Hello and welcome back to another episode of Only a Bag in Italy travel Podcast.

I'm Nathaniel Melor.

And I'm Darcy Melton.

And today we are going to pick up right where we left off in yes, two days episode.

Then he's a bit better every way of saying 2 days ago's episode.

Wednesday's episode.

Wednesday's episode, that's probably a much better way of saying yeah, day before yesterday.

Yeah, that's so much.

Better.

Thank you.

And we're going to just talk about where to stay in Naples as far as neighborhoods, as far as pros and cons, what you might be looking for, what you probably don't want to, what you don't want to look for, etcetera, etcetera.

And as we mentioned the last episode, we'll put links in the description to hotels that we like.

You are absolutely under no obligation to use those links.

They are affiliate links.

They do help out the podcast.

However, if you are obviously like accruing reward points or if you are using your, your credit card travel portal or something like that, and you just want the protection, absolutely, we encourage that you do that instead.

And also just want to say thank you to everybody who has been supporting us listening, leaving reviews and, and listening genuinely, that's been amazing.

It's been super, super helpful.

It's helping us grow.

And if you'd like us what you're listening to and you want to leave us a review, you can leave a review anywhere you listen to, especially Apple and Spotify.

Those seem to be our biggest platforms.

You can also follow us there if you'd like to follow along to stay up to date with any of our episodes, including the next Naples episodes coming out.

We also have a website, onlybag.com, if you'd like to leave us a comment, send us a comment where they have a question about your trip or you have any sort of, if you want some sort of like more information on anything we've said, anything like that, you can absolutely send us a message.

You can also read articles that we have there on things like just what we're talking about, which is quite nice and pleasant.

Last but not least, if you'd like to support the podcast in a financial matter manner, you can do so on coffeeko-fi.com/only a Bag where you can leave a donation much like PayPal and it will go towards mostly things and equipment and web hosting fees and moving off of Spotify eventually into like Pod Bean or Pod Sprout or something like that.

Yes, we will still be appearing everywhere.

That you listen to this.

Podcast, but we'll be hosted somewhere else potentially.

That would be the dream.

So thank you all so much and I guess without further ado, jumping into it.

Yes.

Can I, can we paint a picture a little bit of Naples before we get into the neighborhood's just a general picture.

I know we've talked about it so much.

It's super historic, it's grungy.

It's got a lot of graffiti everywhere.

And I think, and maybe this is just, it's not just anything.

It's we've been there many times.

It's wonderful.

I love it.

It's chaotic and great.

Whenever we have been there with other people, they have the same reaction that I think you and I had the second time we went, which is, oh, just trash.

There's trash.

That was, I think my first, first time I went because I think my mom told me, oh, you're going to love Naples.

There's these yellow buildings, there's this and that.

She's an artist.

So Naples yellow is a thing, all sorts.

You're an artist.

Naples yellow is a thing.

I guess I was.

Thinking about it like.

Beautiful yellow buildings.

I get there and I'm like, I don't think this is a Naples.

But I was coming off of the first time I saw Naples.

I'd lived in New York for like a year, so it was my vibe.

It was like the grungy part of New York that had far been sanitized by that point.

But, you know, it had become an aesthetic.

So seeing Naples, I was.

Like it was not aesthetics, it was just.

It's just how it was.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that's to warn you what Naples is like.

There's going to be trash around.

I feel like you and I don't see it so much anymore like you can still see.

I would say the, the, the, I don't know if they have a different agreement or they have a different arrangement.

They hire a lot more people for the sanitation, but it's a lot less.

And I will say some of it too.

I don't want you to think that people there are just like throwing trash out the window.

A lot of it is like, and any, any city, it's when you put there a lot of God of Rome and stuff will have like the, the, the trash municipal.

Yeah, the trash thingies.

Thank you.

Like where you put like the your, your waist basically.

And anytime that the wind blows, which it blows a lot in Naples, it will tend to just like pick up any trash that wasn't quite secured.

It's also, it's, I mean, it's hard to explain, but it's like, it's such an old city that I feel like you might not be seeing trash from that week.

You might be seeing trash from.

Well, like for example, Florence has a great system, which is an old city too, but they also I think have a lot of money and also that it's not as old as Naples.

So they have some like underground area available to create this different trash system.

And so in some parts of Florence there it's underground trash.

Like it's very neat and futuristic.

You like, you pull up the little grate on the ground, it's very sanitized looking, put your little garbage in and you don't see it.

But in much older places like Rome and Naples, there is nowhere to do that.

So the trash has to go on the street and then it inevitably blows around like you're saying.

And sometimes it's just simply like, you know, the napkin that was left that you left on your, your cafe table or whatever, you know, things like that.

Obviously cigarette butts.

Smoking is definitely still a thing in Italy.

Oh yes, be well warned, smoking is very much a thing here.

Especially if you have like, like as you have a kind of a slight allergy to cigarette smoke and Naples for whatever reason.

It's like whatever the the the the.

