Casual Outfits at Galleria Umberto I

When I started my blog, I wanted it to be in equal parts about travel, fashion and beauty. Then I stopped writing about beauty here and instead did it on another, new blog. Then Instagram appeared and the smartphone cams became better, so I just posted my outfit photos over there. Except for my outfits I wore during my trips, since I always had/ have my Nikon Camera at hand. So here some casual outfits we wore during an easy day strolling through Naples and our first stop at Galeria Umberto I, which is similar to the more famous Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.

Eigentlich war ja meine Absicht damals, als ich den Blog gegründet habe, zu beiden Teilen gleich viel über Mode sowie Reisen zu posten. Und dann kam Instagram und ich habe aufgehört Outfits noch extra draußen für den Blog zu shooten, außer natürlich im Urlaub. Hier ein paar daytime outfits aus der Galeria Umberto I, welche im Vergleich zu der mailänder Einkaufspassage Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II aber weniger bekannt ist.

A walk through Naples

No matter how often we visit Naples, we never get bored. Even if I visit the National Museum for the 100th time..And there are still some places I haven't visited yet, like the Museum Capodimonte. Or like on that day, our first time visiting a football game. And I would totally recommend it, if you are looking for that special, postapocalyptic atmosphere. But you wouldn't love Napoli as much as I do, if you don't like that flair. But in any case, make sure you know how to get back home, because in our case, the trains were no longer running and it took us 1 hour to get a taxi.

Egal wie oft wir in Neapel sind, wir finden immer eine Beschäftigung. Und wenn es das 100. Mal ist, dass ich ins Nationalmuseum gehe. Wobei es sogar immer noch einige Orte gibt, die ich noch nicht besucht habe, wie das Museum Capodimonte. An diesem Tag hatten wir ein Serie A Fußballspiel auf unserem Plan, was wir in Neapel zuvor auch noch nicht gemacht hatten. Und das Fußballstadion kann ich sowieso empfehlen. Nicht aus dem Grund, dass es super modern wäre, sondern genau aus dem Gegenteil. Wer also eine postapokalyptische, einzigartige Atmosphäre sucht, sollte sich dort ein Spiel angucken. Aber man sollte auf jeden Fall schon vorher die Heimfahrt planen, denn als das Spiel zu Ende war, fuhren die Bahnen nicht mehr und kaum noch Busse und so mussten wir fast eine Stunde mit mehreren Dutzend Leuten und ein paar wenige Taxis kämpfen.

Spontaneous trip to Ischia

In Italy it is no rarity, that you have to change plans due to delayed or cancelled trains/busses. (Either way this was the situation two years ago, but this has changed and now in Germany the public transport is as unreliable as it has been in Italy.)

With our apartment in Pozzuoli, which has a port with ferry connections, we then spontaneously drove to Ischia. And we didn't get any further than Casamicciola Terme, the town where the ferry landed. But because it's difficult to find a clean beach around Naples city, we took the advantage to get into the salt water. But the best thing about that super short trip was seeing dolphins while driving back to Pozzuoli. I never expected to see a pod of dolphins so close to to the italian coast and was sooo happy, that for days I could'nt stop thinking about them.:)

In Italien kommt es ja öfters vor, dass etwas nicht nach Plan läuft und man umplanen muss. (Zumindest war das noch vor 2 Jahren so. Mittlerweise sind Bus und Bahn zuverlässiger als hier in Deutschland) Da wir unsere Ferienwohnung in Pozzuoli hatten, wo es einen Hafen mit den wichtigsten Fährverbindungen zu den Inseln im Golf von Neapel gibt, entschieden wir uns mittags noch für ein paar Stündchen nach Ischia zu fahren. Und viel weiter als Casamicciola Terme, wo die Fähre anlegt, sind wir auch nicht gekommen. Aber das es eine Seltenheit ist, einen sauberen Strand in und um Neapel zu finden, sind wir dann einfach dort in Wasser gesprungen.

Naples - Pozzuoli Amphitheater

All roads lead to ... Naples. This year was our 4th visit in Naples and we again noticed, you can always visit the city or rather that area. Since I'm extremly behind in editing my travelpics, here on my blog I just reached our penultimate Naples holiday. If you want to be more up-to-date on my travels, you can of course follow me on Instagram @laurabenxo.

