Derailed

Where to begin with Naples. This place is probably the worst place on the entire earth. When we got off the train and walked two miles to our hotel room and we were convinced we got off in some slum suburb of Mumbai, India. The whole walk we kept trying to convince ourselves it was getting better, it never did. Filth, everywhere. Mass amounts of trash covering the streets. Urine stench the entire walk. Mattresses lining the roads. Graffiti on every inch of every building. 

We walked down the alley way to our hotel and were scared for our lives as we seriously thought we were part of Slumdog Millionaire. There were huge metal gates we needed to buzz in to get to our hotel. The front desk man was quite a treat. When we asked if the whole city is like the walk from the train station, he had the same reaction as the front desk woman in Genoa and responded with “I have no idea what you are talking about?! I think this is the greatest place on Earth.” Maybe this man has never stepped out of his jail cell of a hotel. A tad bit later I asked if there was anything good to eat around the location and he proceeded to laugh at me and then talk about “castels” for four minutes. 

At this point we thought from front desk man’s reaction that the whole city couldn’t possibly be as bad. We were wrong. We then walked down the main drag to the water and it was just more of the same. This time with streets crowded as if the residents were not aware of the extreme amount of filth surrounding them. We would’ve felt more comfortable in the back alleys of Tijuana than here. 

When we got to the water we stopped at a restaurant and got some pies (what Naples is known for). When it was time to close the bill, the greasy Italian server told us over five times (literally) that the tip was not included in the bill. Not only did he tell us that five times, he stood by our table (in a crowded restaurant) and stared us down for over 15 minutes while we finished our wine. He did not get a tip. 

We literally did not feel comfortable or safe here. The combination of that and me starting to get sick from drinking some water from the faucet a few days ago led us to the conclusion we needed to skip town. We hopped on the first train we could to Florence. 

On the train, it was discovered that they overbooked by about 40 seats and we ended up sitting in the stairs by the doors of the train for over three hours. Fantastic. 

We got to Florence and pretty much crashed as I wasn’t feeling well. That is when we got a call from the front desk man at 1030pm mumbling about some extra charge we needed to pay in the morning. When we tried to check out he told us he put us in the wrong room, not the one we booked, so we needed to pay the difference. Makes sense, right? When we got into a very heated shouting match, he called me a “fookin asshole” and threatened to call la polizia. 

On the bright side we checked into a new hotel today and we’re roaming around Florence which is beautiful. We promise to have more good news next post!

We will now leave you with some mobile uploads of typical Napoli streets (I was too scared to bust out my camera). 

Every street corner - seriously

Beautiful landscaping