There's a certain, there's a certain kind, a certain brand of cigarettes that I feel like several people, specifically in Naples, smoke that just makes me kind of swell up and get all itchy.

And sneezing, Yes.

So.

But you're going to paint a picture.

So that's part of the picture is the grungy trashness, but also it's it's so quirky and weird.

I guess one other, one other warning is we briefly touched on this in the last episode and we we've talked about it before, but you might arrive to your hotel and think, Oh, no, I've put myself in a dangerous neighborhood.

This building is falling apart.

It's covered in graffiti.

Where am I?

If you're on Instagram and you've been looking up Italy travel things, Naple, travel things, I'm sure you've seen other people's videos of we thought we were going to get kidnapped.

Surprise.

It was a beautiful room on the inside.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's much of what Naples looks like, but it's not to say that the inside will be lovely, you know, and you're safe.

But also and clean.

And clean, Absolutely.

But there's also, there's so much weird, quirky magic in Naples.

We talked about how ubiquitous it is to go to the pizza place that's next to the luthier that's kind of all of Italy.

But Naples has like weird shops and they really lean into the odd grunge.

Also, whenever we were staying in Naples, the last time we stayed in Centros Torico in Spaco.

Spaca Napoli Spaca Napoli, which is like a just I think a street more than like a neighborhood St.

Yeah, like a neighborhood St.

thing and we so we arrived to not a hotel.

Well, we thought it was a hotel anyways, but people were just selling like cigarettes out of in a cart on the street and different kinds of fried food.

But it had the sense that like some.

Bottles of wine.

Grandma made the fried food.

Yeah, and, and the uncle made the.

I mean, I made that up, but it's very much someone's house, a homemade wine, you know, And it's just weird and wonderful.

But it's also, I think like right next door was an association building, which like a private association.

So there's just a bunch of guys inside smoking around a card table.

It's just so it's a very, I actually, I think we mentioned before and the first time we talked about Naples, a good way to think of it is historically, I think that people in Naples tend to live life outside rather than inside.

And I say that because I think Spakanapoli, I thought that's, I believe that's the entire street name.

That could just be that literally a couple blocks.

But that area, especially as you get kind of closer to the station, you can really tell because a lot of the shops, while they have inside space, have almost everything outside, like paper towels, crackers, cookies, drinks, everything.

It's like, I mean, anything that doesn't need a freezer, but sometimes it freezes outside as well.

If you're like, yeah, I need to get some peas.

I need to get a couple pieces of chicken.

The butcher next door, you know, So there's a especially as you get.

And we'll talk about Spanish court in this episode as well.

But in the Spanish Quarter we notice as well that it's some like there's a name for it.

And I wish I I remember what the name is on top of my head.

I apologize, I don't.

But it's a name for a type of one room.

It's like a studio apartment.

We would just call it a studio apartment, but it's a name specifically as I think for this.

No, no, no, it's like it's like an old name for, for like a it's not cave, but it's something like that, you know, it's like something where it's like, Oh yeah, this is just a one room apartment that was for rent or for sale or somebody owns.

And so a lot of them haven't been updated because there's nowhere to put a second room.

It's just like so and again, some of these are still rented to people who live in Naples more obviously short term weddings and things like that, but especially Spanish Quarter, even Spacanopo, things like that.

It's very much a vibe of people living outside.

Like there's that sort of I think years ago read this book about geography of genius and this specifically about Athens.

But he's talking about like, you know, the house was really just a place you sleep.

You don't really spend your day at your house.

You just sleep there and then you wake up and you leave and your days spent outside and I think that is a really good way to describe Naples and part of it is too, because obviously Naples was started by the Greeks.

Could be a connection there.

Highly doubt it, but it does.

When you're there, you really kind of feel like you're part of everybody else's life rather than life's happening inside behind the doors, like whether it's a shop, whether it's AI mean any like whether it's just something that like oh, I have to go in and take up space.

It's like, no, no, no, you're outside.

We're all outside.

So you know, and, and you're, I know, it's almost like you're, you're forced into the fabric of Naples, whether or not you want to be kind of.

Absolutely, you are.

Yeah.

And I love that.

So when we stayed last time in Naples, we were lucky enough to have a little balcony.

We were only there one night but it was so nice.

I was just standing out there before going to bed and it was like midnight but a family and.

And so I can't explain what it looked like from our balcony, but it was almost like if.

You we looked under the roofs of other.

Yes, we looked down exactly because we were on the 3rd floor, 4th floor, so you could look down onto other people's balconies.

They were all around you and onto the roof of another place, then up into other people's balconies across the street.

You could kind of see through a little, a little passageway.

And if I can so the roof just to give you guys a good idea and I know you're like, what if that has nothing to do with it?

Just it paints a picture, trust me.

But the roof is what we thought was a courtyard at first because it's a one complete roof that we are like, oh, that must be a courtyard.

And people have to enter their apartments on that roof like.

Well, that's what I was going to say.

