A week in Naples and around

The food has to be one of the highlights of a visit to this region - the birthplace of the pizza, you must try one in Naples. Spend a morning wandering the narrow lanes of La Forcella, where a lively street market is held daily. Take a trip by hydrofoil to one of the islands in the Bay of Naples - Capri, Ischia or Procida - all are beautiful, but each has its own special appeal.

Quick Tips:

We found Naples noisy, dirty and very hot. if you do not like being in the heart of a hectic city, stay outside Naples and make the trip into the city for a day visit instead. Excellent public transport makes this a realistic proposition.

Best Way To Get Around:

Walking is the best way to appreciate the centre of Naples so long as you can handle crossing the alarmingly busy roads - there are almost no pedestrian crossings! Buses are cheap and plentiful and a good but limited Metro service is currently being expanded. To climb the steep hills to other parts of town use on of the three funiculars - the use is included in the price of a day pass (currenly 3 Euros - an absolute bargain, individual journeys cost 90 Cents, buy tickets from "Tabacchi" - tobacconists).

This hotel is next to the city's main train and bus stations, and therefore all rooms are subject to a lot of noise from the 24-hour traffic which circles the piazza. A medium-sized hotel, it has an attractive air-conditioned foyer which only leads to disappointment when you discover that none of the rooms have air-con. Open the windows and all you get is VERY loud traffic.

However, the rooms are a decent size, clean and comfortable. There are a few rooms which share bathrooms, but most have en suite facilities. Beware Room 70 - the maid's closet is next to this room and you will be woken when she gets out her cleaning things and bedding - EARLY!

Breakfast is poor but typically Italian, served in a small room with only five tables - we missed it one morning because there were no spaces and we needed to be out for a train.

For a double room, the rack rate is 97 Euros, but we booked through an online bookings site (there are several sites offering discounts on this hotel, like www.hotelclub.net) and paid just 63 Euros per night including breakfast.

All rooms have colour TV and hairdryer.

The useful location compensates for the noise making this a reasonably priced hotel in a city with few hostels or real budget hotels.

This great bar and restaurant is tucked away a few minutes’ walk from Piazza Amedeo station. We stumbled on it by chance on an evening when we had already made plans to go to a different place. However, we stayed for a drink and the staff were so friendly we decided to go back the next night to eat.

The decor is stylish, the walls a striking shade of burnt orange. You can be tucked away in a corner, but since an Italy soccer game was being shown on TV, we sat near the bar so we could join in with the cheering.

Meat eaters are spoiled for choice here; I plumped for a massive steak, which came lovely and bloody. Served with a well-dressed salad and fried plantains. My veggie partner was given specially made-up dish of emapanadas, salad, plantains, onion rings and loads more. Sadly, no fish is on the menu here.

The restaurant offers a very special house wine - one which was created specially to commemorate Diego Maradona, a massive hero in Naples for his part in the Naploi Serie A winning side. Being English, we declined, but had an alternative palatable red which was inexpensive.

Tucked away on a side street near Piazza Amedeo, Zorba's is a well kept little secret that many visitor's may be thankful to see. Don't get me wrong, I love Italian food, but I eat lots of it at home and ate even more in Naples, so I was pleased for an alternative. Believe me, alternatives to Italian food aren't sign-posted in Naples!

The interior is an attempt to recreate a traditional Greek taverna and the result isn't too bad; a bit whimsical, perhaps, but passable. The place is a bit of a maze with dark passageways linking little dining rooms and the end result is a cosily attractive little joint.

You can opt for a full Greek feast, starting with a traditional meze (selection of starters to be shared by all at your table) and go onto a main course, or you could simply go for the meze which, when shared by two people, is more than enough. It contained a large and tasty Greek salad, fresh pita bread, a range of dips such as a garlicky chickpea hummous, taramousalata of cod's roe, and tsatsiki (yogurt and mint), fresh seafood, courgette fritters, stuffed grape leaves, huge butter beans in a tomato sauce; it just kept on coming!

We gave the mains a miss, but the selection seems varied with traditional Greek classics like kleftiko and stifado as well as a good variety of fish and seafood dishes.

Drinks are a little steep but we bought a good Greek white wine which was delicious and came in at around €14.

Service was where Zorba's was a letdown. It was slow and disinterested. At first, the waiter didn't even want to allow us to forgo the main course even though the meze was more than plenty and the cost worth their while.
They took ages to bring the bill and were generally not helpful or friendly.

That said, it could have been a one-off and I would be reluctant to give a poor verdict on what was pretty much a good restaurant with some great food. My recommendation is that you give them a chance.

La Forcella is the name given to the back streets of Naples just behind the Piazza Garibaldi, close to the central train station. These atmospheric streets are known for being the home of the Camora - the Neapolitan version of the Mafia, but you'll be completely safe here taking in the sights. The only thing to keep an eye out for is an adventurous squid trying to make an escape!

