Napoli - il giorno cinque **Naples - day five**

On our last day in Naples, we woke up really early since we went to bed rather early as well the night before. We wanted to hit the markets first thing in the morning, and since breakfast was served at 7AM we were up at 6:30AM having gone to bed at an unlikely time of 9:30PM the night before. We had to go down three times just to get our breakfast – at 7AM only to be told by the reception that breakfast was served at 7:30AM; again at 7:30AM only to be told by very grouchy café staff that they weren’t ready till 8AM; finally at 8AM when everything was ready. In between we just passed our time watching He-Man and the Masters of the Universe on TV. In Italian.

Breakfast here was simpler, not as fancy as Grand Hotel Oriente. Only one type of everything - bread, biscuit, tart, juice (orange from concentrate; it wasn’t even freshly squeezed!), ham, cheese, cereal, tea. But praise the Lord, they had cappuccino and Nutella! That was all I needed. Nutella with bread, Nutella with biscuit...

Crossing the road from our hotel, we decided to hit the supermarket first. Needed to buy something for the folks back home, and what better to give than local produce? As usual we just ooh-ed and ah-ed (being the Singaporeans that we are) at all the assortments of hams and cheese at the delicatessen counter, along with all the other merchandise on offer. We ended up with only sweets, chocolates (all the Ferrero stuff, with a dark chocolate version of Rocher!) and other manner of tidbits because everything else was just too damn expensive!

After heading back to our room to lighten our load, we went to the bus stop again (this time knowing full well where to get our bus tickets from!) to make our way towards Via Antonio Ranieri, the Napoli version of Hong Kong’s Temple Street. We got off the bus that travelled along Corso Umberto after spotting some stalls at a little lane off the main road – I still couldn’t figure out where the street signs were and the map didn’t make much sense to me. We followed the lane and, voila, found ourselves right smack in the middle of a horde of stalls peddling shoes, clothes, handbags, sunglasses and other fashion apparel. After circling the whole market, we only managed to find a pair of Converse-esque sneakers for Velouria. Dissatisfied that we still hadn’t satiated our craving for street food, we crossed Corso Umberto to head towards another market around the Via Rafealla Conferti area.

On this side, the market was older skool. The streets were lined with quaint little shops selling bread, groceries and gelato, among other things. The buildings here were older but still retained a certain charm about them. It was like one of those old neighborhoods that you’d see in an old black and white movie with Sophia Loren in it. Out of nowhere there was even an arch – a lovely piece of architecture that you’d least expect to see in an old, ramshackle neighbourhood.

Then, by the grace of God, we finally found one! An inconspicuous, kopitiam style shop in an unassuming corner with a little counter at the front selling pizza by the slice (at €1.50 a pop) and other fried fritters. With the help of a nice Italian lady who was also there buying some stuff to munch, we ordered some mashed potato fritters (something like a croquette) and some corn fritter (we heard the Italian lady say ‘mice’ initially, which had us taken aback for a while, but she actually meant ‘maize’).

Satisfied with our loot, we made our way back to Via Anotnio Ranieri in search of a some running shoes for Penny as her feet were beginning to hurt. Although we didn’t manage to find anything, we did have time to stop by a funny little toy shop – it was almost Halloween so there was plenty of amusing items being merchandised. We ventured further into the neighbourhood as I wanted to search for the Spacconelli - the longest and narrowest straight road in Naples that apparently split the city between the ‘old’ from the the ‘new’. However, after walking around in circles again (the map said we were there but I didn’t see any long, straight road), we decided to call it quits as we needed a toilet break. We ventured down one of the streets that I reckoned would lead us back to Corso Umberto (where we could hop onto another bus) and found an Asian supermarket selling stuff you’d normally find in your neighbourhood Econ mini-mart – Yeo’s Asian Drinks, Lee Kum Kee Oyster Sauce, Lee Chee Seng Sesame Oil, Royal Umbrella Rice, etc. Purchasing a can of herbal tea, we made use of the opportunity to borrow the washroom. Penny (as usual) struck up a conversation with the store owners and we found out they were from China (there they are yet again!).

