I was afraid it might not be but Naples IS beautiful. We found our way to the seaside via foot, metro and bus, and found several major piazzas (city squares) along the way. We experienced wonderful parts of the city. I learned I could live here if I were very rich and could live on the hillside overlooking the Bay of Naples. Yes, it's a little dusty and there is a lot of litter, but not as much as we saw in Central Naples yesterday. The people in the inner city seem oblivious to the trash. In fact we saw families picnicking and enjoying each other in the parks and piazzas with trash lying all around. I guess they just get used to seeing it and living with it. As we traveled to more affluent areas, we saw less trash but still not much green grass--very dry here.

We saw the coast and my, how the people were out. Everyone was in bikini's and speedo's and enjoying the yukky dark sand and the wonderfully clear Mediterrainian waters of the Bay of Naples. Families were gathered, sunning, cooking on open-air charcoal grills and relaxing. Young people were riding bikes, playing soccer, swimming, diving and flirting. And oh the fabulous hotels and restaurants on the opposite side of the boulevard! We stopped at a small place called the Chateau Della Rose and enjoyed a cool beer, a glass of water with ICE and a panani made of salsiccia, formaggio, lettuce and tomato. They even served little bowls of nuts, chips and pretzels at no additional charge! Unlike Prague!

On our first night here we found a pizzeria and had absolutely the best pizza we've ever tasted. You know, pizza was created here in Naples. The pizza shop was a very popular place. People were lined up to get a take-out pizza and the wait for a table was about 2 hours. A local helped us land a table a little sooner and listened to our order to make sure we were getting what we thought. What a nice young man,! His name was Benjamin in English, Bengimano in Italian. He told us a bit about the trash problems here and felt bad for his country. He and his wife were to begin a holiday in Spain starting the next morning. We greatly enjoyed our time together and exchanged email addresses.

For tonight, we mapped our way via bus to return to the bay to enjoy calamari at the restaurant at the foot of Castel dell' Ovo. It was a little work, but we did make it back there and had a delicious dinner of veal and il polipo -- you look it up -- on the water at the foot of the castle.