After just under a couple of days in Roma, we get going towards the south. A bit of time to get used to the car and the roman driving style and we get out of the city fron its south west end. The trafic is brutal, but in fact there are a lot of detours and bottlenecks in many places.
We drove to the south, but the coast is not really pretty there, no real reason to stop and most of the beach front is deserted and the shops and restaurants are closed. I was wondering when preparing for this trip why there weren’t any recommendation or article about this area of the seafront, but now I get it.
After a bit over a couple of hours drive which took us about half distance between Roma and Napoli, we had lunch in the pretty town of Sperlonga, it’s the only place we found references to when preparing for this roadtrip and is so different from the crowded Rome.
The food was delicious and we got a dessert further down a paved road in the port. The path to the port offers a nice view of the town seafront and beach.
After another couple of hours drive in the Campanile’s countryside and a short dash on the motorway, we got into Napoli. We’re using Apple Plans and Google Maps for navigation during this roadtrip and we found their accuracy extremely good (no comparison points to how confused they get in Greece). But still, Napoli and its narrow streets, its peculiar organisation of the traffic and its unexpected roadworks finally took Google Maps offguard. We had to call the manager of the hotel to find our way for the last few hundred meters. We first parked the car in a private lot and walked the last bit with our luggages to get to the hotel.
The hotel is really well located in the historic center of Napoli. There is a festival in the street this evening and the traffic is restricted. Napolitans with their children have invaded the streets nearby.
You don’t need to stay long to get used to the festive mood and wander around the narrow streets and get caught in the ambiance. Really crowded here as well, but no flocks of tourists following their guides’ flagpole, rushing to a viewpoint or the next tourist attraction. Here, there are families and friends living outside, enjoying drinks and food.
There are tourists in here as well, but outnumbered by the locals’ joyous and exhuberant nature. I’m happy to discover Napoli and find it close to how I imagined it.
