See Naples and die

For nearly a year now I've been going to Italy to see Laura and Fulvio, and so far it's always been in Milan where they live. But whenever I see his family and friends (who are all from Napoli), I get asked why I haven't visited there yet. And I've never had a good reason; my only excuse is that the flights have been extortionate whenever I've looked, but it's always been very much on my list. So I was delighted when Laura and Fulvio invited me to visit them there this summer, meaning I could not only see them, but also finally tick Napoli off my list (and with the most perfect tour guides to boot)!

Choosing accommodation when you're travelling solo is always more difficult because the price is immediately doubled than if you were sharing with someone. But the apartment I found was lovely and the group who run them seem to have loads of locations in the city. I was very impressed and it was only £180 for 4 nights, which I thought was good! The apartment even had two cute little balconies either side, although I didn't get to appreciate the view until the morning as I arrived in the dark. My flight on the Friday night was a late one so I got there at around 9pm and had the speediest turnaround ever to get out and let the fun commence...

Being reunited with Laura is always the best thing ever! This time it was with Fulvio and his brother Elios too, and we enjoyed some beers, and then some aperol spritz' at a place that famously still only charges €2 for them. I already had a good feeling about Napoli by this point!

You know how when you travel, most people are either an extreme planner or a passenger princess? Well, as you might've guessed, I'm an extreme planner. Always in charge of the itinerary, the restaurants, the bookings. But this time, I was a passenger princess for once. Nothing I could research about Napoli would beat the recommendations from people who are literally from there, so I left it all to Laura to plan and I spent the whole time very happily going wherever they told me. So Saturday was a day for exploring and we started off with coffee and pastries before going along the main high street to the galleria. It was so beautiful and I loved the Zodiac mosaics on the floor.

(Fulvio and his water bottle adding a little je ne sais quoi to my photo)

My first thought as we wandered around on a little walking tour of the city was HOW can anyone consider Napoli a meer stepping stone to somewhere else? I feel like very few people actually go to Napoli to go to Napoli, they use it as a base for Sorrento and Amalfi. Having explored the city, I have to say it's definitely one that deserves its own trip. It's so beautiful and there are so many lovely buildings, piazzas and churches. Plus a sunny city break by the sea basically ticks every box going!

Speaking of the sea, we then had a little venture around the marina area before it was time to find somewhere for lunch...

Of course lunch was pizza! There was never a version of reality we'd be having anything else for my first meal in the city. In fact, cute story, the place we went to was also the first place where Laura got pizza on her first trip there! The pizza was insanely good too; just look at the rise on that crust.

San Ferdinando is a district with lots of cute little streets and boutique shops. We stopped for some coffee on the way and if you haven't tried a crema al caffé before (like I hadn't) then make it the next thing you order! It's not really a coffee per se, it's more of a dessert. But so delicious! Like tiramisu filling in a glass.

The boys had some errands to run then so they left me and Laura to take a little trip up on the funicular, which is like a little slanted train that takes you up the hill. We got off in the Vomero district which was really pretty and much more quaint and peaceful than a lot of Napoli. Our main reason for being up the hill though was to go to the castle! It was only €2 entry because we arrived after 4pm and the views of the city were literally insane.

Naturally we finished the trip with a spritz (hugo this time) and the little bar we found had the same beautiful view as we'd seen at the top of the castle. The funicular up had been fun but we decided to walk down; Napoli as a city will certainly help you to get the steps in!

Straightening my hair (or doing anything with it) proved to be a fruitless job while I was away, as even at night it was nearly 30 degrees out. So within the 15 minutes it took me to walk to the restaurant, my hair was already frizzy! Luckily there was an ice cold wine with my name on it to keep me cool. Me, Laura, Fulvio, and his cousin Alessio had a lovely dinner at this cute little restaurant, and we basically all got the octopus pasta which was insanely good. For a long time now, aubergine has been a tricky ingredient for me. I'm very much of a belief that adults shouldn't be fussy eaters and they should simply keep trying things in different ways until they like it. I've successfully done this with LOTS of foods, and have kept persevering with aubergine for a while but I just wasn't fully there yet with it. Napoli has finally converted me all the way on aubergine; this parmigiana di melanzane was a game changer.

I was excited about my outfit for Sunday as this cute little two piece was a new one from Shein and light blue is literally the colour of Napoli. Always gotta be on brand! It was also very on brand to have sfogliatella for breakfast since they're from that region and oh wow what an amazing way to start the day.

These pictures weren't actually taken by me because our Sunday morning activity was at a place where taking photos is strictly prohibited. Cappella Sansevero is a beautiful museum that homes a famous work of art called The Veiled Christ, as well as 10 other statues that represent various virtues. All of the works of art were incredible but my favourite was the one called Disillusion; this net was all carved from marble and honestly the craftsmanship was breath-taking. The building itself was really impressive too and while it looks like a small museum initially, there's so much to take in that you could happily spend a couple of hours there.

We didn't though, as we were heading to join Fulvio and some of his friends for a spritz. While the Italians can in no way hack the British levels of drinking (bottomless brunch was a particularly funny concept to explain which absolutely blew their minds), I do admire the fact that a spritz is very much encouraged at basically any time post-12pm.

Fulvio's mum is lucky enough to have a beautiful (huge) roof terrace on top of her apartment so after grabbing some pizzas on the way over there, we had a very chilled afternoon sunbathing and chatting over some beers. The views were amazing!

