2019_03 Naples area – Lynn's Travel Adventures

Ancient Greeks in Italy

May 29

I was too tired to deal with the blog yesterday. We didn’t get settled into the hotel in Messina until after 6pm then we went to get dinner, which of course doesn’t start until 7:30pm. So, we sat outside and had a drink. But then we couldn’t find the restaurant the hotel recommended so we went back to the hotel for better directions. This time we found the restaurant only to discover that it was closed for a week while the owners were on holiday. Now, we had to find another restaurant, which we did but by this time it was after 8pm. Dinner was good, even if it wasn’t what we ordered. Peter ordered lasagna and got a ham and mushroom pizza, and my calzone was wrong. But we were too tired to do anything but eat what the waiter brought. We finally got back to the hotel at 9:30 and were exhausted. We had walked almost 23,000 steps yesterday (which is over 9 1/2 miles) and we spent 6 1/2 hours in the car!! We barely had the energy to shower and fall into bed. But, as always, I’m awake before Peter this morning (Thursday 5/30) so I thought I’d post before we start our day.

Anyway, we left our beautiful flat in Caserta yesterday morning heading for the ancient Greek ruins of Paestum, about 1 hour and 40 minutes south along the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is famous for the well-preserved remains of three temples dating back to 550 to 450 BC. The town was quite large (accounting for almost 7500 of our steps) so we spent about 2 hours roaming the ruins.

Temple of Neptune (based on 18th century scholars) or the Temple of Apollo (based on later scholars). Can see Temple of Hera in background.

These giant pillars have to be at least 6 feet across at the base.

To give some perspective as to how big these are, Peter is nearly 6 feet tall.

In addition to the large temples there was also the remains of other buildings, just not as complete.

This is the forum, or meeting place. About 10 minutes after this was taken the place was crawling with kids. They were doing some type of Greek Olympics. Luckily the kids stayed in this area so we weren’t tripping over them as we walked through the rest of the ruins.

After walking through the ruins, we visited the museum which housed the artifacts found during the excavation of the site. The building was massive and after about an hour our brains were saturated with ancient Greeks and our feet were screaming so we headed back to the car.

Our original plan had been to head back to Salerno (about 30 minutes north) and take the ferry to Positano on the Amalfi Coast for the afternoon. We drove the famous coast the last time we were in Italy, but we thought it would be fun to see it from the Salerno ferry. But the weather was just too bad. While sunny in Paestum, we had driven through dark clouds and intermittent heavy rain in the Salerno area, so we decided to take a pass on a ferry ride in the rain and headed straight to Sicily.

It was about a 5-hour ride from Paestum to the ferry at Reggio Calabrio with a couple of stops along the way. The ride was quite pretty and since Peter wanted to watch the view, I drove. While this tiny car sometimes comes in handy (see photo below), it has absolutely no pickup which is a problem on the autostrada (highway). It’s like the little engine that could as it’s trying to merge onto the road. Once it’s up to speed it’s fine but getting there takes a while.

We got to the ferry just as it was finished loading but the guys managed to squeeze our car on. I mean they literally squeezed it on between a truck and the tailgate of the ship.

The yellow behind the car is the tailgate of the ship. There was just enough room to walk behind the car. A very tight squeeze. The only way it fit was to park on a slight angle.

On the ferry to Messina; looking towards Sicily.

We decided to stay at a hotel in Messina that we found on booking.com and after driving for about 5 minutes, I remembered all the rules of the road for driving in Sicily.

Rule 1: Yellow lights are nothing more than pretty colors.

Rule 2: Stop signs and red lights are just a suggestion.

Rule 3: Right/left turn only lanes mean nothing; if you want to go straight instead that’s okay.

Rule 4: You can park anywhere you want as long as your car fits in the empty space.

None of these cars is actually in a real parking spot.

After driving here for over 2 years while I was in the Navy, I had to relearn how to drive when I got home. I think I might be doing most of the driving while we’re in Sicily, especially in the towns.

Today we’re heading west along the northern coast of Sicily, probably spending the night in Termini, where Peter’s grandfather was born…very cool.

Peter is up so it’s time to get dressed and have some breakfast. Talk with you later.

Herculaneum Pictures and Naples

May 28

We came back to the base this afternoon to pick up a few things before we leave Caserta tomorrow, so I thought as long as we have a good internet connection, I’ll upload pics from yesterday and post today’s blog.

So, first here are some pictures from yesterday.

Overview of the excavation; you can see the modern town just beyond.

Tavern; there were several of these scattered through the town. The marble tiles on top are original.

The roof on the building on right is the original roof; it survived the blast.

Some of the frescos were in amazingly good shape.

The sun actually came out enough to need sunglasses. Didn’t stay out very long, though.

Okay, so that was yesterday. Today we headed back into Naples, this time on an express train that went straight to the Central Station. If we had waited 10 minutes longer yesterday, we could have taken this train and avoided the mess we had trying to find the ruins. But that’s why we call these trips adventures.

Today, though, we actually needed to be at the Garibaldi Station so we could catch the metro, so it was quite a walk from our suburban train to the line we needed. But it was early, and we had fresh feet, so it wasn’t too bad. Our destination today was the Palace of Naples, home of the Kings of Naples. Like the other palaces we’ve seen on all of our travels in Europe, it was beautiful but over the top ostentatious. Maybe it’s the Democrat in me but if rulers had spent half as much helping the people of their countries as they did on their palaces, they might have stayed in power and Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette may have kept their heads a little longer.

