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Originally posted by dmwnc1:
W I remember once reading that Naples had more rats than people [...]

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I guess that's true for most cities. Rats are everywhere.

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Originally posted by dmwnc1:

Has anyone that ever visited Capri taken the chair-lift from Anacapri to the top of Monte Solaro? Absolutely stunning views to be sure, and what a thrilling little is was. Highly recommended!!!

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Yes, I have been there several times - it is just fantastic up there.

Here a link to some video clips on leaving and arriving in Sorrento and passing Capri.

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Originally posted by Ernst:
I guess that's true for most cities. Rats are everywhere.

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I have read that London has a major rat problem these days. I don't remember the details, but I recall that the water board was once responsible for controlling the rat population, but it has since been privatized, and cut back on its rat eradication schemes, and the local authority is not pleased, but neither one wants to pay to lay down more rat poison, and... You get the idea. The end result of this bureaucratic wrangling is clearly positive for the rats, anyway.

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Originally posted by dougnewman:
, but I would rather not visit any city during a garbage strike!

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In New York City the garbage men once went on strike wanting a better class of garbage

What works best on controlling rat population is not killing them, but removing their food supply.

First it was indeed to the San Martino convent, where we were nearly alone, and then we descended the hill through the old (very old) neighbourhouds to the old roman decumanus, full of churches and cloisters - there was a statue of the Nile god which has stood there since about the time of the birth of Christ, on the same spot. There was a street with a lot of workshops making christmas cribs. The cathedral disappointed a bit. Very hard to find a taxi back.

Behind the Castel Nuovo is a nice 19th century glass-and-iron shopping mall (a bit like in Milan).

Not to be missed is Café Gambrinus nearby, another one of those old historical european caf"s, like Café Greco i nRome or Dehmel in Vienna, which used to be gathering places of intellectual and social activity, but now staid and expensive and stylish relics (with very very good graniti..)

The sight of the lights of the Bay of Naples on Oceanic's aft deck at night when leaving Naples is one of my travel highlights ever.

[ 01-30-2009: Message edited by: dmwnc1 ]

http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/travel/36-hours-in-naples-italy.html?hpw

36 Hours in Naples, Italy
By INGRID K. WILLIAMS
THE southern Italian city of Naples, capital of the Campania region, has a reputation sullied by corruption and crime, both petty and organized. But change is afoot. A new mayor has ushered in initiatives to clean up the city, beginning with the unclogging of streets by disposing of uncollected trash and redirecting chaotic traffic flows. A thriving contemporary art scene — in museums, galleries, and even metro stations — is propelling the city’s cultural revival. Make no mistake: problems persist, but those who remain aware of the vices in this spirited, ancient city will be rewarded by its virtues.

Friday

4 p.m.
1. SEASIDE STROLL

In April, cars were banned from the waterfront streets Via Caracciolo and Via Partenope, officially transforming these traffic-choked arteries into a pleasant pedestrian lungomare, or seaside promenade. Stroll along it to take in the marvelous views of Mount Vesuvius, the island of Capri in the distance, and the splendid sunset-painted sky. Then cut through the Villa Comunale park and ring the buzzer to gain entrance to the inner courtyard where the art gallery Studio Trisorio (Riviera di Chiaia, 215; 39-081-414-306; studiotrisorio.com) is hidden. The gallery, which unveiled a new exhibition space in late 2011, hosts a revolving slate of provocative shows including, currently, a Rebecca Horn exhibition.

8 p.m.
2. CREATIVE PAIRINGS

Some of the most innovative food in town is being served at Squisitezze (Via Costantinopoli, 100; 39-081-401-578; lastanzadelgusto.com), a cheese bar and convivial osteria. The creative menu — drawn from the chef Mario Avallone’s upstairs restaurant, the more formal La Stanza del Gusto — is scrawled in pastels across chalkboards on the walls, lending the space a lighthearted vibe that carries onto the plates. Don’t miss the delicious arancino di mare, a fried fist-size sphere with a brick-red crust that cracks open to reveal a creamy core of rice and seafood. There’s also a fine list of quality craft beers, including many from the Campania-based microbrewery Karma, that will prepare you for the birramisù, a reimagining of the classic espresso-fueled dessert. Dinner for two, about 50 euros, about $66 at $1.32 to the euro.

11 p.m.
3. CHIAIA CRAWL

The Chiaia neighborhood is studded with art galleries and boutiques, but it’s also the city’s prime night-life zone. Stop at Barril (Via Giuseppe Fiorelli, 11), a wine bar that opened in July with an all-white color scheme and candles atop wood-crate tables. If it gets too packed on the bar’s covered patio, head down the street to Enoteca Belledonne (Vico Belledonne a Chiaia, 18; 39-081-403-162; enotecabelledonne .com), where locals simply slip outside to the narrow alleyways to do their wine-sipping when the crowd swells. End the night in a relaxed atmosphere at Trip (Via Giuseppe Martucci, 64; 39-081-1956-8994; tripnapoli.com), a locale that defies labels. The multiroom venue hosts diverse events — children’s play groups in the morning, theme parties at night — and has plenty of overstuffed couches on which to linger with a cocktail after dark.

