Valencia is beautiful. The streets are clean, the traffic is organized, the people are friendly. But I’ve never complained more on this trip about bad smelling street corners / sewers than here. I’ve never seen more beggars than here. Buying them a sandwich feels like a drop on a hot stone, but it’s a short reassurance to have done something right. Until the next beggar holds up their open hands in front of you.
Like many other old towns, people don’t live here anymore. You can tell by the amount of hair salons, shoe repair shops and little corner markets and their lack off, that nobody lives here anymore. Doorbell signs are empty, all the apartments are B&Bs now. There are boutique hotels on every corner and there is an overkill of bars and restaurants. Sprinkled with ATMs in-between. There is a lack of crafts-peoples workshops, you can only sense the past by realizing that a multitude of basket stores or silk stores are on a street, that in the past, that’s where those craftspeople had their workshops / studios. That’s what I loved about Napoli. People live in the old town; all their daily needs can be fulfilled there, craftspeople do work there!
