new bird – Dina's Wildlife Adventures

On our last day in Italy we took the fast train from Rome to Naples for the day. With no real agenda, when we got out of the train station we decided to walk towards the water and spend the time along the waterfront. We passed through the “real” Naples that most tourists don’t see. A lot of old run down buildings but with so much personality!

We also saw a some cool historic buildings as we walked along the waterfront. The first building is the Palazzo dell Immacolatella, built in the 1740’s. The 2nd building is the Castel Nuovo, built in 1279.

Up on a hill we could see Castel Sant’Elmo, a medieval fortress built in 1275.

The view along the waterfront. We saw several cruise ships in port but we didn’t see any big “cruise ship” crowds where we were.

A new bird for me was the yellow legged gull which is similar but larger to our lesser black backed gulls and smaller than the greater black backed gull.

Looking at Mount Vesuvius that erupted in 79AD.

We were more than an hour’s walk from the train station and in a local area when we found a pizza place. I think we were the only tourists there and the waiter barely spoke English but we managed. I’m not sure why my pizza looks so much larger in the picture but they were the same size. They both were great but we could barely eat a little more than half. I at least ate all of the middle part.

We spent some time roaming around the Piazza del Plebiscito, the largest square in Naples. It was built in the first half of the 19th century out of volcanic rock from Mount Vesuvius.

Our last stop before heading back to the train station late that afternoon was to get our last gelato of the trip. So good and I now miss our daily gelato treats. We never saw any big crowds here and it was nice to hang out with the locals.

On our way home after 2 weeks in Italy.

Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) at Image-In-Ing.

I’m going to go off topic and posts some shots from our recent trip to Italy every so often. I hope you don’t mind coming along for the ride.

Brett and I flew into Rome for 2 days before heading to Tuscany for a week long tour. Then back to Rome for several days before heading home. We got to our hotel just after lunch and dropped our bags and took off. Our hotel was a 15 minute walk to the Colosseum so we headed there first. There were long lines to get in and we walked past it after snapping some pictures and headed uphill towards a church.

The first church we went into (we went into 11 in total) was the Santa Maria Nova/Santa Francesca Romano, just a few minutes from the Colosseum. It was not a big church but still very ornate. It was originally built in the 8th century but then rebuilt in the 13th century and the name was changed to Santa Francesca Romano after St. Frances died in 1440 and was buried there.

A typical side street in Rome. I’m not sure if these are rentals. We saw them all over the city.

It’s supposed to be illegal to sit on the Spanish Steps but no one seemed to know that or care. And in all fairness, there is almost no where to sit all over Rome apart from cafes. We saw very few benches and everyone is exhausted from walking around. We came back here before leaving Rome and I got some great views from the very top of the stairs but more on those later.

Typical statue. They are everywhere here.

I thought this little cafe was so cute with the umbrellas on the chair.

A side view of the Trevi fountain. There was a long line to get down close to the water and the crowds around this area were insane.

The 2nd church we visited, Santi Vincenzo E Anastasio, was across from the fountain. The original church was built in 962 and then rebuilt in 1650. The hearts of 22 Popes are buried here.

We stopped in at the 3rd church right before the Pantheon. The church of Sant’lgnazio de Loyola (St. Ignatius) was built in 1650 as the chapel for a college. There are 3 saints and a Pope buried here.