Our time in Naples was definitely an adventure! It’s a busy city full of narrow streets, winding alleys, and extremely chaotic traffic (don’t ask us how many times we thought we were going to get taken out by a moped).

Our Airbnb host told us that tourism in Naples has grown significantly within the last 10-15 years, largely due to cruise ships stopping along the Amalfi coast. However our apartment was located closer to the city center, so unfortunately we missed out on the more well-known touristy spots near the water.

With that said, we did get to enjoy some great pizza and met a waiter who loved that we were from the United States! It turns out he had a Route 66 tattoo on his calf and a giant Statue of Liberty tattoo on his back, but sadly we did not get a photo of that!

Pompeii

On Wednesday we woke up at 5:30 A.M. (thank you jet lag) and couldn’t go back to sleep, so we decided to start our day early. We walked toward our tour meetup spot and got our first Italian cappuccinos at Caffetteria Florio along with some delicious Nutella croissants.

From there, we made our way to the Central Station where we hopped on a bus for a guided tour of Pompeii! The ancient city was much larger than we imagined, and even with a guide we only got to see a small section of it. We learned that archaeologists have only excavated two-thirds of the city, still over 50 acres remain buried in ash from the eruption nearly 2,000 years ago. Walking through the streets was surreal!

Mount Vesuvius

When the tour finished we boarded our bus again and made our way toward Mount Vesuvius. It took about 20 minutes to drive halfway up the mountain where we stopped at a small restaurant for lunch. We had pizza, pasta, and wine and met some fellow Americans in our group from Tennessee and Ohio!

After lunch we drove to the entrance of the park and began our hike to the top. Mount Vesuvius is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because it is the only active volcano on the mainland of Europe! It last erupted in 1944, but still over 3 million people still choose to live in the surrounding area.

On the way to the top you can see the nearby Mount Somma, where the highest point is called “Punta del Nasone” which means “tip of the big nose.” You can clearly see why in the photo below! Once we reached the summit we got to enjoy stellar views of Naples and the beautiful coastline.

Overall, even though Naples was chaotic at times, it is undeniably energetic and full of character. We could not have asked for a more memorable start to our time in Italy!