I left Il Rossi in Catania to go to a really intense software conference in Napoli for nine days. Naples was crazy, crazy, crazy. Suffice to say, the Neopolitan life is not La Dolce Vita. It's super hectic. It's so hectic that I only had about four hours of sightseeing time in those nine days. For those four hours, Alec Mitchell and I went to Castel dell'Ovo (free!) and then had a long and lingering frutti di mare lunch in the marina at Zi Teresa (made famous in Norman Lewis's Naples '44). Alec is an accomplished expert on Italian wines and got us out of the Aglianico/Falanghina rut we'd been in for days by selecting a beautiful Fiano di Avellino from the finest cantina in Campania, Feudi di San Gregorio. Afterwards, we went shopping for Nucillo (for ourselves) and in the Galleria Umberto for holiday gifts. This fourth installment of the photo blog starts at my hotel on Via Chiaia, proceeds through Piazza del Plebiscito, goes past the alberghi grande of the Riviera, and into Castel dell'Ovo. The picture at left is of the most photographed view of Napoli, looking onto Vesuvius across the Golfo di Napoli from the Plebiscito. It was a gloriously clear and warm day. Le Isole Capri e Ischia were in full effect.
