Naples, Italy

Upon arriving in Napoli,

we were confronted by a very unsightly scene.

Trash was piled high along the streets,

on the corners and among the curbs.

Our tour guide, Michael, explained to us that this very unsanitary situation

related back to the Italian Mafia.

You see, as I later learned from my husband, 

the sanitation system is controlled by the mafia, 

{hubby has no first hand experience of this, but he says he learned it from The Sopranos}.

The Mafia must not be too happy with the government officials in Naples

because their protests were certainly hard to miss.

A small pile of trash on a street corner in Napoli, Italy

Trash was EVERYWHERE!

Once we drove further into the city of Naples,

the piles of trash started to disappear and the rest of the city was quite beautiful.

We only stayed in Naples for a few hours as we were making our way to Sorrento.

Of course, we couldn't help ourselves 

and had to take more tourist-y photos while in Naples.

Here Jonathan is posing like the great general above.

It's in the close up that you really get a great sense of Jonathan's acting range.

Alex is quite the warrior.
I am quite sad I did not get a close up of this pose.

I chose the statue with a great under bite.
We do have a close up picture of this but there is no way I posting that  bad boy!! :)

According to our guide, this is the coffee shop that all the celebrities go to when in Naples.

Delicious cappuccino!

Amazing pastry called sfogliatelle!!
It was filled with custard!

Me pretending to be famous
at the infamous coffee shop
while the paparazzi took my picture.

The kids peer-pressured us into kissing under the arch.
I was quite embarrassed!

Did I mention the gay pride festival we happened to stumble upon?
No, well it was amazingly fun.
The kids were shocked to say the least but by the end of the afternoon
one of the girls told me, "That was better than prom!"

There was lots of music and dancing...

...and balloons, and drag queens.

Leaving Naples we drove by this castle.

One of our first glimpses at Mt. Vesuvius!
Much more to come on that mountain.

Up next... SORRENTO!