Over our school holiday in February, I led a couple of kids walks for the British community here in Naples. It’s the first time I’ve led walks for children and it was a lot of fun!

Woodcutter’s Hut

It’s easy to get stuck in the urban jungle here, so it was great to see almost 30 kids and parents join me for a lovely walk to the Woodcutter’s hut. To keep it interesting I made up a scavenger hunt and gave each child a bag and a list of things to find from pinecones to different leaves to fruit from the strawberry tree (which eluded us all!). They loved it and raced around in the dappled sunshine hunting for each item and spotting all sorts of new things in the process – including for some new joiners – their first lizard, skittering over the rocks. After a quick detour to see the views on a little spur, we headed to the lunch for a giant picnic at the hut. As this wound up I gathered the kids to go through their collections, finding out who had eaten the pinecone (a mouse!), for example, or the difference between deciduous and evergreen leaves.  Their curiosity and enthusiasm is infections and I really enjoyed talking about the plants and animals we found.

Monte di Procida Coast Walk – Acquamorta Harbour

The drive to Monte di Procida is almost as good as the walk, and we started the day with a stop on Via Panoramica on the top of the hill, to soak up the views of Capo di Miseno and the islands, which looked beautiful in the hazy sunshine. We also timed it just right to arrive down at Acquamorta harbour to see the the fishermen sail in with their catch. ‘Eugh, what’s that?!’ squeaked the kids! Pushing in line with the locals we peered over their shoulders to see freshly caught fish, shellfish and squid and watched as they haggled with the fishermen on price. From here, we followed an easy paved trail to the beach, which has towering cliffs and a lake on one side and the children enjoyed finding marble, washed glass and other stony treasures on the way. When we reached the beach we had our picnic, before relaxing in the sun and letting the kids scramble on the giant limestone boulders which form the breakwater. They popped up and down out of the caves between the rocks like a troop of lemurs and had a great time showing us shell fossils, before predictably getting very wet in the lake! It was a special walk that ended as all days to the beach should, with ice cream on the harbour wall.

To all the kids, mums and friends who came – thank you!!

I’m organising more children’s walks in the coming weeks so look out for dates here or on Facebook.

PS I’ve put photos up because you all signed that you were happy for me to use them, but if you have any reservations whatsoever, let me know and I’ll remove them!!