Naples Escape

Stopping off in Naples was purely because of the location – a perfect rest stop on my trip and also within good range of Marco Island and the Everglades if I should arrive early (never happened).

 

The town (or is it a city?) is beautiful and designed to emulate the Italian town but is about as far removed from the real Naples as Disney's castles are from a real Scottish castle.  In fact, forgive me but I really felt it was actually much more of a Stepford version.  As I wandered down to the beach (again before daylight), I was taken aback by a little Italian château and stepped back on a grass verge – I really expected an alarm to go off.

 

It's beautiful, pristine and the beach is desert island perfect with no concessions allowed on the beach, but… it left me cold.  I also think you can tell a lot about an area by the ads in the local magazines (especially those for healthcare).  As I drove up to Homosassa Springs billboards blazed the words "Vasectomy" and "Your Gynaecologist", Vero Beach magazines advertise yoga and holistic therapies, Clearwater advertises beachwear (no room for healthcare!), Key Largo is everything fishing and boat related, and Naples… well, Naples advertises plastic surgeons.

 

(I apologise to residents if I just caught the surface as I really only spent a few hours here.)

 

But… a very eerie thing happened here – I was walking down the street and asked a guy passing by where the nearest diner was, to which he replied "Zumba girl?  Pearl?"  Yes, I had bumped into him in Orlando, and he had taken the other route around Florida, visiting the East Coast before heading back to Orlando.  I don't believe in coincidences, I just believe that when things like this happen it's a nod from the universe that you are in exactly the right place at the right time, so, clearly whatever my take on Naples, at that time it was exactly the right place for me to be.

 

More videos here.