Napoli- Day 2

A bus ride across town this morning brought us to the Santa Lucia district of Naples where we spent a couple of hours touring the Palazzo Reale ( Royal Palace), built in the 16th century. The museum, which seemed to be the only part of the palace not covered by scaffolding and construction "drapes" consists of a very elaborate staircase and several large rooms. Essentially apartments, they contained various furnishings, tapestries, statues and paintings from, mostly 16th-18th centuries.
 Adjacent to the Palace, the Castel Nuevo, a  13th century castle keep looms over much of the harbour area. Mostly displaying "more old stuff!" we decided to save the entry fee and opted for a walk down to the port area and ferry terminal. The presence of 4 rather large cruise ships explained the thousands of tourists being herded through the city by umbrella wielding tour guides.
An uphill hike into the Centro Historico brought us to a small square where several hundred local students seemed to be behaving just like kids do everywhere! We escaped the crowds by entering the Basilica di Santa Chiara, a rather large structure which was originally ( 14th century) a residence for monks and (somewhat later) for nuns too. Its main feature is an impressive garden area bounded on all sides by cloisters with elaborate ceiling decorations and frescoes. The garden itself features 72 octagonal columns decorated with ceramic tiles. Each column is attached to the adjacent one with a bench of ceramic tiles which feature scenes depicting rural life in the 18th century.
 Incidentally, most of the basilica was reduced to rubble by allied bombing in WWII, restoration being commenced post-war and completed in 1953, 10 years after the initial destruction.
 Exiting the Basilica we sampled some local pizza, ( rather disppointing) before catching a bus back to the hotel, (exhausted but somewhat more educated!) for a quick shower and siesta before venturing out for the evening.