Naples is perched at the top of an immense bay with the diamonds of Sorrento, Capri and Isola di Ischia around its hem. After the hot inland cities we were looking forward to seeing water and feeling the sea breeze.
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| M's happy place - on a boat! Off the coast of Capri after surviving our trip into the Grotto Azzure. The boat captain was keen to chat, gave us some great advice and offered to take the family shot. M felt comfortable giving him his camera cause he couldn't run away with it! |
Mt Vesuvius still grumbles away, stoically ignored by everyone except those whose job it is to monitor the hundreds of seismic probes 24/7, first demanded by King Ferdinand II in the early 1900s. It lost its top again during WWII but the 26 who lost their lives in the lava flow were an insignificant number of the masses of Italians slaughtered during that conflict. Over half a million people choose to live in the red zone (most in danger of death from the smallest predicted eruption). They build without permits to sponge up the huge flow of tourist dollars. The government has offered cash for them to resettle in other places but the statistics of a 27% chance of a catastrophic blow in the next century do not impress; they live by their ancestor's philosophy - 'carpi diem'.
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Above - M called our crossing of Piazza del Plebiscito (behind us) in search of water, the bowl of Hades.
The Palace Reale was covered in scaffolding and closed and the Basilica on the other side was closed too.
Below - Poss' shot across the bay to Vesuvius. It wasn't smoking but the heavy haze suggests that the city is. |
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A 2013 photo from Google maps by A.Offermans shows the brilliant curve of the Basilica Reale San Francesco di Paola.
We crossed the piazza back again under the shade of its colonnades. |
Getting off the train at Napoli Centrale gave us a good idea of what to expect from the city. There was a massive line of 'illegal' taxi drivers trying to grab disembarking passengers. Graffiti covered the walls, unmanned construction projects littered the site and polizia promenaded the concourse with the 'selfie, selfie, bling, bling' boys scattering ahead of them and reforming in behind. Stray dogs trotted up and down looking for scraps. There are so many in this city, all coloured the gold of a retriever and suffering from various degrees of mange and fleas but none of them looked hungry so the locals must feed them.
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| The narrow, steep and usually crowded streets of Chiaia - Sunday is very quiet. (Right: Gradoni Chiaia) |
The 'legal' taxis are white and line up in the taxi stand. The standard fare from the train station to anywhere in the city of Naples is €20. The driver of a 7 seater saw us heading toward the stand and quickly approached M asking if we needed a taxi. He told us to walk to the front of the stand and drove his van, to the shouts and fists of other taxis he passed, to the front and got us loaded in lickity split. He exercised every English word and phrase he knew between commiserating with M for also being the father of many daughters, (does Poss really look that much younger than me?:() and giving us the names and purpose of places of interest that we speed past. Once we got to Via Chiaia - a pedestrian street, he got out and helped us find our hotel. This was cleverly disguised without a number showing, at the back of a courtyard, behind massive wooden doors. The layers of Napoli so deftly paraphrased.
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| Left: Inside the courtyard looking up at Poss, Petal, Willow and M. Centre: Wooden doors sealing off the courtyard - the little door (scuffed rectangle) is how you enter if they're not open after pressing a doorbell on the left. Right: Poss' flight to Nice was a more civilised time than ours to Athens so she was still on the balcony. If I'd known how crazy this driver was going to be I may have called another taxi. Via Chiaia behind us is usually full of shoppers, 4:30am is a bit early for that. |
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Top: Facing the bay is Castel Nuovo. When the French invaded The Kingdom of Naples, Palmero (on the island of Sicily) was the capital. Charles the first shifted it to Naples and had this castle built by the sea. He didn't like the smaller Roman one (dell'Ovo) a Km along the coast. The five towered fortress was designed by a French architect in 1282.
