Let's Get Some Shoes

Late last night my coworker asked if I'd want to go to Mercatino Poggioreale, better known as Shoe Alley. Um yest please! Most of you know that I just can't say "no" when it comes to shoes or coffee.

We headed out early this morning to downtown Naples to see what I could find because the 3 pairs of shoes I've been wearing since my pack out are becoming torture! My black flats will be trashed as soon as I see that my shoes have arrived safe and sound.

So we got there and I really had no idea what to expect. What I found were stalls lined up, row after row. with shoes, clothes, purses, and jewelry. We wasted no time making our way up and down the rows, taking visits into just about every shoe vendor's stall. As we looked at the shoes my coworker explained to me that a lot of shoes are one of a kind so it's really tough to often find a pair you like in your size. These unique pairs must fall off a truck somewhere so I'm very tempted to just put in my request for size 39/40 shoes and see what they can do in the weeks to come.

I of course found an adorable pair of tan leather sandals within 10 minutes of being there but my foot didn't fit. Yes, I did try them on again during our second walk though but alas, they weren't meant to be so I continued my search.

Let me tell you there were red shoes. There were blue shoes.  And pink shoes. Green shoes. Lacy shoes. Glittery shoes. Shiny shoes. Beaded shoes. Flat shoes. Tall shoes. Really really tall shoes. Ugly shoes. Strappy shoes. Tasseled shoes. Running shoes. Plastic shoes. Baby shoes. Basically every type of shoe under the sun and yet I still couldn't find a pair of flats to wear in/out of the office to save my babies shoes from the wear and tear of the cobble stones- go figure right?

I think our favorite pair we saw were the one seen in the middle of the shoe collage. Yep. The heel is inside the shoe. Well is it still a heel when it's a cushion? At any rate if any one is interested they are available in more colors than the red and for a mere 10 euros they can be yours!

After searching and being tempted by those adorable leather sandals a 3rd time I'm sure you still have one more question-what did I end up with? Um just what I was trying to avoid...heels! I guess I just can't escape my true love. I even told my coworker to keep me away from from the stalls that didn't have promising looking flats. Epic fail. Here are the 2 pairs I ended up with for 15euros total! Yeah, that's a smidge over 20 bucks! The black peep toes were only 5 euro.

Have I convinced you shoe lovers to visit yet? The only issue is the limited sizes for most of the shoes. Again, had there been my size in a few other pairs I would have walked away with more (way more) than my two pairs. At any rate, there are other markets to be visited with different styles and yes, we're already making plans for next weekend!