Saturday, March 26, Day 22, Touring Naples

Off for a tour of Naples, we have been here before but a structured tour gives you a good history of the place. We got there 10 minutes after a tour started so we had 45 minutes to kill.

The downtown art fair is today and tomorrow and only two blocks away from where we need to be. It was going to be part of our day so we start early.

This is a nice looking fair, right down the middle of the town. Stretching over 6 blocks on two sides of the street, the tent they used gave you the name, state, and type of art.

We made the first two blocks and felt we needed to go back for the tour.

At least the tour bus is not packed, again it is a tour of the rich and super wealthy.

The homes are big, well manicured lawns and vegetation. It was nice to get to areas we would not have found ourselves. The tour takes two hours, not the best we have had but decent. We always recommend taking these as you get a general layout of the town. Toward the end of the tour we stop in front of The Dock At Crayton Cove, looked like a good place to eat lunch as it is after noon. It was time for a cool drink, Shirleen a Monkey’s Fist Bacardi Select rum, banana liqueur, banana puree, and Florida orange juice; I a Dock Slider a frozen mixture of Kahlua, vodka and Bailey’s Irish Cream, I ordered the wrong drink I got brain freeze with this one, nice to see I still have one. I was not ready for an ice cream drink. (this is the one I wanted: Dock Walloper A Dock original some light and dark Puerto Rican rums, Galliano, triple sec, a dash of banana liqueur, and some good ol’ Florida orange juice. Not recommended for the faint of heart) Shirleen meal a Baby Spinach and Blackened Day Boat Scallop Salad, gorgonzola, toasted macadamia nuts, warm smoked bacon and caramelized onion-mango vinaigrette;

I Mahi-Mahi Tacos, fried served with flour tortillas, shredded cabbage, spicy yogurt sauce, pico de gallo, black beans and rice.

Shirleen raved about the luscious taste of the scallop, I would have liked hers better than mine, but mine was OK.

Another walk back to the art fair, about seven blocks. Today it is again in the mid 80’s and the sun bearing down on us. The art is some of the best we have seen on the street, of course the people who live/winter here have the money to drop on it. Pottery, acrylic painting, watercolor and



String Art



string-thread art oriental style,



Linoleum Art



linoleum carved art similar to Wanda Gag’s style, she said that she is self taught, carves the linoleum and black inks the piece, uses an old print press to lay down the outline of the work, then paints the work, Also metal sculptures, glass wall metal art – much of the fine art was $500 and up. There are food stands and music, not lot of it but some.

This old style painting grabbed us – Gary Sisco (http://www.siscoart.com/) is doing a small piece that will be auctioned off in Ocala next month he described his old masters style as up to 17 layers of paint. Starting out with a black drawing that outlines all he wants to put in it. He ends up with the light colors on last, giving a real feel to the picture, his were expensive also.

Walked past this and Shirleen said - "that's for Mary Ann"

Time is winding down, a half hour to go, we want a beverage. We find a spot at the open front of The Jolly Cricket restaurant. We both got a beer and split a potato flat bread, as we were not hungry I thought we should at least order something. No stand out flavor with tomato backing?

We walked back to the Tin City, all buildings have tin roofs and are some of the original buildings dating back to 1920. It is dinner time and bustling with people. We go to the dock in front of the restaurants.

Some of the fishing boats are in and cleaning fish, you can go to many restaurants and have them fry it up for you.

Back to the room. jerr