Welcome to Naples

 Today we left Rome and travelled to Naples where we are staying for eight nights. They say that you either love or hate Naples and it is described as 'edgy.' First impressions are amazing!

Let me tell you about travelling on trains in Italy. A couple of months ago I bought the tickets for today's trip on-line. I use the Italiarail web site which is user friendly and in English. The earlier you buy, the cheaper the ride. Once purchased and seats chosen you are issued with a six digit PIN. Arriving at the station you show or quote your PIN to enter the platform and once under way the conductor comes along and enters your number into his tablet. All done! Of course, you can show a digital version with a bar code but I wasn't sure that I could access it digitally.

In just on two hours we pulled into Napoli Centrale and walked 450 metres to our accommodation. We have a modern holiday rental unit within an old complex and directly above (and owned by) a pasticceria. The owners are fifth generation pastry cooks, their speciality is the Neapolitan pastry called a sfogliatella.

Breakfast is included; we can go downstairs and exchange a daily ticket for one drink of any sort and one pastry each. Kel thinks he has died and gone to heaven.

This is a sfogliatella, a crispy pastry with a sweet ricotta filling. It is a speciality of Naples, and also the name of our home for the next eight days.

We have a large outdoor terrace which overlooks a busy interesection. We won't need to go anywhere for Kel to be entertained. The antics of the car drivers, scooters, buses and trams, say nothing of firemen who urgently need a Granita (it is 32 again) are all keeping him enthralled. He is sure that the drivers do not need to pass a driving test.

In another direction the view is what I call quintessentially Neapolitan.

The noise in this vibrant city is unbelievable. At the intersection below our terrace there is constant tooting of horns, sirens, people noise and other things such as fireworks. The driving habits are a source of constant amazement and, as expected, crossing a street is a challenging business not unlike in Palermo in Sicily.