The name Partenopea is derived from a siren named Partenope, who was unable to lure Odysseus with her voice so she killed herself by drowning in the Bay near a very old town called Neapolis. Today: Naples.
Yes! We’re back!
After a month in a flat in the Neapolitan neighbourhood of Posillipo, uphill from the chaotic centre of the city, we had such a good time, we vowed to return.
Our plans for an August ‘24 adventure were squelched because of a mishap of mine: actually a misstep when I fell on my ass and fractured my hip.
Six months later, with a new hip (for Scott) and a couple of hip screws (for me), we finally made it back to this ancient Italian city. (Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited urban areas in the world. And boy it’s seen its share of invaders: Spaniards, French, Normans, you name it.)
For two weeks, we revisited our favourite haunts and discovered new ones; reunited with old friends and met new ones; saw some familiar sights in a new light.
The next couple of posts will be about these new discoveries and rediscoveries.
First, I want to share the places we stayed this time, the hotels and the flat we rented.
Grand Hotel Parker’s - ‘a napoli dal 1870’
We secured our Airbnb flat for two weeks and bought our plane ticks. Then realised we were coming in a day before the flat would be available.
Well hell.
I went online to see what kind of nifty place I could find where we could spend one night and found Parker’s, up on one of Naples’ many hills.
We taxied into town in pissing down rain but found the hotel, overlooking the Bay of Naples, to be elegant and comfortable.
They boast a Two Michelin Star restaurant but we ate in the less fancy (and less expensive ergo ‘meh’) eatery one floor down.
Parker’s has an interesting history in that it was acquired by a noted British marine biologist, George Parker Bidder III, in 1870. Bidder played a significant role in the Biological Station in Naples and stayed at the hotel when he was in town. He loved the hotel so much he bought it.
We definitely had a room with a view:
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| Mt. Vesuvius in the background |
Our room was tastefully appointed, but there was a curious item on the writing desk.
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| Yes, the message in a bottle |
The message was a short history of Bidder, telling the story of what he did as part of an investigation of water currents, particularly in the North Sea. He released over 1,000 bottles with a message inside promising a shilling to any and every one who found a bottle and returned it. Most of the bottles were found within months, but those that weren’t were presumed lost forever. In 2015, however, a bottle was found by a beach walker on the German island of Arum. The Guinness Book of World Records certifies it as the ‘oldest ever message in a bottle.’
The hotel rewarded us for reading it, with complimentary tickets to the Naples Aquarium located in the Villa Comunale (formerly the Biological Station of the Royal Villa) where Bidder did much of his work.
The aquarium is small but interesting, with several tanks of exotic and colourful fish. A new discovery for us.
Our Posillipo flat
It’s in the same neighbourhood where we spent a month in 2023, but right on Via Posillipo and with a view that just didn’t quit. The flat was a little spare but very roomy and well lit. We took an eccentric little lift to the second floor where the sunlit front bedroom and kitchen dining area opened onto generous balconies with an unobstructed view of the entire Bay, from Mt. Vesuvius to the Amalfi Coast to the Island of Capri.
We got to look at that for two entire weeks.
Our favourite bus, No. 140 (with its extremely good looking drivers, men and women), stopped right in front of our building to take us down to the centre of town or up and over to some of our favourite restaurants. (More on those later).
There was no climbing a hellish hill as last time, and the road works and pavement repairs were mostly completed so that walking was a little safer than last time.
Grand Hotel Vesuvio
Another small glitch in our planning: the decision was made to take an overnight ferry to Sicily and stay at the Villa Igiea for a couple of nights before heading home to Shropshire. But the ferry didn’t leave until 8:00 at night, and we had to vacate the flat by Noon. We spent a bit of dough to spend six hours in a very fancy hotel down on the water, a much easier ride to the harbour. (about £83 an hour).
Extremely elegant restaurant with a terrace bar up top and another unforgettable view of its namesake and Capri.
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| Castel Dell'Ovo with Capri in the distance |
Villa Igiea, Palermo Sicily
It's really hard to find a more gloriously elegant joint than this Rocco Forte pile on a private harbour looking out on the Mediterranean Sea and the craggy hills surrounding the north shores of Sicily. I’ll talk more about this short respite in the last post of this trip.
More soon.
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