We continued to make our way towards Corso Umberto again take a bus to the other side of town (we were what was considered the ‘old’ Naples, there was another street market at the ‘new’ Naples). It was a long wait for the bus as every bus which we could take seemed to be packed to the brim! When we finally got on one, it was a huge squeeze and Penny almost died being crushed by all the bigger, taller ang mohs that surrounded her. A change of bus later and we found ourselves at Villa Communale, the huge park by the sea looking out on to the Bay of Naples, where the famous aquarium was (though we never went in). Our stomachs were already rumbling despite the fritters we had earlier, so we decided to head towards our lunch venue first before hitting the street market.

Having had Italian food the past few days, we were craving for a thick slab of juicy steak so we headed to an American joint called Bar-B-Qool. Sources tell us that the American Consulate was in this area, so this was where all the cool restaurants and hang-out joints are since the Italians are so enamoured with all things American.

True enough, the Bar-B-Qool didn’t disappoint. We sat outside since it was such a fine day (but the wind nearly shrank my b***s). The staff spoke really good English, so we indeed got what we ordered (no surprises like the lobster spaghetti here). The appetizer of some chicken wings made with their home-made sauce and our main entrée of a ribeye steak was nothing short of fantastic. To top it all, we had live entertainment in the form of a road accident happening right in front of us (though we didn’t actually see it ‘cos we were so engrossed with our grub) – two scooters had crashed into each other and one rider was flung from his bike and quite badly injured. Interesting thing was, everybody just rushed out to help – passers-by got off their vehicles to help the victims, while others helped to direct traffic; the manager from the restaurant went out as well, with one of his staff bringing water to the victims. If it were to happen in Singapore, people would just stand around waiting for somebody else to do something, while they are copying down 4D numbers instead. Within a minute, the police and ambulance arrived. Impressive!

Satisfied with our lunch, we went off to hunt for our market. We went down the (in my opinion) wrong street where all the luxury boutiques were – Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, et al. The staff were surprisingly friendly, unlike those in Singapore who would give you that ‘get out if you don’t have money to buy’ kinda look. Yes, true, we didn’t have the moolah to buy anything, we were just there to check out the designs so we could buy the fake ones later. We got lost for quite a bit as, again, I was confused by the map and all the street names. We did pass by some interesting monuments though, like a statue in another piazza and some embassy where security was tight.

We sauntered on and finally stumbled upon the market we were looking for. Unfortunately, it was already quite late so most of the stall holders had already begun packing up. Here, more clothes, bags and other fashion apparel were on offer but looked more fashionable than the ones earlier. Penny almost picked up a bag for €20, but later changed her mind when I concluded it didn’t make sense since she bought her fake Gucci for the same price as well.

Disheartened by the lack of any bargains, we stopped by an espresso bar for some cappuccino to take a break after all the walking (again!). And, wow, was the coffee wonderful. Perhaps it was the chilly air, or maybe it was just the ambience (the very being of in a streetside café in Italy) that made the cappuccino taste exceptionally good! We took a break to take stock of where we were heading for next. First thing we needed was a toilet break – public washrooms are hard to come by (we Singaporeans are so spoilt) - so we decided to walk back to the restaurant we had lunch in earlier (luckily they remembered us, else we would have just peed in our pants) and proceed our walk further back down Via Parthenope by the sea to see Castel Dell’Ovo.

It was beautiful as we strolled by the sea. People were hopping out onto the wave breakers to just chill out and we were tempted to do likewise. But we didn’t have the luxury of time to chill out on rocks so we proceeded on towards the ‘Oval Castle’.

A really long walk later (the entrance to the castle was actually below it near the back so we had to cross a bridge and walk around the side), we finally entered Castel Dell’Ovo and just blur our way around. Somehow or other, we found our way to the top and we did the usual touristy things, taking in the view that the height of the castle provided (we must have been about 15 storeys high – I almost fainted when Penny told me to sit on one of the side walls to take a pic of me with the city in the background), snapping photos of some strategically placed cannons and such. It was quite an amazing sight as the castle was quite huge – with its own streets and all – and it was being refurbished into an office building.

