We woke up early, packed and ready to go, and headed to the nearby taxi stand for the train station. The public transit card in Rome has worked really well, but e decided not to do this with suitcases, even though ours are small. We got to the train station, found our very nice high-speed train seats, and whoosh we were off to Naples. Arriving Naples at the Centrale/Garibaldi station, we got our Campagnia pass there at the train station, and took a taxi to our hotel. The guy did not know where it was, so the guy in charge of taxis explained it to him, somewhat exasperatedly. He pulled up in the middle of a tiny square and let us out. No idea where the hotel was from here, so used the Google Maps and thought it was a block away, turned out it was right near the square. Unassuming entry, but they were very friendly. Our room was not ready yet (we were early) so they led us to a nice salon area to wait. The hotel is the former residence of Cardinal Sforza who was also Archbishop of Naples. There is a large white and gold room that is the breakfast area that was some sort of reception room during the time of the cardinal. Our room was nice, spacious with a high ceiling. We dropped our things and were off to Pompeii!
Naples is definitely grittier and much more worn out than Rome. Lots of buildings with missing plaster, broken icees, and graffiti on every surface up to about 8 feet almost everywhere. There is a loft more garbage on the street, and general debris. It feels darker, and people do not look you in the eye as much. Very different than Rome.
The route to the Metro was circuitous to say the least. Across the small piazza, down three flight os straits in between drying laundry and a few tiny shops, we got to the Universita Metro, and headed to the Centrale station. There is another station nearby which is supposed to be much easier to get a seat at, but we wandered around and could not find it. We did find a rather sketchy market, with food, guys with shoes and jeans on blankets on the ground, and it did not feel very good. We walked back to the main train station, and found a the Circumvesuviana train headed to Pompeii, which was packed.
Observations about people: while in Rome folks mostly seemed well-dressed (except some tourists) in Naples things are more casual. At least half the people are tattooed, of almost all ages. And the dress is much more casual. Tourists stick out here even more than in Rome I think.
It was already hot by the time we arrived around 2:00pm, and Barney got some ice cream while we found the Askos guide we booked through airbnb. Her name was Antonia and she is an archaeologist who dug in Pompeii for 9 years, was very knowledgeable. We really enjoyed the tour with her, she explained the how to tell the various types of stores we were seeing, how the houses ranged from very simple to quite nice. The Forum was really something. Because most of the ceilings collapsed from the weight of the ash, everything is one story or less. After the 2-hour tour ended, we continued on ourselves, exploring various places, got some cold drinks, and really experiencing the Napoli sun. So many people were sunburned, thank goodness for SFP60. At the end of the day, we went to then Grande Teatro, a very large half-circle with large numbers of seats. There were folks coming in and out, but finally we had a moment when no one was there. I sang the entire “Come in quest ora bruna” by Verdi from Simon Boccanegra. I was really able to sing out, and did it fell great! We then headed to our final stop, the large amphitheater, and then to the train station not far away. We caught the Campagnia Regionale fancy train back, with nice seats and AC, very comfy after a long hot day.
We got back to the hotel, asked for a recommendation for dinner, and they sent us up the street to the Pulcinella Bistro. It was small and nice, very friendly, very nice food. I had some lovely grilled octopus and Barney had a nice steak, plus a bottle of local red wine. We came back, showered after a long hot day, and settled into the comfy bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment