655. Italian History in an Eggshell (Naples, Italy)
Short walk west from the 15th century Castel Nuovo at the central cruise port to this much older fort near the Santa Lucia fishing docks in Naples, Italy

The Castle of the Egg (Castel dell'Ovo) is an interesting place to visit in Naples that contains so many layers of history that we just had to leave our little "Italia" traveling' light* stamp there nearby. From the 1st century Villa of Lucullus, with the first cherry and peach trees ever brought to the area, to the 9th century Basilian monastery of San Salvatore, 12th century Norman fortress, 15th century Aragon prison, 18th century Bourbon fortifications etc., this "stone egg" has seen it all! After you've visited, go back out through the huge main gate 30 to 35 steps along the causeway to the first lamp post on the right. Sit on the wall just to the right of the stone pillar with bricks behind your feet and a view of Mt Vesuvius to your left. About 8 inches up and 4 inches over from the base of the stone pillar, in a crevice just to the left of the top of a yellow vertical brick, we left a 1" by 1/2" slender light gray somewhat oval-shaped stone with "Italia" glued to its back as our ephemeral contribution to the many layers of Italian history.

*"Travelin' lights" are what we call the little stones with stamps glued on back that we have been planting for the last few years after we got tired of planting over 500 traditional boxes and having so many of them "go missing". We hope that these little stones are more likely to blend in with the environment and less likely to get picked up and thrown away as trash (although, of course, they may still get moved around by natural or unnatural processes, like raking, mowing, etc.), so just remember that for our "traveling' lights", you're looking for a tiny stone and not an actual box!

Copyright (c) Wanda and Pete. All Rights Reserved.

BEFORE YOU SET OUT, PLEASE READ THE WAIVER OF RESPONSIBILITY AND DISCLAIMER.