That was the last stop for the day. The next mistake I made was to walk down Via Parthenope to the bus stop to catch the bus back to our hotel. I had misread the map and miscalculated our distance. And, schisse, was it a loooooong walk. We ended up circling the entire seaside before reaching the bus stop when we should have just walked back to where we got off earlier to get on the bus (where the bus would cut through a tunnel to shorten the distance). Quite obviously, I was given an earful by Penny about making her walk miles and miles since our first day and about how her legs were aching. Oops, my bad!

We finally got onto the bus in one piece and got off at Via Medina (where we had our ketok case lobster spaghetti) to walk (again!) back to our hotel. On the way, we passed a street kiosk selling freshly squeezed orange juice (strangely, we never noticed the guy before despite passing this spot on numerous occasions before this). It had a tinge of lemon juice in it too and it was a welcome refreshment to our parched throats after all that walking.

We took a short break in the hotel room to wash and pack up, not knowing what to have for dinner – contrary to what I thought, we were quite tired of having pizza and pasta at every meal. There was a Chinese restaurant across the road but it just seemed so silly having to pay a bomb for what we could normally whip up at home (that meal at the Chinese restaurant in Gold Coast which cost us an arm and a leg came to my mind). We decided to just walk around and walk into the first restaurant that looked enticing to us.

Surprisingly, many restaurants were closed (it was only about 7PM) and the streets were starting wind down. We passed a McDonald’s and saw a poster which featured a Quarter Pounder made with ciabatta bread and Italian cheese, so we thought ‘Hey, why not?’. It may seem silly to be munching on a burger when we were in a city that had so much more to offer, but I had no regrets ordering that burger! The combination of the ciabatta bread with the parmaggiano regianno cheese, along with the thick beef patty, was something extraordinary that you would perhaps only find in Italy. It was a delightful shock to the palates with all the different sensations that the ingredients offered – a tad bland with the bread; the rich savoury taste of the juicy beef patty; the amalgamation of sauces and the light, sourish note of the cheese – which makes me drool just thinking about it.

After the wonderful meal, we took a really slow walk back to the hotel. It was, after all, our last night in Naples. We took the effort to breathe in the chilling night air and remember every sound that the city made. Over the past few days, we had meandered around the city so much that we seemed to know it at the back of our hands (more or less).

We packed our things one last time as we reached our room – our flight was at 6:30AM and we had to be at the airport really early. We were really grateful that God had blessed us with this trip and couldn’t have asked for more. We fell asleep with that thought, grateful that we were blessed enough to be flown halfway round the world into a country that we would have least expected to visit.

Napoli - il giorno quattro **Naples -day four**

After two days of intense walking and tons of activities, we decided to sleep a little later on Sunday. Spent some time with God after waking up since we couldn’t find a church to go to; it was Sunday after all. As usual, we headed downstairs for breakfast – our last in Grand Hotel Oriente since we were going to check out from here and move down the road to a cheaper hotel, Hotel Executive (rooms here cost S$240 a night, compared to S$117 down the road).

We gobbled down our breakfast and proceeded to bid our farewell to the hotel, paying €2 for a bottle of sparkling water we took from the fridge (they don’t serve complimentary bottled water here). Dragging our luggage down the street was more difficult than I thought with the cobbled stones on the pavement and the tiled roads! By the time we reached the next hotel, my arm had almost gone numb. But we couldn’t check in till after 12 noon, we were told, as the rooms weren’t ready yet.

So off to the market we went again. As we walked around, we realised that everything around us was closed. We thought it was a morning thing but later found out it was a Sunday thing. Even the McDonald’s next to our hotel was closed! It was like a ghost town.

According to the guidebook, La Pignasseca was the only market that was open on Sunday so we headed back there again. This time round (probably because it was quite late) more stalls were open. We relished the sight and smells of more live seafood, fresh flowers and delectable confectionery and pastries. There were more fake handbags on sale too – guess all the peddlers were eager to cash in on the weekend crowd. We walked along and found a fruit stall, so we bought ourselves a pear and some strawberries since our diet consisted of nothing but junk in the past few days. Gobbling down the sweet strawberries, we reached the end of La Pignasecca without coming across anything else that caught our fancy.

