In celebration of Columbus Day, Mike got a 4 day weekend.  I was literally jumping up and down with joy.  You see, the kids attend an Int’l School that does not celebrate Columbus Day.  So, with this news, Mike and I had two 8 hour days to ourselves and we fully took advantage of this time together!

Day 1: We had an errand to run in Pozzuoli, so after our errand we walked around the cobblestone roads.  I was not wearing heels, but sandals with a little wedge and quickly regretted it.  I need to invest in some Italian walking shoes!   Mike had a restaurant in mind down on the waterfront that we ventured out and tried to find.

We ultimately found it at about 12:30 only to find out it wouldn’t be open for another hour.  As we have encountered multiple times, they eat lunch and dinner super late here!  We walked around until we found a sidewalk cafe open and relaxed, enjoyed a bottle of the house wine and a full course meal.

For antipasti, we ordered some bruschetta and some marinated fish.  We weren’t sure what kind of fish as it was in Italian on the menu, but were feeling adventurous.  It turned out to be marinated mackarel and quite tasty. For primo piatto, we had some delicious seafood risotto, which was my favorite part of the meal.  It had octopus and shrimp in it.  Our secondo piatto was a variety of fish that included shrimp, calamari and another white fish.   The calamari and shrimp were fantastic, but the white fish was not so much. After our great meal, we grabbed some gelato and went to pick up the kids from school.

For Day 2 of our fabulous solo time, we decided to head downtown Naples and to Vomero.  This time I wore flip flops (tennis shoes just made me look ridiculous) and I was much more comfortable walking.

We started our morning by taking the train into downtown.  We have been told this is faster and safer for your car, but next time we may drive.  It was not so fast. Once downtown, we started our morning at a bar.  At bars in Italy, you order a pastry and cappuccino or cafe (really espresso) and stand up at the bar and drink/eat.  The coffee and food is fabulous and highly recommended.  This provided a great start to our day!

With the maps on our iPhones and the paper map I brought with me, we aimed to find certain landmarks but took side trips along the way.  We stumbled upon two different castles.  The first castle was Castel Nuovo, located downtown on the waterfront.  And while we just walked around it and didn’t go inside of it (going to bring the boys back with us), the outside was spectacular.

On our way to find the tram to Vomero (up on the hill), we stumbled upon the Galleria that I had been looking for.  Filled with tourists, it was beautiful inside.  From there, we found the nearest Funicolare (trolley-like train up the hill) an headed to Vomero.   Being on a castle-kick, we decided to check out the the second castle of the day, Castel Sant’Elmo.  Following signs, we hiked and and after an interesting cobblestone uphill walk, found the castle.  From there, finding the entrance was another challenge.  We immediately found a “lift” in a little cave and figured it couldn’t possibly be the entrance, so we aimlessly continued to walk around the castle.  We ended up walking FAR and UP many cobblestone ramps.  It was quite comical as we had no idea if we were heading in the right direction and multiple times came to dead-ends.  After a very sweaty and adventurous journey, we finally made it to the top to find spectacular views of Mt. Vesuvius, downtown Naples and the ocean.  It was worth the trek for the view, but there was not much else in the castle except for a very morbid little museum that had quite a bit of strange drawings. And when I say “morbid”, I mean featuring death.  Included was this torture chair. Again, worth the hike for the views, but there was not much else to do in the castle itself.

After our fill of castles for the day, we walked back to the center of Vomero, which resembles Georgetown to me with its shopping and sidewalk cafes.  We found a little restaurant and enjoyed yet another fabulous date lunch.  To my surprise, my fusilli and broccoli pasta came topped with tons of delicious mussels.  (I do need to study more on the names of all the fish in Italian so I can read the menus better!)  Luckily, I love mussels and we laughed at the little surprise.