Me too. Are they still 'hawking' the cameos on the street there like they were in the early 60's?
Where I was wandering around the Bay it was more tourist-like than along the pier where our ship tied up in 1972. I don't know if there is still a pier about where the Navy ships dock, but suspect there is. I also suspect that is where the hawkers congregate. There were some shops and kiosks and a few street entrepreneurs where we were, but nothing like those days. I simply thought the neighborhoods where we rode the bus teemed with high rise tenements that bordered on blight. It was quite depressing compared to so many other places in Italy that we saw.
In those days there was a NATO headquarters in the neighborhood. I remember playing a round of golf on a multi-tiered golf course reserved for NATO folk. It was inside a mountain that was a was an ancient volcano. It was as magnificent a vista for a golf course that I ever saw...to this day.
I also remember in those days meandering around a cosmopolitan gathering place that presented as seemy a side of humanity as I have seen anywhere. One night's liberty was reminiscent of that bar in Star Wars where Obi-Wan Kenobi bargained with Han Solo for a ride on the Millenium Falcon. The memories from those days are better than not bad as are those from this most recent trip to that part of the world. I'd recommend it to anyone who can arrange it.