Off the Sorrento Peninsula, in the Bay of Naples and the Tyrrhenian Sea, sits the tiny, beautiful island of Capri It may seem like the conversion of places into ~tourist destinations~ is something of a recent phenomenon—like in the last 70 years or so—but there are some places in this world that have attracted tourists for much, MUCH longer.
Capri is one of those places.
In fact, it was functioning as a vacation destination as far back as the ROMAN EMPIRE, likely before the birth of Christ. We actually don’t even know the origin of the name “Capri.” This idyllic isle just is. It’s eternal; immortal. And it’s also one of the rare places in the world where tourism cannot possibly cheapen the destination; it IS the destination.
Naples is the capital of the Italian region of Campania and the 3rd largest city in Italy in terms of population, behind only Roma and Milan. Naples proper has a population of ~909,000 people, and a metro area population of ~3.1 million people, although that figure has been on the decline in recent years. However, the UN projects that starting this year the population is expected to enter a new period of growth. So, the punchline is, Naples is a big city. Especially in the context of Italy. Honestly, I would have guessed that the population would be more than this. It feels quite overwhelming when you’re in the middle of it.
This article marks a ‘first’ for Peter’s Big Adventure: this was the FIRST time that I tried to upload so many photos at once that SquareSpace cut me off. Apparently the limit for a single-batch upload is 250. 😂
So that should be a good indicator for what is to come.
Today we’re venturing into East London to visit BRICK LANE. In Volume 1 of this series in South London, I spoke to how much walking I had endured in order to piece that article together. At the time, it seemed to me (a recent arrival here) that London’s street art was quite decentralized, but I have been proven wrong many times over since publishing that article. There are dense clusters of murals if you know where to look. And thankfully, I have gotten some good pointers from people who know London a lot better than I do about where to find these clusters.
And we’re back with more of the beautiful game! And my quest to get to as many stadiums in London as possible continues, this time with Craven Cottage, where Fulham will host the mighty Liverpool in the 2nd leg of the EFL Cup semi-final. In the 1st leg, Liverpool beat Fulham 2-1. This match would decide who moved on to the final. This will be the smallest Premier League stadium I’ve yet visited, so it should be a good time.
This article is going to be a LONG one! And despite the length, this is still just the tip of the iceberg that is London’s vast collection of museums. I’ve heard that London actually has almost 200 museums! Honestly, I am museum-ed out even after these 9. So I’ll do my best to keep my writings on each of these short and sweet.
Established in 1753 in central London, The British Museum hosts upwards for 4 million visitors every year, and has 8 million historical and cultural artifacts on permanent display. It is, without a doubt, one of the largest and most famous museums in the world. In fact, by some measures, it is the largest museum in the world… and nowadays I think it’s safe to say that it’s also the most controversial.
My quest to visit all of the football stadiums in London continues, this time with Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in North London. Today we’re going to be seeing the Spurs play against Bournemouth.
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is incredible. It is absolutely the nicest stadium I have ever been in. The floors under the overhang are carpet! As soon as I walked in I was involuntarily smiling. And then, when I realized that we had unwittingly gotten AMAZING seats, I was really grinning. This was one of the coolest atmospheres I’ve ever experienced! Before the game even started, I already liked this stadium more than Stamford Bridge, and a LOT more than London Stadium.
The Canterbury Cathedral is a marvel of gothic architecture and remains immensely important in the modern day. In fact, before I had actually visited this place, I mostly just thought of it as the town around this cathedral. We’re going to spend a lot of time exploring this cathedral today, but first, let’s have a walk through town.
It turns out that the town of Canterbury is quite charming in its own rite! My sample size is still quite low when it comes to England, but this felt—to me—like the quintessential English town. Even in the rain, it makes for some lovely walking.
Our winter wanderings in Stockholm continue!
The previous article was more focused on a general introduction to Stockholm, but in this article I’m going to adopt a new focus: attempting to share the coziness of this trip with you. As beautiful and charming as Gamla Stan (Old Town), and Södermalm are, the best trips—to me—have a funny way of differentiating themselves not through the official sights to be seen, but what happens in between.
Ya’ll, the temperatures here were like -20° C (-4° F). I think this was a bit of a cold snap even by local standards, but that didn’t make it any less painful. According to my FitBit, we did about 30,000 steps on our first day here, all through the frigid cold.
However—and I never thought I would say this—I think the cold made Stockholm all the more magical. This was truly one of the most idyllic trips I’ve ever taken. I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what winter travel to Scandinavia has to offer, but to me, Stockholm was nothing short of a winter wonderland. And the fact that the cold forced us into cozy little bakeries to warm up about 3x as often as we would have otherwise stopped didn’t hurt either.
