Elsien's Traveblogue

Naples, Monday 7th June 2010
Although the Neapolitans on the whole seem a lot less fashionista than the Italians further north, they do no seem to commit the same dress sins as the English, as soon as the sun comes out. I went up to the park and palace on Capodimonte yesterday and there were lots of Neapolitans in the park. I saw no crop-tops, no hairy bellies, almost no strappy tops or vests, few shorts ... they were all very decorously, if not madly fashionably, dressed. Most of them don't even wear sunglasses!
It was pretty hot, must have hit 30 in the afternoon; it was 23 at nine in the morning when I climbed to the top of Capodimonte. Took me over an hour: first a slow-climbing street, then a lot of steep steps. The park is lovely and the palace pretty huge and quite impressive. The collection of paintings is impressive too: they had a lot of amazing Renaissance art and even more baroque stuff. I spent a good two hours in there. However, the painting I really wanted to see, Caravaggio's Flagellation was not there: on loan to Rome until 3rd June. It was probably being packed for the return journey as I was standing there, but it'll take another week before it's back in place and I'll be back in Brussels ... Pity, I'd rather wanted to be able to say that I'd seen every single Caravaggio in London, Paris, Florence and Naples .....
I finally tried out some of the local speciality, sfogliati. I had the savoury version, one a sort of cross between quiche and baked cheesecake, the other more like a vol-au-vent. Nice, but not not mouthwatering. Will try out the sweet ones today. Not had any pizza yet either, I just haven't been hungry enough.