So whenever I was standing out on the on our balcony, I saw at midnight a couple with their two young kids showing back up.

And they were, if you're if you were dreaming and your brain thought, what do apartment buildings in close quarters look like?

This is what your brain would dream up.

And you could might wake up thinking, there's no way engineering would actually make that work.

That's what all of this looked like.

It was just so smushed together.

So a a family arrived.

They bent down from their sort of half balcony, which was on top of another house but not the same building to and their neighbor who was coming out of her sort of sunroom doing the laundry onto like what Nathaniel's saying this tarmac roof of another building.

She let the dog out of the little baby gate that was on top of the tarmac roof.

Dog was running around the kids.

They were clearly kids bikes on the roof.

She was putting up the laundry again, using the tarmac roof sort of like as her balcony going back and forth into her laundry room, which was clearly also her kitchen.

All of this was happening at midnight and there were tons of other people around me, but it you really are absolutely forced into the fabric, into the network of this city.

Yeah, no, I think that's a good way to, I mean, honestly, I really like the snapshot way to describe it.

So which is all simple to say.

I've used to stay in chanter historical as we talked about in the last episode that it might be stuff that you are going to be Privy to.

I guess so.

And it's also something too if you're like that sounds actually terrible.

Yeah.

So maybe don't stand chant historical, maybe maybe stay away from that or don't even stay near the Chintara, the station as well, because that could all be that's all.

And to be fair, that's a lot of Naples.

It does get, I will say it gets more sanitized.

And we'll talk about a couple neighborhoods that get a little more sanitized in terms of wealthy, in terms of space, in terms of gardens.

But there is definitely a, a, a feeling of in Naples, again, where people have been living on top of each other, for lack of good words, for the better part of 2000 years.

So it's kind of like it's just that's just what you are.

You know, it's really yeah.

And it's it's always nice to go there because I think it's yeah, I know we really live in a small sort of mountain town.

It's quite isolating.

And I think even in the especially in the winter and as we get closer and more into the winter, when people kind of don't want to come out, it gets even more isolating.

So it's always nice to kind of go to a place, especially in the winter where it's almost like winter doesn't exist because like what?

We're not going to be inside now.

That's ridiculous.

We used to sell things we used to live.

So it's almost kind of like AI don't know year round.

It's just this constant current of motion and and people.

So I guess if you're in, that's a chance.

Historical yes, and so going.

I had this total disaster with cardinal directions in the last episode, but I've learned in the last 20 minutes, so going West, continuing W is via Toledo.

It's a little hard and actually I should have mentioned this last episode.

I do highly recommend y'all look at a map before going and then even if you want to listen to this episode, kind of skip to the parts and kind of line them up with a map.

It's because when I say north and West, it's all hard.

I mean there there's no they think Spanish quarter is the only is the only area with actual like straight like grid system streets and everything else is kind of a not remotely straight or grid system.

But even then it's not built north to South.

It's kind of built like on a southwest to northeast kind of like angle.

It's a fair.

It's just just cardinal directions on existing that say there's also a lot of weirdly dead end streets, which we found when we were there like we were trying to really explore and then we kept realizing like I think three times went down the same dead end St.

not realizing that again, we're at this street.

This is ridiculous.

So with all that being said, highly recommend you look at a map for this, but you have essentially in a in a very loose straight line, it kind of goes station.

You go West Centro store Rico, you go West and you kind of go to the top of the Spanish Quarter and that goes down.

It's angled down sort of like if you're looking the map down and to the left via Toledo would be kind of angling down is the Spanish quarter.

It's super famous.

I'm sure you've seen photos.

That is where the yellow buildings are.

Actually it's it can be a good place to stay.

I again, this is me personally, I wouldn't necessarily stay there.

It's very loud.

Again, it's quite loud it and I and this time it's less loud with people marching through and more loud with actually mopeds.

I will say people on mopeds tend to fly through the Spanish Quarter and partly because it's straight streets and you don't have to slow down.

And so people are like, well, I don't have to slow down.

And you're like, well, what if I'm walking in the street?

They don't have to slow down South.

And again, we've talked to this before going back to the sort of painting a picture.

It's where you would.

You will see people on mopeds and you have like somebody in the front driving, somebody behind them, you know, doing school work, somebody behind them on their phone and you're like 3 or 4.

Somehow a 2 year old is squished between everybody.

No helmet.

There or the 2 year old's the only one with the helmet, but the helmet does not fit.

But they're like it's worth it.

It's a good shot.

Good try.

So it it can be again chaos and I guess so yeah, Spanish Spanish Quarter.

It is.

It is the neighborhood I mentioned that does have especially the ground level will have a lot of like Mauna locale sort of studio apartments.

And again, there's one source of light and that is the door, some of the doors as you get farther towards Vomero, which is up the hill, Spanish Quarter I think in the photos kind of seems like it's flat and it is flat running.

It's hard to explain again because it's not a N SE almost.

Like it's terraced?

That is a great way to describe it.

