Southern Coast of Italy--Naples

Southern Italy is very different from Rome, especially the cities along the south coast of Italy. More narrow alleys, less constructions, more hills and trees, less fountains and squares. Choosing Naples as a base to stay for a night and taking a day trip to the Island of Capri made the 2 days in southern Italy goes by extremely fast.

Naples (Napoli in Italian), the birth place of the original pizza, though sounds very glamorous, it could get very scary and dangerous at night. The city is not very rich and not as well organized due to its corrupted history and the origins of mafias. Central Terminal area is one of the most scatchy zones that needs to watch out for. When I booked the hotel near the terminal, I thought it will be very convenient staying close to the train station. It turned out to be one of my biggest regrets in Naples. You do NOT want to walk around that area after it gets dark, especially with a bag or camera hanging around.

Luckily, I chose Naples not for its city night life, but mainly for its amazing water activities. One thing that I decided to do in Naples (besides trying pizzas at different stores) was going on a kayaking tour at the Gulf of Naples. I would recommend anyone to try kayaking along the coast of the gulf and enjoy the amazing view of the whole city from the ocean. The tour that I booked was called “Kayak Napoli”. Giovanni was the tour guide, very nice and spoke very good English. The whole tour last about 2 hours, starting from Posillipo (about 30 mins bus ride from the center of Naples).

From the Pictures you can see, the tide and wind were working against our kayak. Jin and I had a fun time trying to catch up with the other couple ahead of us. We are not confident with our swimming skills at all, and drifting up and down on the vast ocean literally was the most exciting 2 hours that we ever had in this vacation.

We kayaked through narrow openings between rocks, enjoyed mini breaks under natural caves, and embraced the visual feast that Mother Earth brought us. Some of the water had tiny bubbles coming out from underneath. Guess what, they were mini volcano holes between the rocks under the water! No wonder the water where we kayaked was much warmer than the beach in Capri Island. It was very hard to take many live pictures while kayaking without a water proof camera. Hope you can get an idea of how cool the tour was from these few pics I snapped.

Here’s their website, just in case you are interested in a wild water experience when you visit Naples: http://www.kayaknapoli.com/home_eng.html   It’s 20 euro/person, the best 20 euros that I ever spent in the trip! (I left some tips for the guide. He did such a good job! I will definitely book the kayak tour again if I ever got to visit Naples in the future.)

And don’t forget to treat yourself with some yummy pizzas after the hardcore kayaking workout. Giovanni recommended a local pizza restaurant that changed my mind about pizza gourmet. Pizza doesn’t have to be greasy, and pizza doesn’t have to be full of carbs and crusts. A big Margerita pizza at Sorbillo will explain it all. Oh btw, if you don’t know this yet, margarita in Italy means tomato pasted pizza. The first time I saw it on the menu thinking how creative Italian must be to blend cocktails into a pizza lol. Here’s the address of Sorbillo: Via dei Tribunali 32, right at the University area, very popular and super delicious. Still can’t believe they only charge 5-7 euros for a whole well-made pizza?! Oh, and did I mention, that we did order their pizza for dinner 2 days in a roll, yumm……(sorry that we forget to take any pictures of those pizzas. by the time we realized to take a picture, it was already halfway down the belly). But to give you a glimpse of what they look like, here's a very detailed website commenting on the pizzas in Napels: http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2013/01/serious-eats-guide-to-eating-pizza-in-naples-napoli-italy-neapolitan-pizza.html

To sum up, I couldn't be more happier with the whole exciting water excursion, budget friendly meals, and a very satisfying stomach.

Ciao.