Saturday

10:30 a.m.
4. NEAPOLITAN DESIGNS

Serious sartorialists flock to Naples for Italy’s top tailors, but bespoke suits require time, and multiple fittings. For an instant update, choose a handmade printed silk tie from the venerated Neapolitan clothier E. Marinella (Riviera di Chiaia, 287A; 39-081-245-1182; marinellanapoli.it). For local style of a different variety, browse the colorful, contemporary housewares at the shop of Raro (Via Martucci, 52; 39-081-761-8461; raro-design.com), a hometown interior design firm.

1 p.m.
5. RED SAUCE, WHITE GELATO

Get your red sauce fix with the natives at the no-frills La Cantina di Via Sapienza (Via Sapienza, 40-41; 39-081-459-078; cantinadiviasapienza.it): the polpette al sugo — a trio of plump meatballs — swim in the stuff (5 euros). Make it a complete meal by starting with the Aum Aum pasta, prepared simply with tomatoes and eggplant (4 euros). For dessert, take a funicular to the hilltop neighborhood of Vomero, where the artisanal gelateria Bianco Bio (Via Enrico Alvino, 13; 39-081-558-3885; biancobio.com) has been scooping all-organic gelato since opening in 2011. Pair an unconventional flavor, like pine nuts and sesame, with the heavenly almond.

3:30 p.m.
6. ACRONYM ART

The city’s rich artistic holdings diversified with the opening of the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, or Madre (Via Settembrini, 79; 39-081-1931-3016; museomadre.it; 7 euros), a sprawling palazzo that houses works from big names of the contemporary art world, including Richard Serra, Anish Kapoor and Jeff Koons. Through April 1, the museum is also hosting an exhibition celebrating Sol LeWitt. Across town, the ever-rotating exhibitions hosted in the galleries at the Palazzo delle Arti Napoli, or PAN (Via dei Mille, 60; 39-081-795-8604; palazzoartinapoli.net), keep the city’s offerings even more current. This pink 17th-century palazzo has recently displayed an interactive sound project from local art students and works plucked from an international photography festival.

6 p.m.
7. BACKSTAGE PASS

The Teatro di San Carlo is among the oldest and most beautiful opera houses in Europe. For a peek behind the scenes, visit Memus, the Museum and Historical Archives of the Teatro di San Carlo (Palazzo Reale; 39-06-3996-7050; memus.org; 6 euros), filled with operatic history, antique costumes and a space to screen performances in 3-D. Entry is via Palazzo Reale on the expansive Piazza del Plebiscito. After this audiovisual appetizer, swing around the corner for the main course: an opera, ballet or concert in the regal theater itself (Via San Carlo, 98/F; 39-081-797-2111; teatrosancarlo.it).

10 p.m.
8. PIE GUY

You can’t visit Naples, the birthplace of pizza, without eating at least one pie. Despite being damaged by a fire last April, Pizzeria Gino Sorbillo (Via dei Tribunali, 32; 39-081-446-643; sorbillo.it), one of the city’s top pizzerias, is again as busy as ever; expect a mosh pit swarming the entrance. Resist the temptation to defect to the other, less crowded pizzeria called Sorbillo on the same street, because it’s worth waiting for this traditional pizza margherita (3.30 euros): tomato, mozzarella and basil on a soft, chewy crust that inevitably will sag over the edge of your plate onto the table.

Sunday

10 a.m.
9. SUNDAY SWEETS

Knock back a caffè nocciolato (2.50 euros) at Il Vero Bar del Professore (Piazza Trieste e Trento, 46; 39-081-403-041; ilverobardelprofessore.com), a cafe renowned for this rich hazelnut cream coffee. Then hop over to the nearby Galleria Umberto I to visit La Sfogliatella Mary (Galleria Umberto I; 39-081-402-218), a kiosk specializing in sfogliatelle, local pastries with a sweet ricotta and candied-citrus filling. Order a warm sfogliatella riccia (1.70 euros) and savor the crisp shell-shaped delicacy while admiring the architecture of the grand fin-de-siècle galleria.

11:30 a.m.
10. HALLOWED HOUSES

Leverage the breakfast sugar rush to fuel a survey of the city’s showpiece artworks. A short walk up Via Toledo is the elegant Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano (Via Toledo, 185; 39-081-791-7233; gallerieditalia.com; 4 euros), where the second-floor gallery displays Caravaggio’s recently restored painting “The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula,” and, through March, a pair of works by Andy Warhol depicting Mount Vesuvius. Continue to the centro antico to see another masterpiece of Caravaggio: “The Seven Works of Mercy” on the altar in Pio Monte della Misericordia (Via dei Tribunali, 253; 39-081-446-944; piomontedellamisericordia.it; 6 euros); for the best vantage point, take the elevator upstairs to the picture gallery. Round out the tour at the nearby Museo Cappella Sansevero (Via Francesco De Sanctis, 19/21; 39-081-551-8470; museosansevero.it; 7 euros), where the marble sculpture of a veiled Christ is spellbindingly realistic.

