It hard to believe that only days after we sailed by two of Italy’s volcanoes, that Mt Etna and Mt Stromboli actually erupted and spewed hot ash and lava forcing the temporary closure of Catania Airport, Sicily. We did see smoke and a glow as we went past and were amazed at that sight!

Today we’re being free range tourists in Naples. That’s what my tour guide Ruthie told me. No plans and wandering aimlessly was the agenda. I shouldn’t have believed her! 600 climbing steps later we were 457 metres above sea level at Saint Elmo castle. Phew! The zig zagging stone staircases were built in the 14th century and help connect the city in various ways. They connect alleys, steps and ramps and vary in slopes and width. They are considered real urban masterpieces.

Certainly a different way of living. In the small alleyways we would not only encounter pedestrians but cars, scooters and motorcycles as well as a distraught family following a hearse walking behind and wailing. There was barely room for anyone! You wouldn’t want to be in a hurry to leave as many of the cars were blocked in by their neighbours. This is a smorgasboard area for snowdroppers as all the household laundry was very much on display. Many buongiornos greeted us along the way as the Napolese enjoyed their morning coffee and cigarette outside their front door.

Back to the castle, the panoramic view showed us how vast Italy’s 3rd largest city is. Again, I’m not even going to tell you how old things are here. What I do want to ask is why did they have to build everything on top of mountains?They certainly didn’t take the 21st century tourist into account. A morning coffee and we were ready to face our descent.

The stairs were out of the question and we took the roadway option. Our aim was to find the oldest pizzeria believed to have ever existed – Antica Port Alba, and try a sample before we returned to the ship. Google maps was trying hard not to be our friend and we certainly covered more area than we needed to partly because the tiny alleys it was trying to send us down looked like private driveways. The heat was brutal and surprisingly, divorce proceedings were not initiated.

Finally, we got to share a Margherita pizza washed down with a cold Grande Peroni beer. The Margherita pizza was first made in the late 1800’s in honour of Queen Margherita. It was made to honour the newly designed Italian flag colours with its red tomato, white cheese and the green basil leaf. She loved it and the Margherita pizza was born.

We were now in the street art district. Graffiti was everywhere. Some artistic, some just vandalism. I’m sure this area would look very different at night as we passed by many shut nightlife venues.

Happy to be home (the ship) after a lot of walking. We watched sailaway and sadly that would be our last one for this cruise. Tomorrow we will be disembarking but tonight we farewell our new friends! We had a great night. The cruisers doing the full world cruise have their last day together in Coco Cay. It was sad for us saying goodbye after 2 months so can’t imagine after they’ve been together 9 months!