We departed Rome via an express train to Naples and arrived in a little over an hour.

We were met by our driver, Andrea, who delivered us to our hotel, the Grand Albergo Vesuvius, which is indeed very grand. Enrico Caruso, the famous opera singer died here. The hotel is situated right on the Bay of Naples.

There's a doorman dressed up in a beautiful uniform with epaulettes and military officer style hat. You enter an opulent lobby staffed by several friendly, very professional young people wearing smart tailored clothing. They treat you like royalty. There are very few if any American hotels that still operate this way. It was quite a change from the greeting we got from the two Dachshunds in Rome.

It probably didn't hurt that the hotel is nearly empty. They seemed genuinely happy to see some customers. They assigned us an oceanfront room on the seventh floor (out of 8). Here is the view from our room (you can just make out the Amalfi coast in the distance on the left): We had a couple of hours to enjoy the view before setting off on a Naples food tour with our guide, Davide, a very intelligent, enthusiastic proponent of the City of Naples. He knows the very long history of the city and can answer just about any question on the subject of Naples.

Davide explained that our hotel sits upon the ancient city of Parthenope, which was founded by the Greeks in the 8th century B.C. By the 6th century B.C. a "new city" (Neapolis) was established further up the hill. This is now the historic Greek and Roman area of Naples, and is also the very popular tourist attraction that has really revived Naples over the last ten or so years. There are hundreds of shops selling many types of Neapolitan food, drink, and typical tourist items like T-shirts and mugs. Italians and tourists alike love to stroll up and down this historic area eating many kinds of delicious food, such as pizza, fried seafood, cookies, etc. It is a really fun area but can get a little tiring after a while due to the plethora of people and commerce. Davide said that old Naples is what most tourists see, but there is also the very different part of the city above the old area, where the Neapolitans live. Davide suggested that we take the funicular to see the upper city. So that's what we did. The difference between the old and new cities was remarkable. The part of the upper city we saw is residential, mostly apartment buildings, and was very neat and well cared for. No tourist shops at all and no tourists that we could see (other than ourselves).

Davide took us to a local deli and got us a selection of local products that a typical Neapolitan might have for lunch. Some fried Zucchini, small pickled fish, fresh bread. We sat down at a high table outside the deli and munched on our tasty snacks. Later, Davide took us to a Neapolitan pizzeria called Acunzo Pizzeria and we ate a couple of pizzas (they are small compared to American pizzas). Then we took a walk through the upper city and ended our exploration at Vincenzo Bellavia pastry shop, where Davide bought us a selection of Neapolitan pastries such as rum baba, sfogliato, (two kinds, crunchy and not crunchy), which we ate at tables at the front of the shop.
We caught a cab back to our hotel and ended our first day very happy to have experienced these two different sides of Naples.