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Travel

Old-time Florida charm, sans sand

Old Naples - the city's revitalized downtown area - is a charming spot for a quick urban trip.

By LENNIE BENNETT
Published April 23, 2006

That's a fun and fine plan.

But another Naples is often overlooked. A friend and I decided to give that Naples a go. We headed inland for an overnight stay at the Inn on Fifth downtown, several blocks from the beach.

The reason for our trip was a visit to the Naples Museum of Art for the "Andrew Wyeth and Family" exhibition. See review today in Sunday Arts inside Floridian. You can do the drive, about 300 miles round trip from St. Petersburg, in a day but it's a long day.

We didn't even pack a bathing suit or sunblock for this trip, planning a little shopping during the afternoon of our arrival and a leisurely look at the museum the next day.

Old Naples, as the downtown is now called, is the original small town that grew on the edge of the Everglades once Barron Collier built a railroad in the early 20th century.

For decades it was the only retail area. But like many other downtowns, it went into a decline in the 1970s as malls and office parks sprang up on the city's perimeter.

Old Naples found new life about 10 years ago with membership in the Florida Main Street Program and a master plan. Today it looks great. It has retained its tropical old-Florida charm, with palms, banyans and poinciana trees shading broad sidewalks landscaped with flower-filled planters and trees.

That preserved-in-amber ambience has been a blessing and a curse for the downtown. It has lots of shops, art galleries and a few antique stores but, as my friend the world-class shopper noted, no retail revelations. They're mostly resort-oriented, aimed at tourists. But strolling up and down the avenues window-shopping for several hours was cheap fun.

What we didn't spend on merchandise we made up for at dining spots. Old Naples has some wonderful restaurants. If you want franchise food, head over to U.S. 41, but downtown is home to several dozen independents, many with the sophistication of South Beach. You pay for that ambience, of course. But I didn't begrudge the almost $70 my friend and I spent on a late lunch of shrimp salad, fried calamari, tomato and basil bruschetta and pinot grigio at Vergina, a lovely restaurant directly across the street from our hotel.

Normally, after all that activity, I would consider room service for dinner. But a visit to the Irish pub next to the hotel that provides catering changed my mind. It smelled of stale beer and seemed vaguely unclean. So we launched ourselves back onto the streets about 9:30 p.m. and found a lively scene of college kids on spring break, families eating ice cream cones at outdoor tables, interesting-looking

couples having intense conversations in French and German on restaurant terraces.

We landed at Cafe Lurcat, several blocks away, a restaurant oozing hipness, which it justified by still serving dinner at 10 o'clock on a weeknight. The lounge had a wall-long leather banquette strewn with raw silk pillows, and chairs were slipcovered in impractical but sexy white, looking like visual tropes against dark walls and tables.

Our table was in front of a French window, all opened to the breezy spring night. We ordered several so-of-the-moment small plates: french fries with bearnaise sauce, miso-marinated sea bass with cucumber salad and tiny sandwiches made with Gruyere and smoked ham tucked into gougeres. And more pinot. Those tidbits hit the spot and also set us back more than $100. But hey - we felt one with the cool vibe at that point as we toddled back to our room.

We had asked for one facing Fifth Avenue rather than the pool and felt very urban as we looked down on the street scene from our balcony. A good seal on the sliding door and black-out curtains muffled the noise of the men next door having what sounded like a fraternity party on their balcony. The better-than-average bed linens helped, too.

Next morning we skipped breakfast, except for mediocre coffee made in the room, and headed to the museum, part of the Philharmonic Center for the Arts complex. After four hours in the galleries, we grabbed a salad at the outdoor cafe (nice touches: cloth napkins and a pepper grinder on each table) and headed for home.

The 24-hour stay was just long enough.

Lennie Bennett can be reached at (727) 893-8293 or lennie@ sptimes.com.

[Last modified April 23, 2006, 10:15:48]