With everything else closed and nothing much else to do, we decided to do the customary tourist thing and see the city via the Napoli City Sightseeing bus (similar to our Hippo Tours, where all the ang mohs would hop on to see Chinatown, Esplanade and other such touristy places) . We took a walk towards Castel Nuovo where the bus terminus was. We sauntered around Castel Nuovo a bit and snapped some pics, since it was one of the many legendary, must-see sights in Naples. Never in my life have I come up close and personal with so many castles within such a short span of time (this was the second one after Castel Sant Angelo in Rome the day before).

The bus that we wanted to take, the route that travels along the bay of Naples, came by but it was too full to get on. I suppose we were not the only ones who wanted to see the postcard picturesque view of Naples with Mt Vesuvius in the background. After a few no-goes with the next few buses (credit card machine not working, too many people, among other reasons we couldn’t fathom because of the guides’ atrocious English), we were starting to get impatient so we just hopped on the next bus (the historic route) that came along.

We got off at Piazza Dante, after passing by some sections of the ‘old Naples’ with the chapels and medieval buildings, which is supposedly some intellectual corner with all the old bookshops (probably an equivalent of our old Bras Basah) and Speakers’ Corner-esque activities at night. We got on to another bus (the artistic route), which brought us past the Museo Archelogico (an archeological museum with artefacts excavated from Pompei and Herculaneum), the Sant Gennaro chapel (with the catacombs underneath, yikes!), the MADRE art gallery (some hip-and-happening contemporary art place) and the Museo e Bosco di Capodimonte (their national museum?). We got off the bus near Hotel Executive as it was past 12 noon so it was time to check in.

Our new hotel had a classic, rustic charm to it. It gave a homelier, cosier feel compared to the hotel we were in the past few nights. At S$117 a night, it was also relatively smaller than the previous S$240 a night room. But who cares, we only needed a place to lay our head and shower. After checking in (our luggage had been brought up to the room once it was ready) and going up to our room, we asked the guy at the recep for a recommendation for lunch. We were famished! He pointed us towards Ciro’s, a tratorria along Via Medina, a street perpendicular to where we were and just a 5 mins walk from the hotel. Along the way, we gave a quick call home to Vel who was at my parents’ since it was Deepavali back in Singapore.

The lunch, as expected, was fabulous. We realised that it was a norm to have pizza as an appetiser before the meal. Knowing that the pizza was too much for either of us to finish, we ordered one to share. The shocker of shockers was our main course of spaghetti. When we asked for a recommendation, the head waiter told us of their ‘special of the day’, with tomatoes from Vesuvio and something which we couldn’t figure out ‘fresh from the sea’ (we thought it was clams or something). It turned out to be lobster. Penny couldn’t stop laughing when she my face as I thought to myself, ‘Jia lat, kena ketok liao’. Praise the Lord the bill only came up to about €50, considered a reasonable amount for a decent meal.

We left Ciro’s feeling absolutely delighted with our lunch and headed back to the front of Castel Nuovo to wait for the Bay of Naples City Sightseeing bus. Surprisingly, it was quite empty now, perhaps because it was already rather late in the afternoon (it was about 3:30PM by the time we boarded the bus). We found a good seat on the upper deck and couldn’t wait for the bus to move off.

It plied along Via Parthenope by the sea, passing by Villa Communale along the way, before we hit Via Posillipo where the swanky residences are. From the top deck, we could see boardwalks extended from people’s houses and there were actually people sunbathing in the 20˚C weather! Insane!! It was windy as hell and it didn’t help that in our haste to fill our stomachs I had forgotten to bring my sweater with me! The bus came to a stop at a point that provided that typical tourist postcard shot – a full view of the Bay of Naples with Mt Vesuvius in the background. The bus moved along after everyone had their fill of snapping. On the way back, the bus plied along the sea again, passing Castel Dell’Ovo along the way and finally coming to a halt at the front of Castel Nuovo.

We took a walk back to Piazza Plebiscito, where the concert was a few nights back, since it was nearby - we wanted to take a look at it during the day. We hung around and snapped some photos and made our way into the Royal Palace. To our surprise, the ineterior had actually been converted into a museum.