I was so excited for Sunday night as I was due to have my first authentic Italian family dinner experience. Well, home-cooked; I already seek out the most authentic restaurants I can. It was an early celebration for Fulvio's mum's birthday and it was lovely to see all his family again (all of whom I met at the wedding). His mum had even bought in 1kg of mozzarella for the occasion, especially for me to try real mozzarella for the first time. People from Napoli will maintain you can't actually get mozzarella outside of the region (even in the rest of Italy) and having now tried it, I have to say I agree. It was SO good. As was everything else we had; polpette di melanzane (aubergine balls with cheese), mozzarella, provola (smoked cheese), linguine vongole (clams), salad, and baba for dessert (a rum-drenched cake). It was such a lovely night, and I even managed to just about follow the conversation with my extremely basic Duolingo Italian.

Laura, Fulvio and Elios were working on the Monday and Tuesday so I was left to my own devices in the daytime, and I'd always wanted to go to Pompeii. My advice if you're going is to not fall for the idea of booking a tour. Yes the added commentary would be nice, but they charge around £60 per person when the entry ticket is only £20 and there is a direct train from Napoli which takes 30 minutes and is only a couple of euros. It was fun and games finding it though, as there are 2 train stations directly opposite each other and you have to find the platform by company, not just by number. Either way, I managed it! After a quick coffee/pastry pit stop, I headed off to explore. My initial theory was if I just always follow it round to the left, I'll have eventually explored all of it. Well. I was vastly underestimating its scale. I googled it and it said to cover all of Pompeii it'd take you 4 days. So I changed tact and began to hand select the specific bits I wanted to see. You could've done this with an audio guide or map but Google maps worked just fine for me; I figured that anything that gets picked out by Google with an image is one of the more famous bits to see. All of Pompeii as a whole is super interesting though; just appreciating how old it is and what a miracle it is that they found it so intact. Apparently the archaeologists who uncovered it even found preserved jars of food!

When you buy the Pompeii ticket, you have the choice of a limited one or a full one, and they only have about €4 between them, so I went with the elevated option. I'm really glad I did! It gets you access to this extra area of the site which includes the Villa of the Mysteries and the Villa of Diomedes. Both were super interesting and I loved all the artwork at the Villa dei Misteri.

I was getting towards my limit on ancient ruins by this point because I'd done a serious amount of walking and I'd been out for ages in the main heat of the day so could do with some shade. Plus I was starving! So I went and visited the last couple of bits I wanted to see, which was the amphitheatre and the garden of the fugitives. That was really poignant; 13 people who had tried in vain to escape from the deadly eruption. The ash had kept its shape even as the bodies below had decomposed overt time, meaning that exact casts could be created of their final resting positions.

It was really hard to find a spot for lunch around Pompeii without ending up at an awful tourist trap, but I stuck to my nothing-below-a-4-on-google rule and ended up at this nice little spot. I completed the trifecta of spritz' by going for a limoncello one, and I got the gnocchi sorrentina which was very good. My favourite Italian custom is the scarpetta which means to 'make a little shoe' out of bread to mop up your sauce!

I had seen everything I wanted to in Pompeii so I headed back to the city on the train and found myself with plenty of time before my dinner plans with Laura. Instead of heading back to my apartment for some chill time, I knew exactly where I would be heading. Rooftop bars are basically a part of my DNA! They're not super common in Napoli but I found one right near the train station, so it did a good job of breaking up my journey back, in between the Pompeii train and the metro. The Vesuvio rooftop had gorgeous views and I had a lovely little drink watching the sun go down. Just as a side note, if you're not someone who pushes yourself to enjoy time alone then I would highly recommend it. My phone was on 1%, and I hadn't brought a book out, so it was just me, my thoughts, and the beautiful view. And I had a great time!

That being said, nothing beats time with your bestie! The boys had plans with some of their cousins that evening, so me and Laura had a girly dinner and a catch up. We'd both had bigger lunches so we went for some small plates to share and it was all delicious.

The next day was anther solo adventure and I realised that by this point, I still hadn't been to see the famous Maradona mural so I made that my first stop!

I was desperately craving a day by the sea so Tuesday's day trip was to Sorrento! It's about an hour and a quarter on the train and it's actually the same train you get to Pompeii, so at least I knew where I was going this time. What a beautiful town! It reminded me a lot of Cinque Terre (where I went last summer) and the buildings were so pretty.

I thought I might get away with slightly less walking than the day before but Sorrento had other ideas as it's seriously hilly, lots of steps, and I also didn't help myself because I couldn't decide on a restaurant and wanted to explore entirely before choosing. Lots of steps don't count as an inconvenience though when the views are this nice.

When I finally did decide, I ended up at the loveliest seafood restaurant with a cute little courtyard area. Sorrento was quite touristy on the main street, but the second you went down literally any other street, it was very calm and peaceful. I had a lovely meal and even managed to order everything in Italian (which got me rewarded with a shot of limoncello to finish).

Even though I'd been after a beach day, I technically didn't end up on the beach as Sorrento has loads of these lidos. It's €20 for a sunbed for the day and then it's drinks service to your sunbed, steps into the sea so you don't have to wade in, and extra sun time as the beach gets shaded by the cliff fairly early. Although PSA there are a million steps to get down there in the first place; I feel like Sorrento is definitely a place that will test your physical fitness. Well, aside from the time you spend lying around on a lounger. I had a great afternoon drinking beers, reading my books, and then finishing up with a gelato (I got walnut flavour as Sorrento is famous for them).

The walnut gelato wasn't the only thing I got, I also picked up a little present for Fulvio's mum for my last evening in Napoli (which I was spending at their apartment). We had some of the Nocino I got, along with another amazing family dinner, and then just chilled on the roof terrace as I had to get up super early for my flight home. It was such an amazing trip and it certainly won't be my last time in Napoli. I'm very grateful to have had such wonderful hosts and tour guides! As hard as it is being separated from my best friend by miles of distance, it's always super exciting to reunite in various beautiful places across Europe. Until next time Ama.