1:30 p.m.
11. TUNNEL TOUR

A network of tunnels and catacombs lurks beneath the city, but the most exciting thing underground these days is the subway, where contemporary artworks have been installed in 13 metro stations as part of the continuing “Art Stations” initiative. For a quick tour of some of the newest additions, start at the Università station, which opened in 2011 with slick candy-colored passageways that feel like a video game come to life. Then take the metro to the Toledo station, whose September inauguration unveiled a corridor with wall panels that give the impression of a moving sea as you pass, a spectacular conical ceiling aperture that funnels natural light down from the sky, and other gorgeous mosaics.

IF YOU GO

The Hotel Palazzo Decumani (Via del Grande Archivio, 8; 39-081-420-1379; palazzodecumani.com) occupies a recently renovated 20th-century town house in the historic center, within walking distance of many sights. The hotel’s 28 simple, stylish rooms, set around a grand spiral staircase, start at 100 euros.

NAPLES, Italy — Spring is here. In southern Italy, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the weather is balmy. Orange blossom fragrances mingle with wafts of jasmine. The food is good, the wine is inexpensive, the locals are friendly and beauty is all around. But where are the tourists?

The Amalfi Coast, south of Naples, is still a magnet for wealthy Russians and romantic Americans. Yet Naples itself is a tourist wasteland, and the rest of southern Italy is largely vacationer-free.

Only 13 percent of tourists who come to Italy go to the Mezzogiorno, as the south is known. The rest head for the center and north of Italy, or other Mediterranean countries altogether. German airports sent 223 flights to Spain’s Balearic Islands in one week last summer, and only 17 to southern Italy.

Defensive Italians, particularly from the prosperous north, will tell you that no one goes to the south because there’s nothing worth seeing (they’re wrong). But the lack of tourists in places like Sicily or Calabria is indicative of a larger, nationwide failure by the country to take advantage of its most precious resources — in this case, the region’s natural and cultural beauty.

Poor marketing is one problem. The Italian Tourist Board spends an astounding 98 percent of its budget on salaries, with basically nothing left for its actual job of tourism promotion. The Italian government tried to boost interest in the southern region with its $50 million Italia.it website, but it still debuted with glitches and inaccuracies.

Or consider how little regional tourism authorities in Italy coordinate with one another. Years ago in Shanghai, I came across three separate delegations representing the same part of Sicily. They also spend wildly: Until recently the Campania regional authority had a palatial New York residence on Fifth Avenue.

Infrastructure is another issue. Italy has wasted time and money fantasizing about a bridge to Sicily. It was the pet project Silvio Berlusconi would wheel out during every election campaign. Yet high-speed rail services stop at Salerno, just beyond Naples, 300 miles to the north. There are trains in the Mezzogiorno that travel at an average speed of 8.7 miles an hour.

Last year I took a rail journey from the far northeastern city of Trieste to Trapani, on the southwestern tip of Sicily. Once I was past Rome, I found another world.

Metaponto, in the Basilicata region east of Naples, has a five-track, marble-clad rail station, paid for by $25 million in European Union funds. But the last train out is an 8:21 a.m. express to Rome. If you want to go anywhere else, you have to take a bus. Farther south, the small locomotive coughing its way along the Ionian coast has to stop as ice-cream-toting teenagers cross the track on their way to the beach.

Nor are the roads any better. Upgrades on the Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway have been going on for 29 years amid a tangle of inflated costs, corruption and Mafia threats. There are stretches where construction work has had to be protected by the army.

This isn’t a regional failure; it’s a national one. Tourism ought to be to southern Italy what oil is to Norway: a blessing and a source of wealth.

And the south could certainly use it. Annual gross domestic product in the south is just over $21,000 per capita, compared with $43,000 in the center and north. Nearly two out of three young southerners have no job. Across Europe 64 percent of women work; in Campania, only 28 percent do.

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What does this sorry tale say about Italy as a whole? Across the country, tourism is going from being a given to being a missed opportunity. In the 1970s, Italy was the world’s No. 1 tourist destination. Today, it has slid to fifth place behind France, America, China and Spain. As late as the early 2000s, 6 percent of the world’s tourists came here. Now only 4 percent do.

It also highlights Italy’s poor state of coordination across sectors of society. Despite still being a major destination for vacationers, Italy doesn’t even have a minister for tourism, as other European countries do. Infighting is the norm. Hotel owners argue with vacation rental agencies. Public enterprises and the private sector wage war. Neighboring regions don’t speak to one another. Do you know why flights and trains to Calabria fail to hook up with the ferries that cross the Strait of Messina? Because Calabria doesn’t want to see tourists siphoned off to Sicily.

Finally, the story of southern Italy’s tourism-fail illustrates the country’s inability to grasp how scattershot public funding means waste, not investment. Since World War II, the government has poured $550 billion into the Mezzogiorno, to no avail. By almost every measure, it is actually worse off relative to the rest of the country than it was 60 years ago.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the new prime minister, Matteo Renzi, can follow through on his promised reforms. The same things that would make Italy good for Italians — efficient transport, lower taxes, fairer prices, respect for the environment — would also transform southern Italy, and the rest of the country, into a paradise for vacationers.