The last time, we spent our first week in Pozzuoli, a port city in the west of Naples, which was also an important port in roman times, since most of the ships with the grain deliveries from Egypt and from other parts of the roman empire landed here.

On our first day we visited the well preserved amphitheater, which was the third largest one in roman Italy. And with not many other visitors, we had a lot of space to pose.:)

Wikipedia: Flavian Amphitheater (Pozzuoli)

Alle Wege führen nach ... Neapel. Dieses Jahr waren wir bereits zum 4. Mal dort und uns ist aufgefallen, nach Neapel kann man immer. Da ich in der Bildbearbeitung aber sehr weit hinten bin, gibts erstmal die Fotos unseres vorherigen Aufenthalts. Wer also immer up-to-date in Bezug auf meine Reisen sein möchte, der folgt mir am Besten einfach auf Instagram (@laurabenxo).

Da man bei Neapel nicht nur die Stadt selbst, sondern das ganze Gebiet beachten muss, hatten wir uns in der ersten Woche in Pozzuoli, einer kleinen Hafenstadt vor Neapel einquartiert, weil wir vor hatten auch einmal die Inselns Ischia und Procida zu besuchen. Aber Pozzuoli hat auch ein paar Sehenswürdigkeiten zu bieten, wie z.B. das Amphitheater, welches relativ gut erhalten ist und das drittgrößste im römischen Italien war. Link > Amphitheater von Pozzuoli

Naples - Day 6 - Vesuvius

On our last day in Naples, we only put one activity on our scedule, which was the Vesuvius. To be honest, I wasn't really in the mood for that, and, above all, not at 30 degrees in the shade. But because my bf already wanted to visit the volcano on our first trip to Naples, but nobody wanted to come along, because we choose other sights to visit, this time I had to do him the favour. Fortunately there is a bus, which takes you quiet far up. Then there is a first rest area, half way up to the crater, where I almost wanted to give up and stay, and a second one at the crater. What it's definitely missing during the way up are shaded places and at some times I thought I would get a sunstroke, so I would suggest wearing a hat or bringing an umbrella with you. A lot to drink and comfortable shoes are essential. What we found very strange was, that we didn't have much time after arriving at the crater. We took some photos and then we really had to run down to catch the bus.

Naples - Day 5 - Shop & Eat

Before I get to the last day of our stay and to our last activity, the visit of Vesuvius, I have some pics I have to get rid of, which I shot during a shopping spree after we visited the Palazzo Reale. We rarely manage to do two sightseeing activities on one day, mainly because we always get up so late. (yes, we are definitely nightowls:) So after we did the sightseeing, we then often walk around and/or go shopping. Napoli is one of our favorite shopping cities, because you can not only find the big brands, but also many little shops with the newest fashion trends.

Naples - Day 5 - Palazzo Reale

Day 5 and after our failure the day before, we succeeded in visiting the Royal Palace. which is directly at the Piazza del Plebiscito. Of course the palace has it's own unique style, but for me it seemed a bit different in comparison to other baroque ones, because you can clearly see the spanish influence. But see for yourself.

Naples Day 4 - By the sea

After our visit at the Villa Pignatelli (previous post), we had another destination, which was the Royal Palace. So we walked along the promenade and through the beautiful district Chiaia with an amazing view over the sea and on Vesuvius. And with the heat you consider taking a bath. Like I do now, jumping through my screen into the water. Once again we were too late to visit the Palazzo, so we decided to just stroll around and switch to our two other favorite activities, shopping and eating. Starting at Piazza del Plebiscito, we went to the old shopping mall, Galleria Umberto, which almost looks like the one in Milan, but was under construction at that time. There I had to try the neapolitan speciality Baba, a yeast-risen pastry, which is soaked in liquor. Then later, while walking through the historical center, we also found one of the most famous pizza places of Naples, the Pizzeria di Matteo. It is so well known, because of their most famous client, Bill Clinton, who bought a Pizza there in 1994. Buuut, the pizza, like almost everyone in Naples, was great.

Naples Day 4 - Villa Pignatelli

We started our 4th day in Naples with a visit to the Villa Pignatelli, which was right next to our hotel. The villa which was built in the early 19th century and had several owners such as the banker Carl Mayer von Rothschild and Prince Diego Aragona Pignatelli Cortes, who all changed some of the interiors, was given to the italian state in the 1950s by its last owner, Princess Rosina Pignatelli and then turned into a museum, so that now everyone can admire its beauty.