Arty farty sculptures aplenty, we walked further in and ventured into the museum which housed displays of items and artefacts that were used in previous productions staged at Teatro San Carlo, the oldest theatre in Italy. We milled around a bit, being our usual nonsense self and trying to make sense of the arty stuff.

Though we failed, we tried to sneak into the Teatro San Carlo for a peek. Unfortunately, it was under renovation and the fursthest we went was the stairs at the entrance. As we made our way back, we strolled pass Galleria Umberto just to gawk at the intricate architecture. This was another old, colonial building refurbished to house high-end designer boutiques today. With nothing else to do, we made our way back to the hotel to get some rest before coming out again to hunt for our dinner.

We set out at about 6:30PM and decided to hit the streets again. We were not very hungry as the pizza and lobster spaghetti we had for lunch was still very much in our stomachs. Since we were quite tired with restaurant food, we walked down Corso Umberto in search of a small café or pizzeria to junk on some nonsense. Unfortunately, everything was closed as we trudged along although it was only 7PM. We finally decided to call it quits when we walked two-thirds of the looong Corso Umberto and reached Piazza Nicola Amore. As we circled the square, we noticed lights coming from a small shop selling cigarettes and titbits (kinda like a mamak stall). Delighted to see that something was open, we walked in and bought ourselves some titbits to bring back to the hotel.

We munched on our crackers and Tronky and washed it down with Coke as we vegetated in front of the TV. What a way to spend a Sunday evening when you’re halfway round the world. Penny was quite tired so she slept early. Me, I spent the rest of the night watching Back to the Future II in Italian. It didn’t matter thatIdon't speak Italian as I’d seen this movie umpteen times and knew the dialogue at the back of my hand.

As I went to sleep, I noticed that the clock on the TV read 20:32 while it was already 9:30PM on my watch. Strange…

Napoli - il giorno tre **Naples - day three**

Tired out by the activities we embarked on the day earlier, Penny and I woke up rather late. After washing up, we zombied our way down to the café for our breakfast. It was still the same old spread as yesterday. At least they bothered to change the flavour of the yoghurts.

Today was the day we hit Rome. Apparently the train ride was only 2 hours so we intended to spend our day there, coming back in time for dinner. We headed for the bus stop to hop onto a bus to Garibaldi Centrale where we would board the train and, again by the grace of God, learned that we had to buy our bus tickets in advance from a shop behind the bus stop (what a weird arrangement!). All because Penny needed to break up our notes for some change to dunk into the jackpot machine.

As soon as we reached Garibaldi Centrale, we headed for the office where we could buy our train tickets from a very grouchy man, who was attending to two Chinese girls (there they are again!). Turned out these girls were actually studying in NTU and were there for their vacation!

Superbly excited by our visit to Rome, we were quite annoyed when our 10:30AM train was delayed. We stood at the designated platform buying titbits from the vending machine (€2 for a packet of Twisties!) and finally at 11:00AM the train appeared. Unsure of what to do we just followed the flow of the crowd and plonked our butts down at the nearest carriage we could find. A short while later, a woman came in rambling in Italian; turns out we were in her seat. It was then we realised that the tickets had seat numbers allocated on them. Again by the grace of God, we somehow landed in the right carriage but in the wrong seat!

Moving out from Naples, we passed by mostly farms and countrysides and through a few mountains. With nothing to do, Penny and I tried to get some shut eye since we were still quite zonked. Couldn’t really get into a deep sleep as the seats were not reclinable like those on an airplane. We filled our time by munching on our expensive titbits and snapping photos. As we neared Rome, we could see ruins of what used to be the city walls. This was confirmed when we asked the Italian woman whose seat we’d taken earlier, ‘Roma Termini?’ and she replied, ‘Si, si!’

We were like bats out of hell when we disembarked from the train; the anticipation deepened by the delayed train was killing us! We made our way towards the subway (which I figured should be connected to the train station) and bought a one-day ticket. That would allow us to move around freely without having to worry about purchasing tickets again. We took a ride to the Colosseo station and, boy, was the train packed (we only realised later that night over the news on TV that there was a demonstration going on and there we were scratching our heads over the strong police presence in the vicinity).

