Forrest Bump, I learned a lot from your comment! Naples is not for everybody; you will either love it or hate it. Most people looking for a very authentic Italian experience are going to love it. Even now, bringing up Naples in casual conversation with people in Rome, they remark about how much things have changed there.

With all change, there is the good, and the bad. I posted the pictures of the Metro Station that they consider to be the most beautiful in all of Europe. The downside? When you take the elevator up from that train station at Via Toledo there is a Disneyland Store! It's like when you cross the Rialto Bridge in Venice and walk around the first corner to the right, there is a Disneyland Store.

Still, Naples remains very authentic. The historic center has really changed in safety and popularity. Walking there after midnight a few years ago you'd have to walk along dark, narrow streets, with buildings covered by graffiti (they still are), by a few groups of rowdy teenagers hanging out. Walking around the historic center would only be for the intrepid traveler. Finding a cab was impossible.

Last Friday I went to a concert at the Teatro San Carlo that ended at 10:30 PM. I took a cab to the historic center to get pizza at Sorbillo, figuring that the usual immense crowd waiting to get in might not be too bad at that time. The street was packed. Getting in was like trying to get into a fancy club in NYC or Los Angeles reserved for only A-list celebrities. You had to get through a, “door guy.” The door guy would not say how long the wait was, because it was entirely capricious. I asked him if it would be 15 minutes, two hours, or impossible. He said he didn’t know.

I had to wait until after midnight, and even then, only with polite persistence with the door guy, was I able to get in. As he was letting me in he said, “See, I called you, didn’t I?”

KLouis once commented that the only thing you need to know about Naples and pizza is Sorbillo, and I agreed. That has been the place to go, in my opinion. Not too long ago there was a suspicious fire there, and it was closed, and then remodeled, so inside it’s completely different. Unfortunately, the menu has also changed.

I read in a NYC paper that a hotel had a $1,000 martini that comes with a pearl in it. I also read about a NYC pizza that costs $1,500, made with gold. Apparently, there is a type of gold that is edible and not harmful, and they sprinkle it on the pizza.

Sorbillo used to be a very popular neighborhood pizzeria, but has turned into a bit of a spectacle. It actually has a pizza that costs 8,500,000 euros! The proof is pictured below. They also have lots of themed pizzas, like the “Amnesty International Pizza,” etc.

Gone are some of the simpler pizzas shown on a paper menu. Now there is a laminated menu with dozens of pizzas, but they no longer have the simple Sicilian one with anchovies. They have a few tables, but it’s pretty much all shared, benched seating. I guess you can get a table if you order the $8.5 million euro pizza (Pizza piu' costosa...). Most of the pizze, however, are 6-7 euros. There is even one with three question marks for a price, asking you to leave what you think is right. BTW, the pizza was fantastic, and worth the wait.

When I left it was nearly 1 AM. The streets were packed with people out having a good time. No drunken rowdiness, just a polite, sharply dressed crowd enjoying what to them was still early evening. After wandering around and enjoying it I wanted to take a taxi to my hotel, and asked where I could find one. They directed me to Piazza Dante, a few blocks away, where there were dozens of waiting taxis. The pictures below were all taken after 1 AM. This was so different from the lonely place it was just a few years ago.

There have been so many positive changes. Certainly around the Lungomare, at any hour of the day or night, you are safer there than almost any place else on the planet. You mentioned low-cost air carriers. While in Naples several people mentioned that to me as well. One mentioned that she had recently flown to Paris for a weekend for 28 euros. Another told me that she was going to Prague for the weekend for 60 euros. I mentioned that I’m loyal to a particular airline and she laughed and told me that it’s crazy to pay 260 euros for a two-hour flight when you can pay 60 euros, even if the plane is not so nice. While I’ve not traveled on a low cost carrier, it seemed as if they have been a great benefit to the people of Naples.

One thing hasn’t changed, unfortunately. I find the taxi drivers in Italy, particularly in Rome, to be very honest. In Naples, perhaps not. I took three of them from the street and didn’t have a problem. On my last day, leaving the Marriott hotel, the lady at the front desk asked where I was going. I told her to Napoli Centrale, the main train station. She told me that the taxi to there is a fixed rate of 11 euros, then called the bellman over. She told the bellman to tell the taxi driver to give me the fixed 11 euro rate.

Before I let the cab driver put my bag in the trunk I said to him in Italian, “11 euros, right?” He said, “No, 13.” I said the front desk just told me it’s 11. The bellman also chimed in and said the front desk said it’s 11. The bellman was an older gentleman, who didn’t seem to want to confront a young, fairly aggressive cab driver. The cab driver said, “It’s 13 because today is a holiday,” while continuing to tell me not to worry, to get into the cab. I said OK, but I’m only paying 11.

I can see how this could be annoying. Two euros isn’t going to break the bank, but once in the cab I told the driver that I’m only paying 11, because that’s what the front desk said it would cost. He said she was wrong because it’s a higher price on Sunday. Then I noticed a laminated card hanging from the seat that listed the prices, and it said that the fare was 11 euros, even on Sunday. I told him his own taxi had a sign that said the price is 11 euros, and that’s all I’m paying.

He started sort of pleading poverty, and telling me how hard his life is as a taxi driver, and said, “Don’t worry about the price, when we get there, just buy me a coffee.”

Then he got on the cell phone and was complaining about me to somebody, in Napolitano. Napolitano and Italian are two different languages. If a Napolitano doesn’t want you to understand what they are saying, you will not understand. It’s even hard to understand a Napolitano when they speak to you in Italian. All I could get the sense of was that he was complaining to someone about the suffering I was causing him by insisting on only paying 11 euros.

Then he asked me where I’m from. No English had been spoken, between bellman, taxi driver, and me. When I told him I’m from California he looked stunned, and started telling me how much he pities me!

When we got to the train station, after my bags were out, I gave him 11.7 euros, with the 70 cents being the price of a cup of coffee, thus breaking the rule that you don’t tip taxi drivers in Italy.

The blurry part of the last picture is two people weaving through the crowd on a Vespa.