The Streets of Napoli

Last night I met Hannah from TN. She graduated from nursing school in December and is taking 6 months to travel and enjoy life before starting her 2 year fellowship at a hospital near DC. She has been working her way through northern Italy where it has been cold, rainy and snowy at times. Until she showed up at the hostel in Napoli, it had been 11 days since she was able to speak English to anyone who could understand her. Needless to say she was eager for some company. We decided to spend today walking around the city and seeing some of the major sights.

Our wanderings took us down south to the shore and the ports along the bay. We followed the harbor for a while until we turned north to head back into the city. When we found a main street we also found a rally of some kind. People were playing loud music from a van and walking behind it with tons of red flags. As we went further along the road we caught up with the gathering point where a man was shouting Italian at a podium. What is it with me and finding rallies and demonstrations wherever I go??

We worked our way west toward Vomero, a small town on top of a large hill in the NW corner of Napoli. There are two funiculars that take you up the slope where there is a castle and two museums amidst the town. We happened across some lovely views of the city and bay along with a park in the middle of town. Navigating up there was really challenging. Our handy map from the hostel didn't detail that there was even a city on top until we arrived. Fortunately there were street side area maps that gave us a clue about where we were. For the trip down we opted to take the Via Pedamentina, a walkway back down to the rest of Napoli. I'm glad we didn't walk up this way because all the steps are slanted downhill and the steps are about 2 feet long making for a very awkward time walking. Most of it was littered with broken glass thrown off from the top of Vomero. There were some really cool doorways, a bed and breakfast and some small shops amidst the local housing. We had excellent views down into Napoli.


For lunch, we stopped at Da Michele, one of the most famous pizza restaurants in Napoli. I ate the whole thing!!

Most of the day had been sunny until about halfway through our venture in Vomero when it started to get very cold and hail upon us. Back down in Napoli it was still sunny, but cool. As the sun dropped the rain started up again. To try and get out of the cold we headed for the National Archeological Museum in the north part of the city. Sadly the building is quite drafty and while we were out of the wind, there was no heat to speak of in the building. Strangely parts of the 2nd floor were much colder than the first. Inside we were treated to ancient pottery, bronze work, gladiator memorabilia, treasures and paintings from Pompeii and statues galore. Probably the coolest part we saw was the sundial room upstairs. In the far SW corner is a tiny hole in the ceiling that shines a beam of light at noon onto a marble zodiac calendar on the floor.

From the museum we made our way back to the hostel and chilled out after a long day of walking. Once again people were cooking in the kitchen for a group. They invited Hannah and I to chow down if we were interested. The evening's meal included salad, fried anchovies (fresh, whole and bones in), boiled artichokes with vinaigrette sauce and pasta with veal, tomatoes and garlic. All of it was most delicious and stuffed us silly. I'm grateful for some free, fresh cooked food. I slept great last night and look forward to another night of good sleep.

What Day Is It?

My day began by trying to take a shower on a moving ferry. If you've ever tried doing this, you realize how challenging it can be. We didn't get into the Bari, Italy port until 11:30am (about 2 hours later than scheduled). The ride was relatively smooth. Some metal bars in the cabin kept squealing loudly on and off throughout the night, so sleep was not the best. Once in the port I had the challenge of figuring out how to get into town and find the magic bus to Napoli. There's only one, so I didn't want to miss it.

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.