Yes, each St.

up is basically getting up higher, but then the cross streets are are flat, but they're but going up is angled.

And as you go further up away from the touristy part of the Spanish Quarter is when you start to see more of like the rather than the laundry outside hanging up.

It's like, no, that's just laundry on the street, just drying.

Or again, as we mentioned, people living outside, it's a lot of times people have kitchen tables outside and they're having lunch and it was, it's a little bit interesting again because it feels quite voyeuristic, not in a sexual.

Way well, it's a bit like because people do live outside for so much of the year, it's almost like you're walking through people's living rooms.

That's exactly in a way that's.

Exactly it, which I think people seem very used to.

It's not like people are bothered that we were walking through.

And it's not like we were walking through their actual living room, to be clear, right?

Walking down the street, maybe we were sitting outside, having a cigarette on their phone, watching TV outside where all the laundry dried right next to them, having lunch, all these things.

But you're right, it does very much feel like you're in someone else's sort of intimate space.

Yes and I think also, if I may too, just two things on that one just from us here at only about we ask that you don't take photos of people.

I there's there's a oh for sure it's again it's that thing of of I know like there's an argument that well they're in public.

It's like technically yes, but there's like kind of an idea of like not really no.

And also there are a lot of laws around on taking photos of people without their permission and then also posting or making money from it and things like that.

But it's just, it's, I think there's an idea that like, oh, it's great for street photography because people are doing things outside and it's like, right.

But like, there's not really much of A choice.

So it's kind of like a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

So I did.

I think it's like I would if any time we're with somebody, I do ask them not to take photos.

I'm like, don't, that's just strange.

Or ask if you can take their photos.

Or ask if you take their photos and and be very prepared for somebody to think, no, of course not.

So that's just one.

And then second, this is hilarious.

But just if you do see laundry drying and you're like, this is some cute stuff I.

Almost picked up some clothes.

Last time we were in Naples we were kind of near some vintage shops which have a lot of clothes outside for sale.

All these racks of clothes.

Yeah.

And we were on a block with no vintage shops.

And I thought this one was maybe like a little pop up.

It was someone's clothes rack.

Luckily I did not touch anything.

But I was really, I was looking at it like, oh, that one is cute.

And I kind of went to put my hand up, and then I saw a woman on the other side and I was like, you know what?

This looks like a family's grouping of clothing.

There's some little kids clothes, some women's clothes.

I think this is not for me.

Yeah, so watch out, I would say if you happen, and I think that's specifically like we were prime because we're all looking for clothes, looking for clothes like, oh, here's clothes.

But if you happen to see clothes drying and you're like, but they're they're arranged so cutely, they still might just be drying.

So just keep that in mind.

So Spanish Quarter, again, it's like it is great.

There are a lot of apartments.

I think I found a lot of Airbnb type stuff, some hotels, but again, they're hotels that are in sort of renovated apartments.

Much, far fewer in terms of actual hotels just given the structure and given that sort of history, it doesn't really have like a, oh, that's a hotel building it and there might be one or two.

But when I when I look at it on maps and stuff like that, it's it's kind of again a weird area where there isn't really a lot of hotels specifically.

It's really just very residential and then there's some shops in the bottom.

One thing like Via Toledo, it does have hotels and then kind of South of Via Toledo towards like the port or towards like Piazza del Bosabushito does have like a lot of hotels.

So it, it can be a bit confusing.

But I, I, I wanted to mention again, the reason I actually wanted to mention that one specific is I see a lot of people say, oh, you should stay there.

It's a great place and I feel like it's, it's a beautiful place to visit.

It's a gorgeous place to visit and I think staying there is a bit of a missed opportunity because you can stay in better places.

So it's almost like, why would you stay in a place that is interesting to visit but not as interesting to stay, rather than staying one that's more interesting to stay and interesting to visit, if that makes sense.

It's kind of like if you could only stay in one place in Naples.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend Spanish Quarter, but absolutely you should visit it.

It's just, it's not like it doesn't have a lot of nightlife.

As you mentioned, it's quite residential and in in the sense of like people live there.

It's apartment buildings and stuff.

Once you get past the first few streets, there are bars and cafes, but they are very much for like tourists and people living there.

So it's not like late night bars and cafes.

There are some restaurants, but they're not like the best restaurants in Naples or necessarily.

And they're good.

I mean, some are great, but it's just, it's not like it doesn't have, it's not have any one thing.

It just it's I think the Spanish Quarter is famous for being the Spanish Quarter and therefore things have cropped up around it.

But it's not like I think where other neighborhoods like this is famous for it's, you know, linguine with with clams, whatever it is.

So people kind of like, you know, support that in terms of let's put a hotel near this world's famous restaurant rather than let's put a restaurant near this interesting kind of area, if that makes sense.

Sure, chicken and egg situation is what I'm getting at.

So I guess I'm kind of going to abandon the whole east and West thing at this point.

And I'm hoping that you're looking at a map because it just gets confusing because if you go back to Central Historico and you go South from Central Historico.

