currently, there are three bar areas in various themes, two upstairs areas, and a downstairs lounge. This is a great place to go either just before or after the night club. A Bar during the day, lounge/pub with a live DJ each night. Its a great place to hangout and people watch. Go for an espresso/capuccino & cornetto in the morning, sit and have pranzo in the afternoon, and definitely go for a S'Move time in the evening!

Amazing for the price. Excellent location if you do not like the 'tourist atmosphere' and easy access to destinations like Pompei and Sorrento Beach. Free internet access, bar, and lounge area!