Naples, Florida
Spend the weekend in Naples, Florida (as opposed to Italy, which several of my friends thought when I first told them i was going to Naples - I wish...). I have not been to Naples in over 30 years and even then it was just a day trip and drive through.
The town is nice enough. A lot more touristy than I thought. Many condos and residences - not a lot of business or industry. Many part-time seasonal vacant homes in the summer, since winter is the season in southwest florida. Lots of big beautiful houses.
Funny story. So I went for a beach walk one morning. As I went further down the beach, it got more and more private - lots of “No Trespassing” signs on the dunes keeping you from getting off the beach. Well, I needed to get off the beach to a road that would take me back to my hotel. So I crossed the one vacant lot without a “No Trespassing” warning onto the road, which was clearly private. Many enormous houses! Tens of thousands of square feet would be my guess. And none of them occupied- none. The only people I saw were the immigrant landscapers maintaining the yards and grounds. Oh .. and there were more “No Trespassing” signs at every house and a “protected by ACME (or whatever) security”. I fully expected to get stoped since it was a private street.
But I didn’t. I just kept walking down the street minding my own business and looking at the houses and taking a few pictures. Landscaper’s all smiled at me, but I never got stopped by security. Then I got to the end of the street there was this literally Game of Thrones looking gate with no way to get out. There was swamp on both sides. No passage around.
I thought “damn! Now what?” - well, as I was approaching the gate and contemplating how to get around it, it magically started to open. It was like watching the opening of the Gates of Mordor. There was no one around and no reason for it to open open except they saw me. Clearly, I was being watched the entire time I was walking down that street. I thought, well isn’t that convenient, and then as soon as I went out the gate …. It closed.
Later, I found out that that area is called Billionaires Row. Many billionaires own houses on that street. Security is very tight. The person I spoke with asked how in the world I managed to get in there. .. I get that to myself.
All in all, fun adventure in Naples… Florida.