We didn’t really have a walking tour to follow for this day and took off with no particular goal in sight. By this time in the trip, I still did not have a functional SIM card to use for Google mapping, so the best we could do was load a destination and then hope the navigation wasn’t interrupted along the way. If it was, the map would disappear and we were suddenly lost with only our dim memory to get us back to our Airbnb’s. (Cue the foreshadowing…)

(Side note- my dad HAD given me one but, as I’ll explain later in another chapter, there was an unpaid fee of some sort that blocked it from being used for data. It gets fixed later in the trip…)

Meanwhile, landmarks like this one became important beacons that helped lead us home:

Leaving the front door, and for several street blocks, were stands of presepi set up in front of workshops. Yes, these are all handmade with original materials like clay, foam putty, sticks, moss, paint, you name it! These are NOT made in China or pre-fabbed which, to me, is next level. The doors to the shops were propped open so visitors could watch the craftsfolk designing and constructing in their shops with shelves full of materials to choose from. The more I saw, the more I became a bit sad that I didn’t know about this or have the means to take even a small one home.

The variety was astonishing! Every life situation imaginable was created, from various types of shops, churches, nativities, seaside fish docks, markets,… It would have been incredibly difficult to choose one to purchase even if I could have!

All that aside, we struck out to see what we could before it got too late. Our wanderings led us here:

“The monastery annexed to the church has been the home of prominent names in the history of religion and philosophy. It was the original seat of the University of Naples, where Thomas Aquinas, a former member of the Dominican community there, returned to teach theology in 1272.”- Wikipedia

Basically, any church in Italy is going to have a rich history and probably be more beautiful than words can describe. Many have art works dating back centuries and likely done by a notable name from the Renaissance. And, it seems, no church in Italy is without its requisite effigy:

This church was no different; although we didn’t know it at the time and didn’t spend a ton of time in there, it offered tours of the museum in the basement. Once again, it was a “had we known…”. However, what we did see was fantastic and memorable. The details in the stonework mosaics are always enjoyable for me, as well as the marble carvings and woodwork.

This particular church was clearly a gathering place as well for youth wanting to meet and visit. There were many 20-somethings sitting on the stone steps eating lunch, catching up, and enjoying the sunshine. Italy has so many wonderful outdoor “living rooms” perfect for serving the community.

After our little visit to the San Domenico Maggiore, we began just wandering in no particular direction. Eventually, it was dark and we came across this fountain that actually was on a list I’d made up of places I wanted to see. By happy accident this is one I could cross off. However, we found it super disappointing to see more fountains that weren’t running at all. Sure, the artwork is very nice, but it lost a fair amount of its magic without water being where it should have. I mean what’s a fountain with Neptune and sea creatures without the water?! This fountain is undeniably the most well-known in Naples and I am glad I could at least see it.

By then, we were both REALLY hungry and, while there are many good restaurants all over Naples, we’d hit the wall, so to speak. We needed internet to load a map to get us home and there was a McDonalds very close. But we ended up with neither sustenance OR internet. Sad, dejected, and frustrated, we left and hoped something would turn up that we could agree on.

We should have stuck with McDonalds.

What we ended up with was an absolute disaster. Seriously, the meal was hands-down the most disappointing, pathetic meal on this whole trip. Just yuck.

As I said, we both just wanted something familiar, comfort-food so to speak. We wandered past café after café and after glancing at the menus, which are always posted outside, one seemed to have burgers and chicken sandwiches at reasonable prices.

It seemed to cater to university students as they advertised specials aimed at that demographic, so we sat down and tried to order. But the server didn’t speak very much English and somewhere along the way, the chicken sandwich that Anara tired to order ended up as this:

The server had asked if Anara wanted “a salad” with it, but in the messy conversation she really was trying to ask for lettuce and tomato on the burger. When it arrived, the chicken was an extremely bland pan-fried piece of chicken breast, NO bread, and a big plate of shredded iceberg. Anara couldn’t hold it back any longer- she cried. I didn’t blame her.

I’d ordered a bowl of soup which was ok; nothing special at all, and I don’t even have a photo of it. I remember it had some beans and a bit of pasta. At that moment, we both longed for some terrible American fast-food.

We both ordered an Italian bitter cocktail. More bitter than we were perhaps.

But the meal was not the worst part of the outing. Trying to get home was. We’d walked a long way and had no idea where we were. We aimlessly wandered and walked for what seemed like forever. Occasionally, we tried to stop people on the road and ask, but no one could help us find our way. It was getting cold, we were in unfamiliar territory, and we had an uneasy feeling about the area of town we were in. Honestly, I have no idea how we even ended up back into familiar places, but we found the neighborhood of presepi, and from there we eventually groped out way home.

We were both a bit grumpy, beyond tired, and had a hugely long day ahead of us in the morning. Every vacation is going to have some bumps in the road. I expect that; not everything will go as planned, even if planned perfectly. This was certainly a minor bump in the road, but tomorrow would be another day to try again.

If only our apartment had been a quiet one where we could get a great night’s sleep!