July 21st, 2025

My marriage with Florence took a break this weekend as I embarked on my first-ever journey to the land of superstition, tradition, salt, and water: Napoli. 

My sister is visiting me here in Italy with a friend for a couple weeks, and the trio decided that while Florence is plenty entertaining, we should spend a weekend exploring a new city. Fortunately, none of us had ever been to Naples, so adventure awaited for everyone. I chose Naples for precisely five reasons:

1. Its reputation precedes itself; with an entirely unique culture and vibrant energy that is easier experienced than explained.
2. My sister’s friend has familial roots to Naples, so I thought it would add an extra layer of sentiment for her to pay homage to her ancestry. 
3. It’s right on the water, so it would be a good mix of city life and a seaside escape from the heat.
4. We had never been, as mentioned.
5. Pizza. And pizza fritta. Obviously.

TLDR: Naples did not disappoint.

We kicked off the weekend by hopping on a boat and taking a spin around the Gulf. The view was simply mesmerizing; we saw the islands of Capri and Ischia from a distance and Mount Vesuvius was abundant in all her glory. We stayed on the boat until sunset, cruising, swimming, pinching ourselves asking if our lives were real. It was an ethereal experience and it will live in my head forever.

Naples itself is hard to explain. It’s almost a haunting experience, with frescos of the Madonna around every corner and large ornate sculptures of important cultural leaders and religious figureheads that seem to be carefully watching over the city. The architecture stood out to me immediately. I’ve become accustomed to seeing Renaissance-style buildings and design living in Florence, but Naples is showered with different cultural influences: including Spanish from her time under the Kingdom of Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as traces of ancient Rome and Greece.

It’s a wild place. It’s fun, raw, and authentically itself. It’s an unfiltered city that shows her vibrancy but doesn’t hide her flaws. I really enjoyed it. It felt like another country compared to Florence. Another thing I noticed? The people are warm. Really, really warm. We found that the people we crossed paths with genuinely enjoyed chatting to people who are different from them. Everyone was incredibly pleasant and showed so much grace and patience with my sister and her friend as they tried to practice Italian. 

We closed up the weekend with a beach day, an enormous pizza that tasted as though it descended directly from the heavens, and a drink in Piazza Bellini.

I highly recommend it if you’re looking for something raunchy, vibrant, rich with history, and unpolished. There are no rules in Naples. So if you’re the type that doesn’t find beauty in chaos, maybe this one’s not for you. 

Check back next week for Lexi’s Weekend Recap!