The famed Colosseum was right smack in front of the subway entrance when we got out. Again, I was awe struck by the sight of the structure itself – it was just marvellous! Our stomachs were rumbling a little so we grabbed a sandwich from a kiosk nearby (costing us €6, wah lau!). Crossing the road to join the already crowded area in front of the Colosseum, we came across more fake bags and knick knacks being sold. A few pictures and one sandwich later, we came across a group of guys dressed as Roman soldiers. We thought it’d be fun to get a shot with them, so we went up and ended up getting hustled of €20. I’ll never trust Roman soldiers again.

We circled the magnificent structure and made our way back the entrance, planning to buy our entrance tickets. But the extremely looooong queue made us abandon the inclination of entering the Colosseum premises. We crossed the road again and up some stairs to a higher vantage point. There, we took more photos of the Colosseum as well as the Foro Romano next to it. Our next stop was the Vatican City so we asked for directions from some policemen lounging around. According to them, there was a ‘manifestazion’ going on (we thought it was some Chingay-esque festival but this was the demonstration we would see on the news later that night) and the streets were closed, so our best bet was still the subway.

As we went back down the stairs, we passed by a woman beggar whom we’d ignored earlier as we made our way up. Strange thing was, simultaneously, Penny and stopped dead in our tracks and turned around. I was digging my pocket for loose change when Penny said, “I think God just reminded me of something”. I couldn’t agree more. Just as we were passing the beggar, a small voice inside reminded me of the scripture that says we are to show kindness and mercy to the poor. We drop some change into the woman’s cup and made our way into the subway station.

Squeezing with the crowd, we got out at the Ottaviano station. From here, it was a short walk to the Vatican City. Along the way, we passed more boutiques and replica handbag stalls. Penny picked up a fake Gucci along the way from an African dude for €20, which was quite a steal considering he was asking for €45 up front. Moving along, we passed by a side gate of the Vatican City and there were throngs of people there snapping their cameras away. It was not long before the columns of St. Peter’s Square were visible. Again, I was awe struck by the enormity of the whole square as we stepped through the columns and out into the open. As was with the concert the night before, I wanted to cry as I couldn’t believe I was actually there in person.

We milled around the square for a bit taking pictures here and there of anything we came across. The queue to get into the City itself was also really long so we didn’t bother. There was a mailbox just oustisde the entrance, presumably for people wanting to mail stuff to their loved ones living within the city itself. Even the washroom was a monument by itself! Penny took a little trip in while I waited outside for her.

Having seen enough of the Vatican City, our next stop was the Castel Sant Angelo which was just down the road. As we walked down, we passed by a very solemn Roman Catholic procession going on - chants of 'Ave Maria!' and such were audible. Didn’t manage to find out what it was about since everyone was so sombre. Next thing we knew, an open top double decker bus dressed in High School Musical 3 livery screeched around the corner, filled with screaming teenage girls waving to passers-by. Quite obviously, this was a stunt to promote the upcoming movie. Juxtaposed to the solemn procession that had just gone by, it was just hilarious.

The view up the street as we approached Castel Sant Angelo was another postcard-worthy shot. We could see the dome of the Vatican City sticking out in the background of a very long, straight street. Back at Castel Sant Angelo, we didn’t have much time left to go in so we just hung around outside to snap some photos (of which one was taken by a very rude and grouchy German tourist who got evidently grouchier when he couldn’t find a view finder to look through on our camera). It was a very touch-and-go stopover as we planned to stop by a few more sites on the way back to catch our Naples bound train. We walked back to the nearest subway station (with Penny’s legs almost giving way) and hopped onto the subway back to Roma Termini.

Still, we managed to hop out of our trains to see the Fontana Tritone, the Teatro Dell Opera, among other things. Somehow we missed the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain... dunno why.

It was almost 5:30PM when we got back to the railway station. With about an hour to burn, we plonked our tired asses down at the nearest café we could find and ordered a chicken set meal. We were both too tired to eat but our stomachs were growling since the last thing we had eaten was the sandwich at the Colosseum. Our train for Naples left at about 6:45PM (delayed again) and this time round, I knocked out for most of the journey back, despite sitting next to an old, irritating couple who refused to open the window and almost suffocated everyone as a result.

