We got out from the underground in the Garibaldi station. I was moving "big troll" with the help of its wheels but it wasn't an easy job. The station is pretty big and the multiple escalators climbing tens of metres were really fueling my fear of heights. I could only think about that one incident, 2-3 years ago, when in a Chinese mall an escalator failed and tumbled down taking a woman to her death with it.

I can't be that unlucky, can I?

 

^{Where's Waldo?}

At the exit through the train station's gates, we were welcomed by armed military forces and a lot of weird looking guys just hanging around the station, checking out newcomers. I wouldn't say that they were "black" but hey... they were not white either and it's not like I'm a racist guy, not at all but it's fucking weird to see military with big guns in their hands and ONLY afro people just hanging around, checking you out, having no luggage, just leaning on the rails, smoking a cigarette. It's fucking Naples and Naples is not famous for the hospitality of its inhabitants. Nobody said anything to us so I'll not make a fuss about this, because I could be attacked by a white guy anytime and white guys are the ones that turned this region into a place Italy would like separated, but this damn Hollywood created this panic of a white guy regarding his fellow Africans like they are dangerous when they most probably aren't. I'm ashamed of this and I'm trying hard to have an open heart, like my mind is, when it comes to situations like this. After all, Naples' mafia is not afro.

^{God's protection is not as efficient as military's protection}

We went back inside the train station as we wanted to look for next best thing that could transport us fast as close as possible to the hotel. The selling booth for the tickets was not very hard to find. We bought the tickets and proceeded fast to the metro, inside the Garibaldi station. We were happy that we were pretty close to the station inside but we discovered fast that the platform was full enough for us to wait for the third train in line that was about to come. Not easy to fit a crowded underground train when you are moving together with "big troll", that troller that could engulf me and my girlfriend inside.

We came out on the surface pretty fast. 2 stations and we were ready, coming out of the station right in the historical centre of Naples. The weather was hot. Maybe too hot for pulling a big troller behind and a 5-6 kilos bag on the back. Google Maps was telling us that we need to move close to a kilometre until the hotel we've booked for the 2 days stay. Until I reached the hotel, I started noticing the mess all around me. And the beautiful buildings. Everywhere I looked there was this contradiction of what Naples must have looked like a few hundred years ago and how it feels now, to a newcomer, a tourist that is judging the streets and everything around, basing his own judgements on the fact that his own country is a mess. So I know how to check up cities.

^{Feels like walls are squeezing you between them}

I can't understand why would use a graffiti spray on historical buildings or even worse: on very old statues.

I mean, from all the things that you could use to paint in order to spread your message (because it's not about the art when there's only writing in our graff) you really had to chose a statue? It's like trying your hand with sewing on your 5000$ suit. I'm not a virgin when it comes to dirty places. Growing up in Romania was not the tidiest experience when it came to the cleanness of the places I roamed. But this city...

...so old...

...so historical...

...so beautiful...

...but so damn dirty.

^{"That way to Rome?"}

We hit the hotel and dropped the bags. I think I took the liberty to have a shower and then we hit the famous "Toledo street". Part of the Spanish quarter, this is the main artery, that central, pedestrian-only street, on which you can find the traffic, the shops and the restaurants. Open air malls I like to call them.

I love old cities. Somehow I guess that I'm compensating when I'm in one of these ancient sites, that still engulf in their heart many historical buildings, for the fact that I'm living in a damn former communist, industrial town, for which older history we have to dig so deep, search so hard and imagine, only to find so little.

Going on foot is the best solution for getting to know a city. If you get the time and liberty to roam all around it, so, in the end, you'll know it end to end, that's an even bigger win. We limited ourselves to Toledo more or less, taking it all the way to the sea, facing the mighty Vesuvius. I took my time to have a cigarette while checking out this incredible volcano, a mountain that gives and takes life all the same.

^{Strange looking pigeons they've got eh?}

On the shore of the sea, we were welcomed by a real party going on. There's no beach in Naples so the adventurous kind is sunbathing on concrete, in small docks, where rowing boats use to be rented from (first picture in this article). Children, their parents and elderly people, jumping in the water of the bay right in front of the most luxurious hotels in the city. A couple of kilometres further, the luxurious cruise ships, docked for one or more days, are looking like floating buildings. Zero fucks were given by the community taking advantage of the coolness of the Sea. Loud, dirty through their behaviour and the litter around them, they continue having fun in a very "Romanian" way. I really wondered how many of them are Romanians because for sure they looked like it.

^{The old palace and the floating new ones}

The "Ovo Castle" showed itself in front of us and we decided that it is time to declare it our most distant objective at this point in time. There was a very menacing storm coming and I really wasn't looking to get wet, being pretty far away from our hotel. Better get in the castle... have a medieval roof over our head and get to find a ledge or something where I could rest my aching feet. "Converse" are not the shoes to use while visiting cities on foot.

^{Old stones that have seen old wars}

I will not go into the historical details of the castle. You can find enough on Google about it. Don't be lazy.

We were welcomed by a lazy, tired looking security guard that was only waiting for the closing hours. Every tourist getting through the main gate made his face frown in a gruesome way, like these weren't tourists but rather invaders coming in the castle to plunder it. No charge to get inside. I guess the guy was pretty much disgusted about this too.

The place is set on of the land extremities in the bay of Naples and in order to get on top of it you can either take the elevator (that would be the modern way) or climb your way in a spiral on the main access road. Chinese people were all around us. Some were taking the elevators (that were looking like they were in a very bad shape), while others took, like us, the pedestrian way. Both groups would use their cameras extensively like they owned the SD cards factories or something. Who is going to browse through all of your thousands of pictures people? Many of them are of the same thing.

^{Picture in a window in a picture}

We went back fast in the direction we came from. Looking forward to tasting a Tiramisu and an Italian coffee on the Gambrinus Bistro. We've seen the nice place when coming down to the sea.

I guess that's what Naples is all about: incredible Tiramisu, great coffee, lots of litter, more beggars than in Bucharest and a lot of history.

 

^{Rowing the boat in front of the Vesuvius}

Posted also on my blog www.ddma.ro, a place on the world wide web where I'm trying to promote Steemit, my writings and my country. In that order. I post through the @steempress-io plugin and I make my life easier (writing and formatting in Wordpress is much easier than on steemit.com or busy.org)