You hit the Porto Porto, it's a port in English and that's again another sort of historic area.

It's not bad.

I'm I have very little say on it.

I've actually stayed in that area.

We've walked there a number of times, but we've never stayed there.

It it you for me, it personally felt like we didn't even know we were had left Chento Historico.

Technically we thought we were still in the same neighborhood.

It wasn't until much later realizing at a map that was like, oh, technically that's the port.

It's also near Naples as you mentioned in like 3 episodes ago.

Getting to Naples, there are two ports, one for cruise ships and one for ferries.

I think this one's closer to the cruise ship if I believe port and not necessarily the ferry one that could be mixed.

I always see there's like Molo Bellavero and then the other one that can't.

I always get the two of them confused and I apologize again.

I highly recommend maps, y'all, not the the app maps, but and using a map, yes, a map.

Does somebody say again, this does change if you are arriving by cruise ship or by ferry from somewhere else, it is not a bad idea to stay the port.

You get off the boat and you're just like, yeah, we have lodgings, we're there, we're ready to go.

But as far as staying there, it's it's just an inch again.

It's one of those things.

It's an interesting walkthrough, Yeah.

Would you say that there are more hotels in that neighborhood?

Because there's more space for it, I think.

And again, this is one of the things that I'm looking at hotels and especially for this episode, because you and I have like just a lot of times it's like where they're staying at the station because we're only there for night and we just need to get out quickly or we're having somewhere and we're going to stay somewhere more interesting.

There seems to be more hotels, especially in this sort of budget mid range, if that makes sense, rather than like the nice range.

So I mean, again, it's a totally reasonable place to stay.

It's just someplace.

Again, I see this.

I feel like this this episode's becoming more of like my response to other people's stuff.

I realize because I think it's like I had these, umm, go, you could stay here, you could stay there.

It's all six of one, half dozen the other.

And then I'm reading like articles like, again, travel, leisure.

And I'm like, oh, you guys are really making this seem like a place that it isn't not it's not not that place.

It's just that is giving a very different impression than what the place actually is.

And I think if I had read that first and then gone there second, I'd be like, that is not what I thought when I heard port, You know, I was thinking something totally different.

It's just kind of a neighborhood near the water.

That being said, there is the Piazza del Plebeschito, which I mentioned before.

It's sort of.

Plebeschito, yeah.

Great word.

I know right.

It's sort of West of the port, South of the Spanish quarters, the South of Chanter historical.

It's, it's a little bit, it's technically, I consider it still part of the port because, you know, it's very much close to a port.

However, in Naples and if you're looking at directions, people will just use it as a kind of an area like, oh, that is kind of almost near Castell del Ovo, which is that sort of southern castle that jets out.

That's also that seems to be great for families.

It just is also getting wide open spaces, not as loud, not as crazy, bigger rooms, more hotels in that area.

So and a lot more of like, I mean, what I would consider hotel hotel like that is a hotel.

So if you are traveling as a family, that is actually kind of a great location.

And again, still central, there are still metro stops near there.

If you take the metro, still bus stations near if you're taking the bus, and if you are going on like a day trip to Coppery, you are actually still quite close to the ferry.

Yeah, it's super.

Convenient so yeah, I think fair for families or if you're again, doesn't have to be families, but I know that for families it's a decent size for space if you're just like I need some space or if you're a family like we're getting our kids another room because they are they do not they need to be in their own room.

Then it's then it's like a decent place because it's hotels with that kind of space.

Cool if that makes sense.

Sorry I'm the one doing all the talking.

I realized I did the research for this one and I didn't realize it would be two episodes.

I would do apologize for those of you listening going like, Oh my God, when is Darcy going to talk?

I'm.

Going to be talking a lot in the next few episodes, don't worry.

So here we go.

And then I guess that's the kind of more or less most of the the common areas, the popular areas.

There are two places I'm actually going to mention kind of first that I've seen a lot of articles.

And it almost seems again, like I would never recommend this to somebody unless it's your second or third trip to Naples or if you're looking for space or if you have money and you and you're looking for a more relaxed sort of upscale vacation where you where you dip into Naples occasionally.

But like, as you mentioned this, that you're painting the picture of this really beautiful sort of slice of life happening.

If you're like that seems chaotic and stressful.

And I don't really want to be part of that.

I'd rather kind of be garden trees, Seaview, nice area, really quiet, good restaurants, you know, expensive drinks with nice drinks, that kind of stuff.

There's a Posilipo, which is sort of like a fancy area of an upscale area of Naples.

We've talked about it before.

It's near the, it's along the coast.

It's space is a good way to think about it.

It's just got large houses in large space.

So it's got a lot of vacation rentals as well as hotels that are.

This is like, it's a different town, no?

No, it's not because we've talked about Potsuoli, which is a different town, but OK, it's still kind of an, it's a very, it's a affluent neighborhood.

It's a good way to describe it and I've seen that one a lot mentioned were if I were, if it's almost like going to New York City, but you stay in the Hamptons.

