'scrappy' Naples

Sienna has used the word 'scrappy' often to describe her experience of Naples! She has a point - there is plenty of rubbish, dilapidated buildings and a general rundown feeling to the place. To us it is all part of the, I guess 'charm' and the acknowledging of the difference between our own lives and that of others who share our world. However we all agreed with Sienna and her 'scappiness' view when we visited Piazza del Plesbiscito (as blipped) today. A historic square that is small in scale to St Peter's (Rome) yet with a similar layout and proportions and with the obvious potential for 'grandeur'. Except - it was boarded up and graffitied, grey with age and deserted - even though it borders one of Naples' most affluent streets. I don't know if it is in the process of being restored or if work is halted as Italy holidays through August but it certainly was, well scrappy!

Not so was Cappella Sansevero (the Veiled Christ) which was magnificent, really amazing. I was looking forward to seeing this statue and its famously realistic marble veil and we were all entranced. Hard to comprehend how this was achieved as were the preserved human arterial skeletons downstairs - remarkable.

Also 'remarkable' but in a 'wow, that is a different way of doing things' was sending a parcel home with our guidebooks from Rome and the hoodies that two of the kids mistakenly kept on them when we were leaving the UK (since we haven't dropped below 28 degrees so far - they are proving slightly cumbersome to lug around in our small backpacks!) 40 mins later we managed to get the Post Office to sell us a box (involving three members of staff to discuss how they should go about this) and two lots of form filling and one payment by 'cash only' to send it on its was. In fairness they didn't try to sell us Post Office home insurance or the latest credit card deal!

Then it was another long wander through the tightly packed streets that come alive after 7pm with people conducting all areas of their lives out on the pavement on our way to the famous Pizzeria da Michele restaurant. I was really looking forward to only having two choices of pizza to contend with as it would make our usually long winded family decision process straight forward.

And it was shut - as were the two coffee places we were told by many sources we HAD to visit while in Rome, as was the Trevi Fountain and the Archeologico Museum today (well that was actually open except for the Pompeii section which kinda defeated the objective for going as far as we were concerned) and many other places - holiday time in Italy. Shame it coincides with our only holiday period! Having said that when Sienna told the owner of the restaurant that we did eventually eat at, that Naples was 'noisy' he smiled and replied - "Not at the moment - 50% of the people are away on holiday - come back in September to hear it being really noisy!"

As enchanting as we are finding Naples - we probably won't return to hear it noisier no matter how good the pizza is suppose to be!!!

Trying the Museum again tomorrow and off snorkelling over a Roman ruin - going to lavish us all in sun block - one day on the beach and we were all taken unawares by how strong the sun is - ouch!