Luglio: Naples. Day Two.

Day Two's agenda was to see a Caravaggio in a church. I'll show you that, but mostly I'll be concentrating on food, alleys and boys in Speedos.

First, the streets scenes as we walked to that church. This first one is probably my favorite. No captions needed for many of these. The really hectic-looking ones are the Spanish Quarter.

They touch you when they talk. Even a cop had his hand on my arm while I was talking to him!

It actually rained and all the ladies frantically pulled in their laundry. I guess I didn't get a shot of that, but they did!

Another favorite shot. The guy is shirtless getting his beard trimmed.

Eventually, we got to the church—Pio Monte della Misericordia, Pious Mount of Mercy. It really was a special painting. The Seven Works of Mercy. The seven depicted are: bury the dead, visit the imprisoned, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, visit the sick and refresh the thirsty. Originally, it was meant to be seven separate panels around the church; however, Caravaggio combined all seven works of mercy in one composition which became the church's altarpiece. The painting is better seen from il "coreto" (little choir) in the first floor. Credit goes to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Works_of_Mercy_(Caravaggio) for this info.

The Caravaggio & the Lynch.

This guy was ordering lunch from his office. It took him about ten minutes. We heard him say proscuitto at least five times. Maybe he was ordering for the whole block!

These guys were outside the church. Love their colors.

He was from Day Three, but belongs here. Love how even the trash bag and the broom match.

Buns!

Next, I dragged Fred to the lungomare, the walk along the sea. We tend not to spend QUITE so much time together, making for a lot more interesting dinner conversation, but this day we were joined at the hip, for better or for worse... in sickness and in health. I think the miles-long walk to the sea was worth it, and I think he'd agree. Here's this big city, huge buildings, all right along the coast, with cruise ships docked, alongside families in barely any clothes fishing and swimming.

These kids got yelled at for using an outdoor hand sanitizer dispenser at a restaurant. They were pumping the hell out of it till the restaurant guy chased them away. Their little bodies were soooo tan, and their little Speedos were sooooo small.

Our reward after something like 20,000 steps!

Stopped for some diet Coke to perk ourselves up before dinner. Couldn't help but admire the simplicity of the wine selection.

Back to our room to rest before dinner. (This is our terrace.) We scouted three places and chose one and made a reservation for 8:30.THREE hours to rest, which flew by. For me, anyway; Fred got restless and left to sketch in the 'hood.

Okay, this thing deletes the photo every time I try to add a caption... So I'll write captions as if they're text. This is my pizza—pizza margarita. Perfect thing to get here. Just pure and simple. And delicious. We got to this restaurant and saw only one unoccupied table for two outside; we assumed it was ours, but there was only one chair. When we were told that was our table, I said, but only one chair? And she realized a waiting patron (an older man) was sitting on it, having moved it a few feet from her little deck, to the street. He wasn't giving it up! So they brought another and then he switched and let me have the real chair that went with the table. We were sitting about four inches from the edge of this deck. One false move...

As I said, I'm not usually a fan, but once we gave him a couple of euro (he asked!) I felt justified in taking this shot. After he got the money, he said, one more song for you, and sang "It's Now or Never." Check this out—maybe everyone knows this—that song is the same tune as "Il Sole Mio."

These two were toiling away in the kitchen across the street all night. Actually, she was. He seemed to work at the restaurant and kept going back and forth. There was a crazy barking dog and four or five kids running around all over the place the whole time. Once they all traipsed into this woman's kitchen and I thought, oh, she'll be sooo psyched to see them. Italians love kids. I bet one of them is her grandchild. Next thing you know, they've been told to get out. Ha!

This looks Hopperesque, but it was anything but. This couple was talking to this guy across the street, who seems to be living with his daughter and granddaughter, and they were out on the balcony smoking and playing (respectively) earlier in the night.