Week 14 - Italy
We didn't plan anything for the weekend because rain was predicted and we weren't sure how the holiday was going to affect things being open. We generally enjoy taking weekends off anyway since attractions tend to be more crowded. Despite, or maybe because of this, Saturday and Sunday both ended up being super fun days. Saturday was nice after all, so we took a walk down to the waterfront and had lunch at a nice restaurant. We have found the restaurants within walking distance to be even better than those in Naples proper. After lunch we were going to walk down to the beach, but we found a playground, which is something the boys have been missing, so we ended up just staying there. They befriended a little girl who spoke some English and had a great time.
It rained Sunday morning, but by the afternoon it was clearing up and they wanted to go back to the park. This time we stopped at a local pizza place. The boys were invited to help make their own little pizzas.
Once again, it's fun to get off the beaten tourist path and do local things. It gives a good feel of the place, and folks who don't constantly have to deal with tourists are much more likely to go out of their way to show you how things are done.
Monday was rainier and the streets were pretty quiet due to the holiday so we stayed home like everyone else. I had made the shopping rounds Saturday so we had plenty of fresh and delicious ingredients.
Tuesday was nice and we went back into Naples. The kids wanted to do Castel Nuovo and the zoo. They ended up preferring Castel dell'Ovo due to the cannons, Castel Nuovo has more art which J and I enjoyed.
The zoo is in a different section of Naples, not downtown, so that was another subway ride. Learning to use public transportation is in itself new for our country kids, and is as much a part of the experience as the destination. The zoo itself wasn't great, even the kids noticed that the animals' enclosures weren't very big, but I'm glad we did it because it got us to a different part of the city than we had seen before.
Afterwards we found a restaurant on the way back to the subway station and had another delicious meal prepared by an incredibly sweet old man who clearly enjoyed feeding us almost as much as we enjoyed being fed. Again, we were in a residential, not tourist, area and the meal and experience were worth the trip.
Today is definitely a stay at home day. It's raining and blowing, but the apartment is cozy and we're all catching up on school work etc. Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same weather and will be a good packing day. Early Friday morning we head to Athens.