There is anything for some of you that is like a dream, right?

That's like that's what that's exactly what you do and it makes sense.

You're like, I'm going to take a cab into the city and I'm going to see some stuff in the city, but I'm going to stay in a place that's nice, tranquil, relaxed, and it fits my vibe.

That would be possible.

Mergelina is also right next to that.

We've talked about on getting around Naples.

I said it.

You're probably never going to take the mergelina in funicular.

There is one that goes basically from mergelina to upper mergelina.

It's it's again, it's not as far over as Posilibo.

It's actually like one neighborhood closer between Kiaya and Posilibo is is mergelina.

It's a little again, I wouldn't recommend it.

It's a little far.

It sounds like both posilipo, posilipo.

Posili, I think it's.

Posilipo and Margelina, you said?

I think mergelina.

Are they walkable to the what you would want to see in Naples or you're going to have to take some sort of?

You're going to have.

To take some sort of transportation.

There, if I'm not mistaken, there are no I don't believe there's any metro stops it turns before you get there because it turns up towards the the hospital before you get to magic Elena before you hit the Persico.

I believe it's just bus and taxi, but it's one of those things too.

It's a little like incongruous because if you're staying there, you're probably not taking the city bus kind of thing.

It's a, it's a pricier per night, yeah, 3-4 hundred a night kind of thing.

So you're probably not going to be on the city bus.

You're probably should be taking a taxi.

So it's one of the things where again, if that, if you're thinking like it's almost kind of like I want to be in a place like Sorrento, but less touristy and closer Naples.

That would be kind of it because it really is a gorgeous view of the of the of the Gulf of Naples quieter not I mean there's also great beaches people do go swimming in the people from Naples what kind of come out so they put a go swimming.

It's closer than Sorrento and Positano and Amalfi and all that kind of stuff.

So it's really good swimming there It's really beautiful beaches it's very green very open.

It's just kind of not that close.

OK, Measuring in the same way.

However, key ion, which I just mentioned, which is spelled like it's Chiaya CHIAIA.

Yeah, So it's just chapter in in Italian, there's AK sound in English key.

So it's Kiaya.

So Kiaya, I'm saying that in case you're looking at back and like there's this Chiaya place, but I don't understand the other one.

He said that one is again, an affluent area as well.

Upscale, definitely, sort of where if you were old Napolitano money, you're from Kiaya basically.

And that is actually close enough to walk.

So if you're thinking I want cute boutique shops, I want things like made Italy or Italy designed.

But like, not necessarily like sort of I was going to name fashion houses and Rose.

I don't know any Italian fashion houses.

Prada, I guess my first name is Dior.

And I was like, I don't think Dior is Italian.

I think that's, I feel like that's like French or something 'cause there's no vowel at the end of it.

Dolce Gabbana.

Yeah.

So any of these fashion houses?

Are not cool people, by the way, I don't support them.

You don't know this.

Just a little tidbit of my opinion.

There.

I love that.

OK, moving on, I would love to ask you more about that, but I realize we're almost at the end of the episode and.

Just leave some mystery on that.

Yeah, we can we can.

Darcy's opinions on Dolce Gabbana episode 45 just she has a lot.

No, but I but so there there's.

Yeah, it's it's a really beautiful neighborhood.

We've, we've been actually, you know, I've been through the last time on our trip there, like actually through it, through it rather than sort of vaguely near it because we were kind of curious about it and we'd heard a lot about it.

And it is really neat.

It's again, boutique shop, the leather shoe place you like is there leather sandal place you like, is there that you found online?

And then you realize like this is where we are and it's something if you're looking for kind of something with fun Italian flair without being fashion house.

And I say without being fashion house because that is by and large arguably that what you can buy in Naples, what you can buy in Milan, which is what you can buy in France, which is what you can buy in New York City.

It's not like that different or any different, I imagine.

I don't know.

I know that like H&M will have different clothes to different countries, but I don't know if major fashion houses do.

I think they do OK, but.

So if you but if you're looking for something more more local, more interesting, that would be a place for shopping.

It's got really nice restaurants, like usually highly rated restaurants.

It's also super chill and quiet.

It is residential even if there are there are hotels there, but it's still residential in the sense where it's a quiet residential, not mopeds flying through, but more of like chic people walking home from work or like, you know, getting a cab.

So if you're looking for something quiet upscale without being out of the because again, a Kaia is really, you're within a 5 minute walk maybe from like the Galleria Umberto depending on where in Kaia you say.

You're still very much all in that area, walking through very interesting places and lots of shops and things like that.

It's not like you're going to walk from Kaia through some sort of dead area where there is nothing to see into the center of Naples.

Right, and I think that's actually a great way to put it as well.

You are from there.

You are literally you're you're going straight and interesting things.

And also too, if you are thinking like, well, the past sleep well, it kind of sounded nice.

I I want to check that out.

You just go the other way and check that out.

