Naples, The Mafia CityNaples, the working class, Mafia cityWhat a fabulous stop in Naples we just had. After France we sailed onto Naples where we had an unusual docking during the late afternoon, they are usually in the wee hours of the morning and we don't get to see them.
Naples is a very industrial city, its a port city and so the cab driver told us, its pretty much run by the Mafia. Naples was our first over night stay on the QE2 and we had a ball. We went for a walk through the streets and stopped for pizza and gelato, very Italian indeed. We wandered the streets of the main shopping district at 10pm, there were people everywhere, mums, dads, little kids, teenagers strutting their stuff.... we wondered what the occasion was... then we realised, this was an average night in Italy, this is what they do!!! The women were presented so well, fashion, makeup, jewels, the guys.... ay yah yah!!! gorgeous scuplted Italian men, fabulous clothes, wonderful aftershave....we were in heaven :-)
Salsa Italian StyleAfter dinner we made our way to a salsa club in the outskirts of town, this tiny little place pumping latino style music onto the streets. We watched for a while, then hopped on the floor. The crowds parted and the Italians stopped to watch us. No words, no questions, just watching... it was eerie. Then we stopped to watch them. The quality of their dance was avergage level.. beginner to intermediate, mostly LA style and only one Cuban style couple. The biggest surprise was the music... we were hoping for hot Italian style salsa but we got this muffled, boring salsa music that was completely uninspiring. We had a few more dances, then an Italian man asked me to dance... nice lead, kept in time... busy concentrating on moves... ahhh... the concept of dancing with another person has been lost in Italy also....
SorrentoPaul and I escorted a tour to the magnificent town of Sorrento, about an hour out of Naples. The bus trip was awesome, winding up the hill of Sorrento, overlooking the brilliant blue sea. What a beautiful place. The town of Sorrento is this quaint little village tucked in amongst cobblestone paths, cute little shops and gorgeous flowers and trees. We wandered the streets for a few hours before hopping back on the bus. Not nearly enough time, but 1 minute in Sorrento was worth the 3 hours of bus travel.
Italian Driving I loved our tour guides explanation of Italian driving.... besides people on the wrong side of the road, kids on motorbikes without helmets and no apparent lanes at intersections... we laughed when our guide said this.... "oh dont worry when you see someone going through a red light... a red light doesn't mean stop... it just means be aware, the other side of the lights is green....!"