Mornings are the best time to catch the fish market, and there are tons of stalls brimming with all manners of fish and seafood. The stock is contained in shallow metal dishes, sitting on ice and being sprayed by jets of icy water to keep it fresh. One stallholder thanked me profusely (in typical dramatic Italian fashion) when I pointed out that one of his squid was making a bid for freedom!

Even if you don't have cooking facilities where you are staying, it’s still good fun to stroll around the food market, or you could take home some smoked meats or some delicious cheese - all kinds of Italian specialties are available here at good prices.

Shoes are another staple, not only of La Forcella, but of Italian life. Italians love to buy shoes and you'll see loads of women putting down their overflowing baskets to try on a shoe. Bags are also abundant, and you have to be very picky if you can't find something to suit you here.

Luggage is another good bet, as all kinds of hold-alls and suitcases can be purchased. They are ideal if you've overdone the shoe shopping and need something to get it all home in.

Even if you come away empty-handed, you'll love the experience of the sights, sounds, and smells of La Forcella.

What is significant about Naples is that many of the dishes we associate with Italian food originated there. Therefore Neapolitans are justly proud of their food heritage - the city is brimming with typical Italian trattorias and restaurants, and it's pretty hard to find places serving other types of cuisine. We stayed in Naples for a week and found that after a couple of days we were yearning for something different. Don't get me wrong, the Italian food is fantastic and you can eat quite cheaply, but we already eat quite a lot of Italian food at home, so we were keen to have a change.

Seafood is abundant but tends to be served predominantly in the Italian style, however it is invariably fantastic. Meat dishes tend to come in either rich creamy sauces or with tangy tomato sauces. Almost everywhere serves an "inslata Caprese" (literally a Capri salad) comprising tomatoes and local buffalo mozzarella - a definite must-try.

To eat food other than Italian at reasonable prices, my tip is to head to Piazza Amedeo where there are several such restaurants in the streets immediately around the Metro station. There you can find a Greek restaurant, two Mexicans, a Spanish and an Argentinean restaurant. (Please see individual entries for a couple of these).

For fast food, there are plenty of opportunities to grab some pizza or a panino (a sandwich filled with delicious ingredients), and hot dogs seem to be particularly popular.

My only gripe is that the menu seems to be replicated in the majority of Italian eateries and you find yourself choosing from the same selection, just in a different location.

Do not be put off backstreet places that look a little down-at-heel. These are usually good value and serve simple but delicious food.

Vegetarians are adequately catered for and should have few problems, but may tire of a limited selection if staying an great length of time.

Desserts are served almost everywhere, but my tip is to stop off at a dedicated "gelateria" and sample some terrific Italian ice cream - usually served in two sizes - huge and mega-huge!

The main reason for our day trip to Sorrento was to spend some time on the beach. Naples itself has a couple of beaches but they are neither comfortable nor very pleasant.

This area of the Italian coast has very few sandy beaches and the majority of those that are, are privately owned and those that are open to the public demand a hefty admission fee. Armed with this information, we headed for area that we had heard had several small lidos, where, for a modest charge, we could rent a bed and enjoy relative quiet.

The town of Sorrento is situated on a high cliff top and so you need to either walk down a long winding path or use the lift to get to the water level at Marina Piccolo. The lift costs about 1 euro. We walked down and promised ourselves we would use the lift to go back up.

At the bottom there are several options. You can join the hoards of Italian teenagers who crowd onto a tiny patch of concrete with a towel being the only concession to comfort; this is free but has its obvious disadvantages.

Then again you could sit on a small sandy area that is overrun with families; also free but I don't find being surrounded by noisy children very relaxing. The other option is to use one of the lidos (and there are two). For us there really was no choice. We paid 7 euro each and headed for the furtherest part of the jetty and settled down.

The jetty made up two sides of a square with the beach as the third and the fourth side opened out onto the sea. Some people were taking small boats out onto the open sea but I wouldn't recommend this since the ferry and hydrofoil terminal is close by; I certainly wouldn't recommend that swimmers stray out of this area either. The passengers vessels arrive and depart with regularity throughout the day and while you can hear their engines it proved to be less of a disturbance than I originally envisaged.

There are secure steps from the jetty into the water which means that you don't have to walk all the way round to the beach and pick your way through the people there to get into the water.

The water is fairly clean though by no means the best I've ever seen. Occasional pieces of litter from the beach get into the sea. I also thought there was a need for more litter bins at the exit of the beach.

If swimming has worked up an appetite or you simply need a cool drink, there's a reasonably priced café serving both alcoholic and soft drinks and food ranging from sandwiches to pizza and pasta dishes. You can sit on the terrace in front of the café or take the food away with you. We enjoyed an excellent pasta dish and an wonderful aubergine bake along with some cold beers. There are toilets here for customers and non-customers alike.

After a day swimming and sunning ourselves we packed up and headed for the lift. To come to it we had to walk along the most foul smelling tunnel that was clearly being used by some as a toilet. We didn't bother waiting for the lift.

The set up is not perfect and some may not like the idea of having to pay - but think about it, you'd pay for a sun-bed anyway at most resorts. While most of the hotels have their own pool that is convenient to use the only other decent option remains paying to use a lido.