So it's, it's almost like if you're thinking slightly more and I say upscale vacation, I just mean there are plenty of expensive hotels in Naples proper that are just like.

In the historic center.

Yeah, in historic center near the either.

There's no one near the station.

It's like a panoramic hotel.

It's just a ugliest building, no offense, but gorgeous views because you just get the view of all of Naples and you don't have to see that building.

No offense to that.

We have a link for the description because it's you just you guys have to check it out.

I don't know, it's crazy.

I just in my head, I'm like it's.

It does have crazy good.

Views, it has crazy good views.

So if you're in Keanu, though, it's it's a little bit there are essentially it's a different upscale, but just a little more refined, for lack of another word in the sense too, like historically, people from Calya would go to Sorrento in the summer and go to their summer houses in Sorrento swimming, that kind of stuff.

So it's a little bit like you kind of get that feel where people are bringing a little bit of Sorrento back home with them or you know, like, Oh, I want to kind of feel like I'm like I'm near my garden because a lot of a lot of summer homes, historically, the Piazza Palazzos in Sorento were like massive lemon orchards around them or lemon Groves around them.

So it's kind of like you do get that feeling of like, oh, I can see like them trying to pull that into it, if that makes sense.

So that's key.

I highly recommend if you're looking for some quiet neighborhood, chill, upscale, good food, good bars and shopping, like a little upper scale shopping.

And then I think the last one I wanted to mention is Vomero, which I've we talked about the last one, we actually walked up there.

There's a, there's a famous walk up there and there's also a funicular up there.

To be very clear, it's much easier.

It's a neighborhood we've only walked through, I think a couple times because there is the Castel Santelmo up there and that's kind of the thing.

There's also a neighborhood I've mentioned in the last episode too, that I think it was the last No2 episodes ago that the, it used to be all farmland.

So it when it was built up, it was built up with space in mind rather than trying to cram as many people into a small area as possible.

Is more of like, well, since I have a farm up there, I might as well put a palazzo up there.

So you kind of get the, oh, these are some nice houses And again, not all of them.

I want to say nice right when I say nice in it.

I just had Kia and Pasilipo are nice.

Those are nice and still maintained.

Some of them are is nice and the family does not have money to maintain the house very much reminds me of like this sort of like the the English Lords and ladies that don't have money anymore kind of thing.

So it's like beautiful house, just the roof needs to be redone and it has fallen apart.

That's kind of a little bit of a Meadow.

It's like it's the other end of wealthy kind of thing.

It's like, oh, you're, I mean, still wealthy, but you're you're the plaster is peeling off the front of the, you know, giant palazzo.

Plenty of places there.

It's also apparently really well known for its nightlife.

I've not personally, I don't think I'm not personally good for its nightlife, but there are a lot of bars, late night bars, lounge bars, all that kind of stuff happening up there.

So if you're thinking clubs, if you're thinking bars, if you're thinking after dinner I want to drink and I'm going to be out to like one or two.

Vomero is a place to be.

It's also again, has that sort of feel of like, well, there's always somebody out and watching.

It's a bit.

It's tends to be safe in that sense.

Not that place of the clubs tended not be.

I don't yeah.

I feel like there's that.

Yeah.

It can be weird for sure, but if you're kind of near there, you're also a quick walk back to your apartment.

So it can be a quite a safe area in that sense.

And again, honestly, we've mentioned beautiful views from there as well.

You are up in a hill, so you do depending where you're or you might get lucky and get a view of the Gulf and get a view of the rest of Naples.

It does tend to be a little loud.

We found when we were there just walking around.

I don't know if it's how many flight plans go over it, but some do for sure.

So it's not again, I don't know how many planes land in Naples at night.

I don't know how well insulated your room will be.

Just something to keep in mind is there will be planes flying over especially early in the morning when the EasyJet and Ryanair whiz air, all those budget airlines that do land at like 546 in the morning bringing sort of because it's cheaper.

That's kind of when you might start getting woken up and in terms of just like the rumbling and the the loud noises.

So I think that for me is the last of the I'm looking at my list now the last of the major sort of neighborhoods.

Super.

At some point I was going to I wanted to kind of briefly mention like staying and maybe I'm sorry it's already gone long if I for 10 seconds.

Some people have asked especially like on Reddit, but even us like Sorrento, Pompeii, Herculaneum, like what about staying there?

It's what are your.

Thoughts.

Hard pass.

OK.

That's kind of where.

For, for, I guess for, for Pompeii and Herculaneum, hard pass on staying there because while you should absolutely visit those two historical sites, the towns around them I feel are really more for like if you have family there or friends there, of course you would want to stay in the same town as your friends or family, but you don't really need to stay there if you're just going to visit those two sites for a day or something like that.

Yeah, Sorrento is lovely.

It's not my favorite place to stay.

But if you want to have like a Sorento vacation, of course go to Sorento and stay there.

But I think, I think you could go and stay in Sorento and then take a day trip to Naples.

