Thursday we were up early to catch the train into Naples for the day. Naples is a sprawling city set on a sweeping bay, described in the guidebooks as an exhilarating mess of crumbling, baroque churches, bellowing baristas and electrifying street life; a place where pollution and crime are rife. We found it to be a bit of a confusing place, it's the sort of city you would come to love if you spent a decent amount of time there and got to know the secret spots, but with only one day to explore it was all a bit overwhelming.
The weather had been stifling hot all day, but as the afternoon drew in so did the rain clouds. The air felt really heavy, it was clear a thunderstorm was about to happen, and the rumbling overhead began as we hastily made our way towards the train station. On the train back to Pozzuoli the storm hit, with super loud thunder and lightening. On our arrival the heavens had opened and we still had a 15 minute walk up the hill to the campsite. Deciding that we might as well bite the bullet we dashed out into the rain. Halfway there the rain became much, much heavier and we were absolutely drowned. Taking shelter under the canopy of a car wash business we watched as the rain became heavier still and the roads turned into rivers with the cars essentially floating along them. It was absolutely crazy and I have never in my life seen rain like it. By this point we were pretty worried about the state of our tent so despite the guys from the car wash gesturing to us that we were mad, we dashed out into the street and carried on up the hill. On arrival at the campsite we were greeted with the sight of our French neighbour in his underwear frantically digging a trench with a plastic cup around his tent while his wife sheltered inside! We took the alternative option of picking up our tent which was in a puddle of water and moving it to a different spot on higher ground. Thankfully the tent had withstood most of the rain and was fairly dry inside. Unlike the two of us who were soaked to the bone, and went off to change clothes before spending the afternoon in the camp bar along with a variety of other waifs and strays who had been forced from their tents.
Our first stop of the day were the fish markets, where the freshness of the produce on offer was amazing and made us want to take it all home for a massive sea food feast. Wandering through the Unesco World Heritage-listed Centro Storio (historic city centre), we could've easily been on the streets of Morocco or Turkey. Under the washing lines hanging over the narrow laneways, were groups of noisy kids playing football in the piazzas, vespas hurtling through the cobbled streets and stalls selling the famous Neapolitan street foot on every corner. Needing to escape the madness for an hour, we stopped for lunch at a famous pizzeria, where we enjoyed giant pizzas washed down with cold beer.
The weather had been stifling hot all day, but as the afternoon drew in so did the rain clouds. The air felt really heavy, it was clear a thunderstorm was about to happen, and the rumbling overhead began as we hastily made our way towards the train station. On the train back to Pozzuoli the storm hit, with super loud thunder and lightening. On our arrival the heavens had opened and we still had a 15 minute walk up the hill to the campsite. Deciding that we might as well bite the bullet we dashed out into the rain. Halfway there the rain became much, much heavier and we were absolutely drowned. Taking shelter under the canopy of a car wash business we watched as the rain became heavier still and the roads turned into rivers with the cars essentially floating along them. It was absolutely crazy and I have never in my life seen rain like it. By this point we were pretty worried about the state of our tent so despite the guys from the car wash gesturing to us that we were mad, we dashed out into the street and carried on up the hill. On arrival at the campsite we were greeted with the sight of our French neighbour in his underwear frantically digging a trench with a plastic cup around his tent while his wife sheltered inside! We took the alternative option of picking up our tent which was in a puddle of water and moving it to a different spot on higher ground. Thankfully the tent had withstood most of the rain and was fairly dry inside. Unlike the two of us who were soaked to the bone, and went off to change clothes before spending the afternoon in the camp bar along with a variety of other waifs and strays who had been forced from their tents.Later that evening the rain eased and we were able to venture out to the supermarket for some supplies for a rather soggy dinner. This time we ate in the company of a couple of stray moggies who enjoyed some of the cat biscuits I had bought especially, making sure we applied plenty of insect repellent this time.
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