It was about 9:30PM when we got back to our hotel. We were never happier to see our beds – we didn’t even want to worry about what to do tomorrow…

Napoli - il giorno due **Naples - day two**

I was up at 6:30 AM sharp on the second day (technically, it was our first effective day in Naples). God blessed us with a beautiful day; the sun was just beginning to rise as I stepped out onto the balcony and the city was just beginning to wake up. Breakfast started at 7:30 AM so being typical, kiasu Singaporeans we wanted to grab breakfast first thing in the morning in order to squeeze as many things into our itinerary for that day.

We headed down to the second floor (secondo piano, the elevator announced, which was actually the third floor since they start counting from piano terra - the ground floor) where the breakfast was served. It wasn't a fancy spread - just some buns, ham, cheese, tarts, eggs (who eats hard boiled eggs in the morning??), yoghurt and a selection of tea. It was sort of a letdown as I was expecting those intercontinental spreads that we were so used to at 5-star hotels. Gobbling down some buns with ham and washing it down with tea just to fill our stomachs, we made our way down to the reception to ask for directions and other touristy questions.

We decided to hit the La Pignasecca market first. According to the guidebook, it was the oldest market in Naples and the nearest one to our hotel. The rest would just have to wait. To get there, we had to take a stroll up Via Toledo, which is a shopping street filled with boutiques and cafes. Nothing was open at that time of the day - there was just the morning crowd rushing to work. About 10 min later, we wandered off Via Toledo into this little street (couldn't figure out where the street signs were, but we realised later it was actually La Pignasseca itself) because Penny noticed some fruit stalls. She even bought a sweater from a stall run by some Chinese folks (aren't they everywhere these days??) for €7.

Wandering further into the street we found a seafood stall which had so many different variations of aquatic life forms on offer. Just looking at the clams alone, there were at least six varieties there (not counting the mussels and see hum)! And there were fish in all different manners and sizes, squids, octopuses (or octopi?), stingrays - it just made my head spin taking in everything! If we had access to a kitchen, I reckon we would have bought ourselves a few crabs and fish just to get a taste of the Italian sea.

Having irritated the stall holders enough with all our picture taking, we moseyed further yet into the market and came across a vegetable stall. Again, we were awed by the variety of fresh produce they had to offer! Everything looked so succulent like they had just been harvested from the ground (there was still dirt and mud on them)! There was so much vibrancy and colour to the vegetables that we were tempted to buy one of each item just to bring them back with us.

As we wandered further, we realised that perhaps we were still too early so many of the stalls were not open yet (the guidebook says the market opens at 8 AM). We decided to head back to the hotel to book our day tour to the Pompei city ruins and Mount Vesuvius, the volcano responsible for burying the said city. The bus for the tour had already left, so the tour agency sent a Benz to send us to the first stop – Pompei city.

Our guide there, Esmiralda, bought the tickets for us and explained how to use our audio guides (we had missed the group by about 45 minutes so we didn’t get a speaking guide with us). We opened up the map and almost fainted when we saw how big the entire area was. We had only one and a half hours to cover what would normally take 4 hours. So we ran! We decided that since we didn’t have enough time to cover everything, we could only see the major stuff. We stuck pretty much to the main street, turning off every once in a while should we come across anything interesting or to snap some photos, but our main objective was to see the colossuem at the other end of the city. Which was pretty much worth it in the end - the colossuem was just incredible!

It was magnificent but yet heart-rending at the same time as we went about viewing the other excavated remains of Pompei city. Remnants of what used to be residences, gymnasiums, amphitheatres and town centres served as grim reminders of Mount Vesuvius’ enormous eruption which buried the city in 79 A.D. With Mt Vesuvius looming in the background, it wasn’t hard to imagine how frightening it must have been back then.

In an enclosure were also other excavated artefacts that once belonged to the people of Pompei – vases, pots, push carts and sculptures – along with actual human and animal bodies that were preserved by the volcanic ash. Fascinating but creepy.