Bottom: I'm not sure if this piece is French of Charles 1 or of the later Spanish conquers. |
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| Left: Naples has an arcade copied from the famous Milan Galleria. It was 2/3 empty and covered in scaffolding - no tradies to be seen - they are probably having a deserved summer break. Perhaps the city is trying to spruce itself up a bit - a visit in 5 or so years might be a good idea - as long as Vesuvius keeps calm. Right: The decorative entrance to the castle was completed by the Spanish when they ruled the Kingdom of Naples. It is now the town hall for the area and has a civic museum, chapel and state rooms inside - in bad repair. |
The main reason for our stay in Naples was to visit the excavated, Roman town of Pompeii. We decided to get off at Herculaneum first which many sites had advised was a better place to visit. Pompeii was badly damaged in the 1940s quake and bombed by the allies in WWII so much is damaged and shut off to the public. The Metro system in Naples was clean and efficient but the trains and stations around the coast to Sorrento were not. Later in the day, as we sat sweltering in the sun waiting for our next train, we saw a beautifully airconditioned 'tourist' train that you had to pre-order separate tickets for with lots of free seats. The Campania Express is only €15 each return and only stops at the three places we wanted to go to. The regional Circumvesuviana(around Vesuvius) line was hot, dirty, overcrowded and slow and more expensive than the bright new 2015 Campania Express. Oh the heartbreak of ignorance. Another sorrow was that in the haze of obscurity that I fold myself into whenever too closely packed with my fellow man, I missed spotting the Ercolano Station, the stop for Herculaneum, until the train was pulling out.
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Toledo Metro station - closest to Chaiai - was stunning. It is part of an Urban renewal project and the 13th Metro station to be beautified by clever architects and artists. The future is looking beautiful for Naples if this is the vision.
Centre top: a gizmo that turns cosmic waves into sound - the eerie pings echo around the smooth mosaic walls and make you feel a bit weird knowing that something from outer space, unfelt and unseen was probably travelling through you.
Centre bottom: A huge funnel from the steep escalators down to the platform and up to street level - this is looking down from the street. |
Having missed the Herculaneum stop we got out at Pompeii. Another good looking tour guide ticket seller pounced but we decided that a 1 1/2 hr guided walk was better than a 1 1/2 hour ramble missing the best bits so we succumbed. Knowing that Petal was young enough to get in free and that Willow should be getting 1/2 price as a student, I was pretty annoyed when the tour guide announced that we needed to give her the money and she would go in the back to get our tickets and because the people in the booth were doing her a favour they wouldn't do the kids tickets. There was a very short queue at the entry point so I asked if I could get my money from the tour back then and go buy my own tickets. A miracle happened and she let the 6 kids under 16 in the group go with her to get the free tickets but not the students.
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| A Pomegranate tree at the entrance gate to the Museum. Centre: Pompeii had a gladiator training facility -these were their private rooms. Right: the Gladiator training arena. |
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Left: A wealthy home, through the vestibule to the atrium with a central fountain where business would be done, water was taken from here to the kitchens and private rooms when required. Over the little wall is a central garden courtyard with dining room overlooking it. There was one large meal a day, late noon to late afternoon.
Right: Our tour guide in action. |
There were many tour guides with many groups speaking many languages. It was quite entertaining when one tour guide got in the way of another and they started bickering in Italian. The burning heat, crowds and massive size of the site evaporated the eerie feeling I had always thought I'd feel standing in a place of such an instant loss of many human lives. The experts now agree that the people in Pompeii in 79AD died instantly of intense heat. The wave of burning air at 300+degrees C would have put people into a body spasm and instant rigor mortise according to studies of bone and metals on site. As ghastly as that sounds, I think it would have been preferable to a slow agonising death through ash inhalation which is what I remember reading as a kid in my Grandmother's National Geographic collection.
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Kitchen facilities were limited in private homes - even the wealthy merchants paid servants to go out for food.
Left and Centre: the Pompeii McDonalds - Each block or so of houses had one of these, they were like canteens where servants paid for their plates to be filled from different dishes in the pots. No drive through windows for you to work in though Willow. Right: A bakery, the brick arch was an oven and the circular stone in the center was for milling the wheat. Bread was made daily and picked up in the mornings. The very wealthy had it delivered to their homes. |
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| The main streets were designed to slope because they were also the city's water management system(sewer). The raised stones are for pedestrians to be able to cross without stepping in muck and the spaces were measured so that carts and wagons could still pass through. Right: One of the city gates. |
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The Sex trade was legal and one of the main industries of Pompeii. The Phallus was considered a good luck symbol and was sculptured and painted on many of the buildings. Left: The engraving into the stone is a street sign on the road helping sailors find the red light district. They lead from the water gate to the hotels and brothels. Centre left: Second stories were built to overhang giving more floor space above and shelter below. We stood in a long queue waiting to enter this brothel!
