Executive, Naples

Advantages: Convenient for Pompeii
Disadvantages: AC? What AC? Room was like an oven.

...We were planning to visit Pompeii but finding a decent hotel close by was as easy as excavating these ancient ruins with a teaspoon. So Naples it was. The Holiday Inn looked perfect for our needs - on the edge of the city towards Pompei and easy access from the autostrade. When I say easy access, I mean 'in theory'...on a map...in my wildest dreams etc. The Holiday Inn is situated in a modern development of high-rise offices and commercial properties called Centro Direzionale directly connected to a link road from the A1 autostrade. But, this being Naples, where stock car racing is not only the principal hobby, it's downright de rigeur, it proved a little more tricky than directed from the hotel's web page. Driving to the hotel being only slightly less dangerous than facing a pride of half-starved lions in the amphitheatre, we... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: lively, wonderful artefacts
Disadvantages: chaotic, dirty

...At the beginning of April 2004 I spent 24 hours in Naples (on my way to Sardinia), I´d like to take you with me and show you what I saw. I stayed in a hotel in the historical centre, Hotel Sansevero in Piazza San Domenico Maggiore 9; 70 Euro for a single room (clean, quiet, nice modern furniture, small breakfast). The description on the net said, ´easily reachable by underground (Metropolitana) Montesanto station or by bus direction Corso Umberto´. Ha!, says I, nonsense, nothing is easily reachable in Naples that isn´t situated directly beside an underground station. There are only two lines in the whole city and they do not cross the historical centre. If you don´t know which bus number to take (the info on the net didn´t include it) and can´t speak the language well so that you can ask, this means of transportation is not advisable... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Sharp, superb writing
Disadvantages: So much tragedy in war

...to push on to Naples. All the while, Italian soldiers were limping home along the roads and railway lines to the south, Americans were setting up makeshift offices and hospital tents along the coast and German bombers were worrying the invading forces and their massive convoy of ships. This book, ?Naples ?44? is Norman Lewis?s diary of his time in and around Naples from September 1943 to October 1944. He was part of a kind of police-force come liaison group and his job was counter intelligence. He found himself trying to put a stop to black marketeering and generally ducking, diving and negotiating with everyone around him in order to further the allied cause and impose stability on the region. As if Naples were not already exotic enough, the madness that accompanies war, and especially the period in which one regime is falling... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful