To get to town from the port you have to take a taxi that costs E20 to get to the train station. Talk about a rip off! I would have never made it there by walking though. The information people outside the train station said the bus for Napoli would be leaving at 12:15pm (that's what I heard anyway) from the other side of the train station. When I got to the other side there was no ticket office to be seen and a string of empty busses. On the way back down the sidewalk I noticed a guy in one of the busses. Though he spoke no English, he seemed very kind and happy to try and help me figure out which bus I needed. He asked around to some people on the street for where the bus left and where to get a ticket. He offered to let me lock my roller bag in the bus while we went to get the ticket. Once I had everything taken care of I noticed the bus didn't leave until 12:50pm which gave me a chance to get some lunch before the 3.5 hour ride. My new friend pointed me to a very close and delicious cafe near the bus stop. I never got his name, but there's no way I would have made it to Napoli without his help.
I think lack of sleep on the ferry caught up to me because I had a terrible time staying awake on the bus ride to Napoli. I did get to see some lovely Italian countryside with rolling green hills dotted with olive trees and grape vines. There were stone and plastered houses in various stages of progress and disrepair. A few lone barns stood empty amidst the farmed land. Later on we passed through the mountains where signs warning of snow flashed at us. Some of the higher hills were covered in a light snow, but not much. Mostly we saw rain. On the other side it was sunny and looked more welcoming.
[The bridge is blurry, but the architecture is awesome!]
I noticed early on the stark contrast between Greece and Italy. Most of the landscape in Greece was of the cooler color palate with gray or tan stone and a little greenery here and there. Though the people were welcoming and hospitable, the land was dull, imposing and stoic like rocks. The history of the land exuded wisdom, but did not make you feel overly welcomed. In Italy the color palate is much warmer. Browns, vibrant greens and cream tones richly invite you to relax and wander about. Most of the people here keep to themselves and tend not to speak as much English as in Greece. Perhaps since they have the Latin alphabet instead of Greek letters, they feel less of a need to be accommodating to other nationalities. Those I have asked for help have readily assisted me, but there's always someone who is having a bad day no matter where you travel or reside.
Once in Napoli at the main transit station, I procured my CampaniaArteCard which gives me 3 days worth of free access to most transit in Napoli and 2 free entrances to historical/cultural sites. I boarded the metro and got off at the 2nd stop as planned. Unfortunately the roads here go in random directions and change names every 1 block for the small ones and every 4 blocks for the large ones. Navigating is a real challenge. None of the streets I was looking for appeared and I ended up walking into a theater to ask for help. They spoke no English, but they saw the telephone number and called. The hostel is Aussie owned so fluent English is no problem. I wrote down the directions and headed out. Apparently I was a good 300m NW of where I needed to be to even start using the directions they gave me. When I finally did make it to the hostel I had 102 steps (give or take 5) waiting for me to get to the 3rd floor. It was worth it though for a comfy bed, free internet and helpful people.
There was apparently no need to go out for dinner as someone was cooking and made enough for everyone here (about 7 people) to be filled up. We had salad and calamari in squid ink cooked pasta. I'd seen it on the Food Network, so knew it was safe to try. Surprisingly it was very mild and quite tasty! And we all had black mouths which made for fun conversation.
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