That wouldn't be my choice just because it's not my vibe, but that is possible.

I think that's much more possible than staying in Pompeii or Herculaneum and trying to do a day trip to Naples.

And I think that's, that's where I'm coming from because on a map, Pompeii is about equidistant between Naples and, and Sorento and around the station and around the entrance of the, the archaeological site.

It's actually some nice places.

And you're like, oh, this could be a cute little town.

And it's in, in my opinion, for those of you who might have stayed in Fumacino in Rome, which is where the airport is, Fumacino has a kind of a nice little area to it, strangely, like for essentially being only like now only really known for having the, the airport.

It also has a kind of a cute area, kind of.

Because it was.

It was a town before.

Yeah, it was like a little like just, yeah, near the near the the River Pompeii.

I mean, obviously it was, it just, it doesn't, I don't know.

I never got the sense of like this is and maybe I haven't explored it that well.

And that could totally be it.

It's nice enough, but it very much feels like people were kind of there to live and work while they're either they're working in Naples or something else and they just kind of come back to live.

It's like, so it's almost, it almost feels like there's a city sort of existing alongside the archaeological site that don't necessarily interact and aren't almost like, because I think a lot of the town is just sort of, I don't know, almost seems to exist despite the the archaeological site, which maybe is a terrible way to put it, but it's just, I don't know.

I thought there'd be more of like, oh, that's such an old and beautiful part of like, you know, history.

I wonder the town must also be kind of something interesting and you're like, Oh no, it's a very 1960s to 1980s apartment buildings.

It's, you know, it's not like that like mind blowing.

And again, if you're staying there for the night because you're like, well, we want to get up early and see Pompeii.

That's one thing for sure.

It's more of just like making it your home base while trying to see Naples and we'll try and see Sorrento.

I keep going back to that thing of like, if you could wake up in any of these neighborhoods, like where would you want to wake up?

And, and, and, and that I think is Sorrento is an is you have a hard pass.

I don't think it's terrible.

I mean, in sense of like, I don't disagree.

It's, it's, it's touristy for sure.

It I think I will say I've seen a lot of people more recently than than before talk about it was more touristy than they thought, which that was interesting.

I, the few times we've been to Sorrento, I've because so much of it is on like, no, it's not at sea level, but it's, it's near the sea.

It's sort of like what I feel is the main part of town and where you're likely going to what you're going to see and stay in.

And then there's lots of other houses and things like up on the hills and the mountains around it.

So a lot of people do actually live in Sorrento, but I think a lot of what tourists see is is a lot of touristy stuff that is specifically marketed and made for them.

And that's not what I expected, I guess whenever I went there for the first time, and having seen what is a lot of stuff specifically for tourists, restaurants specifically for tourists that are very expensive and often not that great, I just don't.

I just don't love it.

It's a beautiful town though.

What's also I think it's worth staying if you're trying to balance between like that in like Positano or something like that, there's an argument there because it's a different view, it's a different vibe.

Positano, it's supposed to be a little more upscale feeling, but it also could feel a little bit more, again, hyper touristy and, and, and somehow slightly less than Sorrento.

There's also some really beautiful, I will say Sorrento has a lot more walking in terms of if you want to get up in those olive lemon Groves.

As I mentioned, there's a bunch of footpaths that are public that you can go up and walk.

So if you're thinking if you're like a planer painter or something like that and you want to go up or writer and you want to kind of go up and just kind of walk around, get lost, get inspired.

That's it's almost like a mini coppery in that sense, because coppery had a lot of those.

Like, I think it's very similar public footpaths that you can just kind of go walk through.

Yeah, two separate farms, but I just, I think in general, if your, if your goal is to see Naples, I wouldn't recommend staying in Sorento, Pompeii, Herculaneum to see Naples.

I'd recommend staying in Naples.

And again, Trent Historical Spagnopolo, if you want that sort of, I want to be in it.

That would be a great location.

If you want to be a little more quiet, Kiaya's lovely Piazza de Pubosito is also really nice.

That area, it's quiet, it's hotels, families.

We like the Galleria Umberto there's a hotel that we like just because it's kind of a fun location and it's always kind of fun to wake up there.

And then again, if you're just in for a day, station's not bad because you just might as well be near the transportation.

So you, you limit the amount of time that you spend getting back to the station the next day and also can hop on any form of public transportation if it happens to be there.

And I think that's everything.

That was great.

Well, I hope you guys, yeah, I hope you, if you had any questions, please reach out.

But I hope this answered some questions because we're going to get into to more of like what to do in Naples and things like that, where to see, where to experience, what to eat.

And we hope that this kind of gives you a land, a starting place of like, oh, OK, we're going to stay here.

Then we can eat here, we can do this or we can see that thing.

So we hope at least helps.

And yeah, again, if you have any questions, you can absolutely reach out.

Yeah, we look forward to hearing from you.

And until then, thank you all so much for listening, and we hope that you listen to the next.

One OK, we'll talk to you next Wednesday, Dante Abraci.