Friday 2nd May

We snuck into Naples just as dawn was breaking, doing our normal pirouette in order to berth facing the way out. We settled in snugly alongside Norwegian Jade, which was moored on the opposite side of the pier. Breakfast was later today as we gave all the trips time to clear first and when we finally left the ship the sky was beginning to darken and the Cunard curse was just beginning to fall. Fortunately it wasn’t heavy and the streets of Naples are so narrow, not much actually gets to street level.

We followed the ‘Grand Walking Tour’ which was quite good and a big surprise that we could follow the Italian names/instructions. We went into more churches than I’ve been into for a long time, but the sad thing was they were all heavily vandalised on the exterior with graffiti and I don’t think it’s possible to get spray paint out of white marble. However following the instructions we managed to see most of Old Naples and returned foot weary in the afternoon.

We had an early departure and all tagged out in our winter woollies watched as we slipped our moorings together with Norwegian Jade and we both sailed out and across the bay side by side until eventually she went North and we went West. The phrase See Naples and Die must have been coined in its heyday because its once magnificent buildings have fallen into such a state of disrepair that the residents must be dying of shame. Graffiti covers all reachable surfaces and trees grow out of every available high crack. However it looks like they are fighting a determined rear-guard action as we saw several attempts to clean buildings and monuments, but how long would they would stay clean after completion and the berries taken down is anyone guess.