Centre right: Each room in the brothel has pictures to show the service provided inside.
Right: the room that the slave prostitutes worked in - many were chained. |
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| The Romans built their cities where there was an abundance of food and hot water. The geothermal streams in Pompeii were plentiful. Their public baths were used by every level of society although there were private rooms that could be booked by the most important. Top Left and bottom centre: the art work must have been amazing. The ceiling medallions had still discernible portraits in each. Top right: just like any gym today, people stored their belongings in lockers before heading to the baths. Bottom Left: raised floors allowed for hot steam to be pumped(by slaves) underneath making the tiles hot. We were all sweltering enough without the added though of steam! Right: a lead pipe - all the fountains and water sources in the town had water delivered through lead pipes and clever aqua duct design. The life expectancy of the inhabitants was short - they all eventually died of lead poisoning. |
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| Top left: Main road. Top right:The large public square where the markets, public meetings and entertainment happened. Vesuvius looks quite harmless in behind. Bottom left: The Hall of Justice. Bottom right: The edge of town. |
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| The plaster casts of two of Pompeii victims. Left: a dog Right:Found in one of the gladiator rooms. |
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Left: This is the gate that lead into town from the seaport. Can you imagine the panic as hundreds of people try to flee to the sea through that little gap when the eruption began? Thanks to the big blow in AD79, the coast is now a few Km away.
Right:A series of caged cells store collections if items uncovered from the ash. |
After leaving the park we gratefully sat in the lovely shady places provided to sit and drink cold liquids in. Among the shops and stalls is a beautifully air conditioned Cameo factory store with free, clean toilets. Granny had a Cameo brooch that Poss always loved so she was keen to have a look at the displays. I didn't realise that true cameos are carved from shells with two tones. The white surface is polished then carved through to show the darker shade as the brownish golden background. Clever hands! The blue Cameos are made from a stone that has an outside white layer and is treated the same way. Lots for sale at reasonable prices at shops in Naples but I'm not sure how to tell whether they are genuine or not without snapping them.
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| Left: blue stone cameos Right: a poor quality shell decorated with the traditional profile style. (Thanks Poss for the photo) |
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| The gentle stroll from Sorrento town to the beach. |
We headed back to the station to catch the train to Sorrento. We were hoping to find a lovely beach for a Mediterranean swim and a decent restaurant for tea. We discovered that the Sorrento beaches were at the bottom of towering cliffs, we were directed to a steep and winding stair case that took us down to the water but had to traipse through a couple of carparks before getting to the 'beach'. Once down there we discovered that there was an elevator to the top - €1 each but well worth it.
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| The beaches of Sorrento - the whole time we were down here I could hear Tina Arena singing Sorrento Moon in my head. |
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| Sea, sun, shade but no surf at Marameo. |
A small and crowded section(with a gravelly sand) was available for free public use. The entrepreneurial Campanians have built jetties that they have furnished with deckchairs, restaurants and bathing huts. We passed a couple that would only take cash then found Marameo (opposite the lift entry) that had card facilities and paid €8 per person for entry a chair and use of a bathing hut for changing and a couple of umbrella's for 6€. It may have been cheaper because it was mid afternoon. I haven't swum for over two years - that weightless cool joy washed over and unknotted my muscles. The water was the perfect temperature. Even though the daily thunderstorms of the Napoli Gulf boomed away in the distance and the haze turned slightly darker, the sun kept sparkling on the water of the Marameo bathing platform co.
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The view back down to our bathing platform and out across the gulf gives you a better idea of how tall the cliffs were.
The afternoon thunderstorm still booming away over Naples. |
A sudden and powerful circular wind gusted around us at the end of dinner back up in the middle of the town. I felt sorry for the people who had plates of food in front of them. We were about to leave and had just polished off our complimentary limoncellos and lemon granitas - once again Poss was mistaken for our eldest daughter and was given a granita instead of the limoncello!
