A bit of Sightseeing ...
Yes this trip was about sailing in the Amalfi Coast, but one cannot take a trip to Italy without seeing some sights while we are there, we may never be back to Napoli again.
One thing about Napoli that I found so interesting is there are so many castles that date back over 500 years old, and 500 years is the youngest castle. We had to tour at least one. The one we toured was the Castel Nuovo, which means New Castle … and was as castle to four different rulers of different descents and used their country of where they came from to influence the architecture of the castle. The castle dates back to the late 1200s and was built by the Argons of Spain. The most striking feature of the castle was the fact that you could be in the lookout tower and see for miles over the sea.
I found this pic online and the nice thing about this photo is it shows the Castle, the port of Napoli and our hotel we stayed in is on the left side of the port.
It was great to tour this amazing castle. Living in the States we do not have buildings this old, and to see it still standing and a tower feature in the horizon was quite amazing.
Here are some other pics of this amazing Castle
I made and appearance in front of the Castle, the octogon ceiling in the court of the Castle, detail of the front entry way of the Castle, the floor plan of the Castle & the facade of the Castle on main road
From the Castle looking west we could see this amazing glass ceiling on a promenade of some kind, we had to find out what it was. We hit the pavement and found the Galleria Umberto, which as it turns out is an indoor shopping center. But not indoor like we know indoor to be, the ends were open to the outside but the top was all glass, and the floor was the most beautiful mosaic tile. There was also so many people sitting drinking coffee, talking to friends and walking through the Galleria, it was when we realized we had to slow down and embrace Italian life, why not be like an Italian while in Italy, and slow down.
The beautiful facade of the Galleria Umberto
Looking into the Galleria Umberto
The Glass ceiling in the Galleria Umberto
Where ever we walked, we would find amazing architecture, and something hidden behind the walls that was least expected. This turned us on to walking and exploring wherever we went. Napoli was the only big city we went to in Italy, from here we head to the islands.