A day in Naples - and the scooters of Naples

I'm sorry I've been absent for the past week, we took a family vacation down to the Campania region of Italy to visit Sorrento, Naples, Pompeii, and a myriad of other sites down there. I'll get right to posting pictures!

Hey, not a bad place to stay! This is the view from our apartment where we stayed. The greenery, sea, and rainbow reminded me of a scene from Hawaii. The environment is the same I suppose - a volcanic landscape covered with sunshine most of the year.


A view looking out to the other side of the Bay of Naples.


We spent a very nice day walking around the city of Naples. I've already posted a few posts about the sites we saw so I won't duplicate it. Instead, here are a few pictures from the life within the city.

I've never seen so many hazelnuts in one place in my life.


This is the only graffiti I've seen that I've liked. Whoever did it was pretty good. I'm not sure why there's a pistol above her (St. Agnes) head though.


Perhaps Theodore can tell us if this is standard operating procedure for transporting a trombone!


There were many shops like this, selling everything from dolls to marble busts. This one didn't have a name, because, I suppose, how do you name a store like this!?


We stopped to get the best pizza we've ever had. Fresh made, in a wood-fired oven, there's truly nothing like the real Neapolitan pizza. Obviously a lot of locals agree with our choice of pizzeria, as you can see by the crowd outside.


Mom managed to destroy her pizza trying to eat it. Look at Augustin's look. "Mom...what on earth!?"


Andrew taking in some of the stalls overflowing with Nativity scenes and Christmas decorations.


Some local kids setting off firecrackers.


Andrew on a crowded street.


A fresh fish market.


Part 2 of this blog post will deal with Naples' scooters. The traffic in Naples is legendary. I really have no way of describing it. Someone on the internet described it as where "the social order breaks down". It's by far the craziest thing I've ever seen motor vehicles involved in. Let's just say that the Neapolitans don't seem to attach much importance to rules of the road. (Some would argue any rules at all, but that might be stretching it a bit.) This graffiti pretty much describes their attitude towards driving though. Translated, it means "legality doesn't belong to us"


There is an age limit for driving a scooter, there is a mandatory helmet law, and another mandatory law stating that a maximum of two people may ride at any given time. Yeah.....you're seeing what you think you're seeing.


Hey, you've got to hand it to them. These two guys have some serious points on thier man cards to ride around on a PINK Vespa.


No helmets.


No helmets, and talking on a cell phone (another no-no).


Dad takes the kids out for a Sunday drive......


Anything with wheels and a motor seems to be acceptable. These two kids can't have been older than Augustin, yet they were cruising around on this mini ATV!


They start them young here....


An interesting phenomenon I noticed. Lots of scooter riders went around WITH a helmet, just not on. This guy's a perfect example. For the record, it can't be to put on real quick if he were to see a cop, since I saw cops riding around without helmets. (I also saw cops double parked, and driving without seatbelts....so....)


Looks like Junior gets to ride backwards. No helmet!


This is supposed to be a pedestrian only zone. Instead it was a two-way motorcycle zone.


This kid can't be a year old yet! Looks like she's having fun though.