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| Big salads - Sorrento was a really yellow town. |
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Another popular holiday destination - very expensive looking sea view hotels. We saw two weddings - everyone was dressed to the nines and looking very uncomfortable in the heat surrounded with people in summer holiday clothes.
The restaurant we had dinner at to the left - Fauno Bar -right on Piazza Tasso it was a great place to sit and watch people - the menu was huge - a tourist something for everyone type but with family prices. Excellent service. |
The next day we decided to go to Capri, the island that legends from the 50's Hollywood scene made famous. For once I decided not to double check ferry timetables thinking that on the weekend they must be quite frequent. The catamarans were and faster and three times the price so we caught the complimentary bus over to the ferry terminal bought our tickets and waited over an hour until the next boat - hmmmmm. There was a good cafe and newsagent so we were able get maps for Naples(I have not been able to find a pop up map of Naples like the rest of our collection) and Capri.
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| Big Ferry terminal in Naples. Lots of boats to watch. Top right:The Circumvesnuviana line - we could have taken this to Sorrento and ferried to Capri from there but nothing was going to get us back on that track again! |
It is now covered in tourist shops and the exclusivity bubble - and associated maintenance of facilities - has long since burst. The boats disgorge hordes on a half hourly basis and chauffeur driven stretched convertible limos line up to carry people all over the steep rocky island. The blue, white and lemon coloured ceramics that I have always admired must have sprung from this place. Tiles with house place names and street corners decorate the streets and souvenir shops are full of it.
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| The bustle around Marina Grande where the Golfo di Napoli spews its tourist harvest. |
We were keen to visit the Grotto Azzure(blue) and noticed on the map that there was a bit of a beach there so thought we could swim away the rest of the day. We were really hoping that we'd be able to swim in the grotto but as soon as we saw all the boats lining up we knew that it wouldn't be possible that day. As we got off the ferry I saw a sign for boat trips to the Blue Grotto but the next one was leaving in five minutes. Poss and I dived into the queue just ahead of a big tourist group and made the next boat. Yay! There is a bus that goes over the top of the island to the grotto which would have spectacular views but being on a launch out in the gulf on a brilliantly sunny day was far too tempting. Once close to the coast, where the tiny little entry point, is we had to cross to another launch like pirates, it took us in closer. Then strong, opera singing boatmen rowed up in little boats that took four people at a time into the cave.
When it was our turn I asked the very fit looking gentleman if he could take five instead - pointing to the girls and indicating how they were quite small. He laughed and made a big fuss of the four of us squeezing - almost on top of one another in the big end and Poss got put in the bow. The next stop was the payment booth floating in front of the entrance - oh did you think entry would be included in the ferry price too? The Blue grotto is officially a museum so Petal and Willow didn't have to pay to go in but we adults paid 4€ each and another 9€ from everyone for the boatsman's services. It was joked that these two guys, one for handing out the tickets, one for taking the money - cash only - were 'The Bank of Italy'. I invite you to make your own assumptions about who they might have been, here in the south of Italy. We had to lie flat as we were pulled through the cave entrance by a rope that was shackled to the cliff wall.
Once inside, the deep blue of the water reflecting up onto the very dark ceiling and walls was magical. There was also a silvery sort of opalescent glow that shimmered way below. The boatman showed us a wall with a step up to a concreted floor cavity from Roman times. He explained that Emperor Tiberius had built a villa for himself on the plain above the grotto and that a smaller villa was on a ledge further down. It is thought that once there may have been an internal passage from the small villa giving access to the grotto. The boatsmen sung a variety of Italian opera arias but because there were a few boats at a time in the sunken cave there was not a lot of echo. Kindly we got a second trip around the grotto before we waited for our turn to be whisked out. Seven boats came in before we got our turn and five were lining up to exit - very busy.
We asked the jovial captain of our launch where the best beach was on the island because contrary to our map there was no coast along the island that would ever be imagined as beach. He told us that the Marina Grande had the largest area. By paying a little extra at the public toilets we were allowed to get changed for the beach in there. The beach was rocks and I think the most painful surface I have ever attempted to walk on in bare feet. Once past the weedy rocks along the tide line the water was clear and wonderful. We had passed a huge private yacht - a small town on a hull, and so now, from the floating position, I kept and eye on the comings and goings from the stern boarding platform (the boat seemed to be pushed out on a conveyor then lowered into the water). I remembered reading in the BBC news that Oprah and Princess Beatrice were holidaying in mega yachts in the Mediterranean, we have accepted that we're not going to 'spot' Rowan Atkinson in our time left in England but an Oprah spotting would be nearly as good!
