We woke early today, I am still not sure what time zone my body is in!! It’s somewhere between ET and GMT but my sleep pattern is very awry.

Breakfast was served in the lobby bar area of the hotel and consisted of a lot of sweet stuff like waffles, donuts and pastries as well as cereal, fruit salad and bagels. We both went for omelette which was cooked to order and we could choose between popular fillings such as cheese, ham, onion and peppers.

We didn’t hang around – there were quite a few of the aged population who kept coughing. One person coughed right into someone’s breakfast who was walking past, time to get moving!

We got an Uber from the hotel which took us to Tin City. Here there are buildings made from tin, dating back to early 1920s. The sign below explains a bit more:

The attraction is built on the waterside of Naples Bay. This is the location of some of the tourist boats that offer day and sunset trips out into the Gulf of Mexico.

https://www.tincityofnaples.com

There are a few restaurants – Pincher’s Crab Shack and the Riverwalk Restaurant are two of the popular ones.

https://www.pinchersusa.com

https://www.riverwalktincity.com

It is also home to aquatic birds such as my favourite, the pelican.

Once we’d wandered round the local shops at Tin City, and bought an obligatory fridge magnet, we decided to walk into the Old Town district of historic 5th Avenue South.

https://www.fifthavenuesouth.com

It’s only about ten minutes’ walk from Tin City and is known as the Crown Jewel of Naples, with upmarket shops and restaurants. There are some lovely buildings, old and new. The street is lined with palm trees and beautifully manicured borders of flowers and grasses. We walked down so far before stopping at L’Olivo for an early lunch. This is a typical Italian restaurant with a good choice of pastas, pizzas, salads and entrées.

https://www.lolivoristorante.com

JC ordered far too much food so he needed to walk it off. We headed down 5th Avenue South towards the beach area. We stuck to the shaded part of the street all the way down on our half hour walk, as it was hitting the late 20s Celsius by this point.

It was cooler (but not much) on the beach. There was a strong breeze coming from the Gulf of Mexico which was very welcome. We walked south towards the famous Naples Pier, and I picked up a few shells along the way.

This is the sixth pier to be destroyed by a hurricane, the most recent by Hurricane Ian on 28th September 2022. It is currently being redesigned.

https://www.naplesgov.com/parksrec/page/naples-pier

We took some photos of what is left of the pier before heading off the beach altogether. While it’s only just above freezing at home, here we were trying to get some shade from the searing heat.

We walked back along 3rd Street before taking a right back onto 5th Avenue. Many of the restaurants were now filled with customers, so we decided to walk back to Tin City for a much needed drink.

We ended up at Riverwalk Restaurant and thankfully were able to sit inside. The breeze coming off Naples Bay was wonderful for cooling us down. We stayed there about an hour before getting another Uber back to the hotel. Our driver looked like a red haired equivalent of Jack Black. He told us he’d travelled around, first working in South Korea as a teacher. He’d lived in San Diego and also New York before ending up in Florida. He chatted a lot about soccer, correcting himself when he realised we call it football. He knew a lot about English football and even some of the famous songs that are sung on the terraces, such as at Liverpool and West Ham. He said that he pays $6 a month to Peacock which allows him to watch European football as well as English. He said that he couldn’t watch it when he lived in San Diego as it was too early in the morning, but he can now he lives in Florida. A really nice guy.

We chilled out on the balcony for a while before getting ready and heading out to our restaurant of choice, Buzz’s Lighthouse. It only costs $7 in an Uber to get there, and we liked the food.

Buzz’s Lighthouse operates a “no reservation” policy so we had to just turn up and hope for the best. It was, as we thought, very busy so we were told to expect a 45 minute wait. No worries, we went for a glass of wine from the bar and sat outside looking out over the Vanderbilt Lagoon on a little deck area. It was very tranquil sitting there, until we were buzzed after about 30 minutes. Our table was ready.

We were shown to an outside table that had a similar view to where we had just been sitting. We were well chuffed. Our waiter from yesterday also recognised us and said hello.

The dinner menu is similar to the lunch menu, with a few different entrées to choose from. I went for one of the special starters – two soft shell crab with mustard dressing, followed by blackened salmon. The waiting staff were lovely and we didn’t feel rushed at all, despite people still waiting.

The family owners built the restaurant in 1980, which was situated next door to the Lighthouse Inn that they’d bought in 1978. The restaurant kitchen was renovated in 2022, at a cost of approximately $100,000. It was open for eight days and then was destroyed by Hurricane Ian. The restaurant survived but the Lighthouse Inn next door did not. It would have cost too much money. The Inn was demolished in May 2023 and the restaurant reopened a little later. It is estimated that Buzz’s Lighthouse goes through 20,000 pounds of grouper in a season.

https://naples.floridaweekly.com/articles/whats-the-buzz/

This ended our last night in Naples. Tomorrow it’s our next destination, Sarasota.