Naples - Day 3 - Stabiae

The path is the goal - and when speaking of our trip to the excavations of Stabia, that's the case. It all started with our train, which stopped in a tunnel for about half an hour -at 40 degrees. Arrived at the train station, there were no signs, which bus to take or way to go. So we once again used Googlemaps and asked people. After walking for an hour on country lanes, we reached our destination. And it wasn't what I expected. I thought the excavations were like Herkulaneum or Pompeii - a connected area of diverse buildings, but they told us, there were 2 mansions, 800 metres apart from each other. So after visiting the first, we continued our hike and walked along a highway (of course without a sidewalk) to the next one. And was it worth all the efforts? If you love ancient excavations, then I would say "yes". Mainly because, in the Naples area,"thanks" to the volcanic eruption, everything is better preserved than anywhere else, so that you can still see the wall paintings and floors and you don't need much imagination to travel back 2000 years in time. You also have the whole sight to yourself and almost have any other tourists, who "get on your nerves". 

And what was most important for me - we got the adventure and travel story for free. 

Naples - Day 2 - Snaps from Pozzuoli

Day 2 was a bit of a fail, because the weather wasn't on our side. Actually I wanted to visit the ancient sight of Cuma, but because you can barely find any information about the trains and busses on the internet, we took the train on spec with vague information from a forum. Unfortunatelly the aforesaid bus drove by, which was supposed to leave every other hour and after a one kilometer walk, we didn't even find the busstop. And then in addition it also started to rain heavily and there was thunder and lightning and we had to abandon our plan and drove back to the next bigger town, Pozzuoli. I saw there was also a amphitheater, but when we reached it, it was already closed, one hour prior to the given closing hour. So we then just walked around the historical center with lots of bars and little shops. Here you can find all the sights in Pozzuoli.

Naples - Day 1 - Archeological Park at Baia

Today we digitally travel on to Naples, on of my favorite cities. Which is the best word that describes Naples? I would say "authentic", because the city is so full of contrasts. Beauty and ugliness are so close to each other, that you're sometimes shocked. But that's exactly, what fascinates me the most. And of course there are plenty of ancient sights, super nice people and delicious food.

I wonder why these are the first photos on my memory card, because to be true, this is our second day. But can I count the arrival day, when we just got to our hotel and then went to the supermarket? I don't think so. On day 2, which I now call day 1, I wanted to visit Baia, a ancient, luxury beach resort for rich romans. In Naples or I would say, the whole south of Italy, everything isn't as structured and organised as you are used to, when you are, for example (like me) from Germany. So I didn't find any information about the trains or busses on the internet, so we just took the next train in the specific direction and then used Google Maps. We walked uphill and downhill for almost 1 kilometer to find any street sign, which led us to our destination. But that's part of the adventure and you really feel like an explorer. The best part of this complex is definitely the temple of mercury (temple of echoes). With it's lighting, the acoustics inside and the water, it really is a magical place and we would have stayed there for hours, if there hadn't been other tourists.

Here some articles for more information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baiae

https://timelessitaly.me/2013/10/22/ancient-ruins-of-baia/

The Italian Holidays - Pompeii Part 3

Hi! And today finally the last part of my journey to Pompeii. Let's move on from the House of the Faun, to the Lupanare and the Villa of the Misteries. Bye Bye Pompeii. It was an awesome stay. Hope to see you soon.:)Also take a look at Part 1 and 2. Or all my Italy blogposts.
//Hi! So, endlich der letzte Teil meines Trips nach Pompeii und meines kompletten Sommerurlaubs. Ich wiederhole, Sommerurlaub. :)
Wir wollten unbedingt noch ins bekannte Bordell und in die Villa dei Misteri, also war der letzte Teil ein absoluter Run. Wir waren schon total entkräftet und verdurstet und mußten erstmal zum Autogrill, welches sich mitten in Pompeii befindet.
Guckt euch hier meinen ersten und zweiten Teil an. Oder einfach meinen kompletten Urlaub.;)

House of the Faun

The Italian Holidays - Pompeii Part 2

Let's continue our journey through the ruins of Pompeii. From the House of Menander to the Termopolium over to the Amphitheatre. Click here to see the first part.
Lasst uns weiter durch die antiken Strassen von Pompeji ziehen. Vom Haus des Menander zum Thermopolium bis zum Amphiteater. 
Hier kommt ihr zum ersten Teil.