We made our way back to the entrance in exactly one and a half hours and Esmiralda showed us to a nearby restaurant, Ristorante Vesuvio, for our first Italian lunch. We started off with salad (no dressing, just EVOO and lemon) and a plate of fried battered sotong and prawns. Up next was a spaghetti vongole (with ultra sweeeet clams) and gelato for dessert. Wonderful!

Our next driver, Feliche, arrived and ushered us into yet another Benz to drive us up Mt Vesuvius. He didn’t speak much English so most of our conversations along the way were accompanied by a lot of gesturing. After about a 15 minutes drive up the winding roads (which nearly made us puke), we stopped at a car park that was near the peak – we had to hike the rest of the way up! We almost fainted when we looked at the long trail ahead of us that disappeared around the side of the volcano. But the long hike up was quite interesting as we looked down on the city – makes you realise how awesome God is by creating everything around us.

Half an hour later, we heaved a sigh of relief when we finally got to the crater. The trail continued, circling the crater but we were satisfied with getting to where we were. Several snapshots and some massaging of our legs, we started to make our way down again. We almost slipped on several occasions as we made our way down the rocky trail. We hopped into the Benz and made our way back to the hotel. I had to close my eyes as I REALLY felt like puking this time round. It was about 4:30 PM by the time we reached the hotel. Our tickets to the Andrea Bocelli concert were sitting on the table! Penny and I both took a quick shower and hit the bed, wanting to get some rest before heading out again.

We got up again at about 8 PM, changed and headed out into the streets. The concert was starting at 9:30 PM so we didn’t want to be late! We hit Via Toledo again and walked towards the venue, Piazza Plebiscito. Surprisingly, it was quite dead for that time of the night – all the shops were closed! As we got closer to the venue (I didn’t even realised we’d reached as I expected the walk to be longer) at Piazza Trieste e Trento, there were cafes and restaurants here so there was quite a crowd. Piazza Plebiscito was just next to it so people were already crowding around to get a good spot to watch the concert. Guess you didn’t need tickets for the concert after all!

As we approached the entrance, we were told to put on our wristbands (I was wondering what they were for) and ushered into a VIP area for some drinks and light snacks. God is great – not only did He bless us with a free holiday, He sent us to a free concert with VIP passes! Not being able to eat (the lunch was causing havoc in my stomach), Penny got herself a drink and we hung around savouring the moment. We finally took our seats about 15 minutes before the concert was scheduled to begin.

After what seemed like eternity, the members of the backing Czech National Symphony Orchestra filed onto the stage to take their seats, accompanied by their conductor, Steven Mercurio, to do a sound check and an opening number. A while later, Andrea Bocelli finally appeared on stage, with rousing applause, to give an opening address presumably to talk about his upcoming album, Incanto, and why his performance in Naples.

The performance itself was nothing short of spectacular. Even his mother was in the front row watching her son perform! Bocelli had three guest performers with him pepping up his act - Italian movie star and singer Massimo Ranieri, flutist Andrea Griminelli and Italian soprano Cecilia Bartoli. The night ended in an encore with Bocelli and all his guests appearing together on stage to sing a final number for the ecstatic audience. Following all the fanfare and standing ovation, the performers disappeared backstage to address the Italian media who were also there to cover the performance. Clamouring for more, the audience (us inclusive) was evidently reluctant to leave even after the lights started to dim, signalling the end of the concert. Only when all the lights went off and the cleaning crew arrive did the audience realise that the concert was indeed over. We started dragging our feet to leave the square, all the while straining our necks to hopefully catch a last glimpse of Andrea Bocelli and his friends.

Starting to feel peckish after all the excitement, Penny and I headed for a pizzeria next to our hotel. We were disappointed that the guy was closed (an earlier check with the boss told us he closes at 12 MN but it was only 11:30 PM), but he did refer us to another pizzeria down the road. We quickly made our way there, sat down and ordered a pizza to share (although we were baffled by the Italian menu). Satisfied with our first true blue wood-fired Italian pizza, we headed back tour room for a well-deserved night of rest after having engaged in so many activities.

Tomorrow we go to Rome. Woo hoo!