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| Arriving back at Marina Grande - Best beach to the right. |
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Top sun bathing wave break - too calm today for any of those. Bottom: too hard to walk on the painfully jagged stones on the beach - floating out, risking the odd slimy weed patch on a rock touching your tum, was a much better idea.
Right: down the beach towards the harbour. |
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| End of the beach closest to the harbour. |
The girls decided to stay on the big rocks forming a wave break, to get a bit of sunbathing done while M, Poss and I took the fenuncular(cable train) up to Capri(the island is named after the main town). There is one road that connects the two sides of the island separated by Mounts Barbarossa, Cappello and Solaro, it goes through a pass to Anacapri which is of equal size. The square at the top of the fenuncula with its hanging baskets and wide spaced, plinthed, white columns framed the sea view perfectly. We stopped at a restaurant just opening for the evening trade and asked if we could sit and enjoy the view with only a drink. They were welcoming and attentive. The warm breeze, shade and glorious view over the island was incredibly relaxing.
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| The blue white and lemon of Capri |
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| There were shoemakers everywhere selling very expensive but lovely Capri sandals. If you stayed on the Island for a few days you could put in a bespoke order for design, colour size and shape etc if the hundreds on display didn't quite meet your approval - what a treat. The porcelain suggests that quite a few Brits holiday here! |
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| The row of oleander here have had all its lower branches trimmed off so they act as trees rather than bushes - removing the lower branches also reveals the view. |
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| The street food was too tempting for M after our very sophisticated iced coffee at Don Aleonso Café |
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| Top of a steep rail journey |
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| Left: Through the front window of the going up driver's cabin - the split rails allow the little trains to pass one another and only needing a single line either end. |
Too soon it was time to go find the girls and organise a meal before our return ferry to Napels at 8:30. Just as we left the fenuncular those Naopoli Gulf afternoon thunderclouds let their burden fall. We ran for cover and saw the girls covering under the small veranda of the public toilets after having just gotten changed, I was relieved they hadn't been caught out on the rocks. Willow later informed me that I should give them more credit for weather alertness after living in the UK for so long; they knew rain clouds when they saw them. This afternoon pelting is apparently quite common in summer and as soon as it stopped all the out door restaurant tables and chairs were set up again ready for the evening rush.
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Rain clouds settling in as we head back down from the town of Capri to the harbour. Rain pelting on the once sparkling sea.
The yachts don't seem too worried about it. |
The next day we decided to cruise through Naples to the Nationale Archaeology Museum. Our Pompeii guide had told us that this is where we would be able to see the majority of the body casts and artefacts dug up from the site. Well they must have been hiding because there were only two casts - not the hundreds that have been made. There weren't many items from the Pompeii site on display either, in fact whole rooms were locked up and others unlocked but empty. Two areas that were amazing though were the art works peeled off the walls from Pompeii and the collection of mosaics at the other end of the museum. The painting room was closing an hour after we arrived so we headed there first. There was no air con in the museum, the air was hot and humid - how can this be good for the treasures they guard?
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| The huge dimensions of the National Archaeological Museum |
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| Bits and Pieces found in Pompeii - except bottom right:it was a popular pass time for the rich and famous to visit digs in the late 18th C to early 20th C, with a smoking Vesuvius and very slow transportation it must have been a daring adventure in the early days. |
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| The famous mosaic of Alexander the Great's(left on horseback) victory over Darius the Persian(right in the chariot) is here. I would have expected to find this at a museum in Athens. |
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| Two of the many statues dug up from the soil of this ancient land. I was startled to see how much the one on the right looked like my cousin K then felt a bit weird turning to see his companion on the opposite side of the doorway looking just like his brother G(his mustache isn't quite as long though!). |
One evening Poss and I had gone off exploring the streets around our hotel, I had no milk and had run out of tea bags, so we were trying to find a local supermarket. (If you want a cup of tea when you wake up in the morning take a travel jug when travelling through Europe.) Two young girls had a fruit market open up one of the very step roads from the harbourside up to a big hill that the Museo Nazionale S.Martino and Castel S.Elmo(not the red monster from Sesame Street). After finding that they didn't have any milk and very little English I tried to ask them if there was a grocer nearby. They were so polite and helpful, they pointed up the step stairs and counted on their finger two and gestured to the right saying left - I understand that word salad burden only too well.
