Tampa to Naples – counting 8217 kilometres

by bretzelitos

We started the day with a nice breakfast together with our friend from California in the GRAND HYATT hotel. The food was nice, one servant was from Darmstadt and absolutely happy about me speaking the Hessian dialect with her in Florida. Once again a nice meeting with him. We said good bye to Scott afterwards as he was heading out directly to his business meeting – and we continued our trip.

It was short trip from Tampa to Naples, only 370 kilometres in distance. We drove via the I-275 seabridge south of St Petersburg and joined then small Florida highways to see a bit of the town surroundings. That is not too bad as we have already done most of our trip and take this Wednesday as rest day on the beaches of Naples, Florida. This is also why we did more kilometres than foreseen on the direct link.

This town has changed a lot since I have been here the last time in 2003. The old city centre has been renovated and stacked up with new restaurants, shops. All over the place, new housing, condominiums, hotels, shops and realtor agencies have opened or replaced older ideas of living or how to make money. The old Vanderbuilt Inn Hotel, where we stayed in 2001 and Sven learnt swimming, has been demolished and converted into a Condo skyscraper.

I have the feeling that a lot more money is in Naples now, it reminds me a lot more of Marco Island in 2001.

Luckily the beach is still the same. Clear water with soft and white tropical sand. 🙂

Have a look…!