We followed their direction and came to a tiny shop whose 1m square floor area was mostly taken up by a large, seated grandma catching up on the local gossip with the shop owner, his brother, one of their wives and son. Squeezing in we found everything we needed and the owner tried to sell us everything on his shelves at 'very good price! For his efforts and my tastebud delights I did buy a jar of their black cherry syrup. On the way back we bought a big bunch of local grapes grown on the sides of Mt Vesuvius from the girl's fruit store. We walked around a lot of the shops that were open late every night, just as well the shoe shop was about to close hey Poss!(Everything but the biggest chains and restaurants were closed all day Sunday.)
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| Nearly empty plates. Pasta originated with the Romans - each Roman citizen was given a set amount of wheat for the year after harvest so to preserve it they made it into flour, mixed it with egg and water and dried it out into large flat sheets for storage - eventually lasangé was born in the Neopolitan region. Petal's lasange was much richer than normal with cinnamon and nutmeg coming through a slow reduced onion, garlic and tomato sauce. |
We also walked past an Osteria(family run restaurant) that had glorious smells coming out of it. We went there for dinner the on our last night in Naples. Yum - if you ever get the chance to eat at Don Maccarone on Gradoni Chiaia take it. The eggplant and zucchini pudding(a savory side dish) was incredible but I was so full of the 'Good woman Spaghetti' with olives, capers and roasted cherry tomatoes squashed into the best spiced tomato sauce I have ever had, that I couldn't manage more than a couple of mouthfuls. Poss ordered chips which came out as deliciously seasoned small roasted potatoes - I would have liked to rummage around in Don's kitchen! M and Willow had a large tube Genoese pasta which has an onion sauce - also yum(yes I stole a bit of everything). M had really enjoyed his Spaghetti Aglio olio (chilli, garlic, olive oil, parsley) in Sorrento and was hard pushed to say which dish he enjoyed more.
My hairdresser - Paolo at Finn Jordan - is from Naples and told me that they sell pizza by the meter there. We didn't see that anywhere but we didn't look around the city very far either. My grandmother's two choices in ice cream were French Vanilla or Neapolitan. The latter came in three big stripes of Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla. We found out that there are many opinions about its origin - one was that had been created in Naples for a world trade fair to represent the national flag, Pistachio, Vanilla and Cherry to represent the Green, white and red. Another says the Italians bought their desert knowledge to America and they chose today's flavours of strawberry, chocolate and vanilla because they were the most popular. Another theory is that a Neopolitan chef, Tortoni, served the desert in his Parisian restaurant and made it famous. I wouldn't mind the Trade Fair version, none of it is served in Naples!
I am torn in my opinion of Naples.
The historic sites of the Bourbons and the Spanish are in disrepair. It was in Naples that a sailor returned from the America's and infected a prostitute with a new disease - Syphilis. In the 1490s Naples housed a strange juxtaposition of more convents and brothels than any other city on the peninsula, this new disease became a plague. The French conquered the Kingdom of Naples and took home a souvenir that ruined so many lives. Graffiti makes every street look like the set of a gangster movie, the bling bling boys are more aggressive, there are more cops than pedestrians in some quarters, it is dirty, the homeless litter the streets stealing food from stray dogs and the taxi driver who took us to the airport very early on the morning we left, accelerated to over 100kms between every turn.
Yet the people we meet in the hotel neighbourhood were open and friendly, the ice cream and local chefs were great, the Metro is clean and efficient, it has easy access to some wonderful places and it is certainly cheaper to stay in than those other wonderful places. But I think the best thing about Naples is that it has ambition - it is pulling up its own socks and should look as fabulous as it tastes in a few years and sparkle just as brightly the other jewels around its gulf.
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