Anyway, here are some pictures of that.

Ceiling in Anteroom; was absolutely gorgeous.

Don’t remember what this room was used for but it was filled with paintings and tapestries.

Scary looking dude on outside of Palace. Wouldn’t want to mess with him.

After the Palace we walked across the street to the Galleria for a bit of a snack and to get Peter his coffee.

Our last stop was the Castel Nuovo or New Castle, which is a hoot as it was built in the late 13th century. The castle is actually a museum, which we weren’t interested in, but Peter wanted to get some pictures.

It’s right on the sea so it would be rather imposing to an enemy.

After this we headed back to the Metro which was just across the street from the Castle. We actually only spent about 3 hours in town, but we had seen what we wanted to see so we headed home.

After a quick lunch at home, we came here to the base. It’s after 5pm so we’ll be heading back to the flat soon to have dinner. Then it’s pack up the house and get ready for tomorrow when we head to Paestrum, just south of Salerno. There is a Greek ruin that Peter wants to see. After that, who knows. It depends on the weather. We’ll let you know what we end up doing. Ciao for now.

Herculaneum

May 27 Happy Memorial Day!

NOTE: Bad internet connect made it impossible to upload pictures, but I’ll get them up as soon as I can.

Ok, so if you got on a train that said the destination was the Naples Central Station, which of the following do you think is true:

The last stop would be the Naples Central Station
One of the stops would announce that it was the Naples Central Station
Either 1 or 2 is correct
Both 1 and 2 are correct
None of the above

If you answered 1, 2, 3 or 4 you would be wrong….and so were we. We got on the 8:36 train at the Caserta Station for Naples and heard that exact announcement. So, we waited to either hear that we’d arrived at the Naples Central Station (where we wanted to transfer to a train for Ercolino) or that the sign on the wall would say it was the Naples Central Station.

Once we started getting out of central Naples, we thought something was wrong. The last stop was nowhere near the Naples Central Train Station. The bad news was that we’d overshot the central station by about 5 stops. We should have gotten off at the Garibaldi station and walked to the Central Station but I’m not sure how we were supposed to know.

The good news is that we could get on a train heading to Salerno that stopped in Ercolino, so all was not lost. Why did we want to go there at all, you ask? Because that’s where the ruins of the ancient town of Herculaneum are found. More on that later. So, anyway, now we’re on the correct train heading in the correct direction. We get off in Ercolino at 11:00 but by this time it was starting to rain. The forecast had said a 10% change in the early morning decreasing to 0% chance later in the day. Well, I guess we got caught in the 10% because it was raining pretty hard. We ducked into a bar so Peter could have coffee (can’t figure out how the coffee machine in our flat works) while waiting for the rain to let up a bit. It did but as we continued to walk, it really started to pour. So, we waited under a storefront canopy till it slowed a little and continued the 40-minute walk to the excavation site.

At about noon (3 hours and 25 minutes after leaving Caserta) we finally arrived! We were wet and already tired, but we made it and the rain stopped. So, now a little about Herculaneum or Scarvi di Ercolino in Italian. Like Pompeii, it was buried in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. Unlike Pompeii, though, Herculaneum was hit with a pyroclastic blast which preserved organic material such a food, wood, baskets, etc. We saw at least one house that had a perfectly preserved wooden roof. Most of the residents left in advance of the blast, but 1980 about 400 well-preserved skeletons were found near the sea wall where they tried to hide.

Unlike Pompeii which has been totally excavated, Herculaneum is only partially uncovered. But since the rest of it is under the modern city, they are focusing on preserving what they’ve already uncovered. It really was fascinating, and we were glad we made the trip, even if it was quite an ordeal.

After visiting the site for a few hours, we headed back into Naples for lunch. We wanted to go to the famous Da Michele Pizzeria but there was crazy long line to get in. Since it was already almost 3:00 and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast we decided to eat somewhere else. The last time we were in Naples we ate at the DaMichele restaurant in the suburbs so we already knew what the pizza was like so we were okay with going somewhere not as crowded.

After lunch we headed to the “Nativity Street” which is famous for the nativity cribs. I included a picture of one from our visit to the Palace at Caserta. That one was gigantic and, while there are some large ones available for purchase, certainly nothing like that. I regretted not buying something the last time we were here, so I was determined to get something, but it had to be small as we don’t have a lot of room in our trunk. So, I got a small manger scene with just the Holy Family. I’ll put that out for Christmas. But then I also got a small pizzeria scene that’s motorized. It’s totally cute so I’ll find someplace in our living room for it.

Our last stop was to see the sculpture the Veiled Christ. But when we got there, we found out it wasn’t in a church like we thought but a museum. By this time, we were incredibly tired and had no desire to pay 7 euro each and walk around a museum just to see one statue. So, we took a pass and headed to the metro for a train back to Garibaldi Station where we walked to the Central Station for the 45-minute trip home.

It was about 7pm when we walked in the door, so it had been an 11-hour day. The total tally on steps was 21,000 which, according to the app, is almost 9 miles. Let me tell you, my feet (especially the right) and Peter’s ankle feel every one of those steps. But, by morning we’ll be good to go. We’re heading back into Naples to for a little while so it should be an easier day.

Pictures

Today is a very rainy day so we decided to head to the Naples Navy base to pick up a few things and do laundry. There’s nothing to post from today but luckily there is an internet connection, so I thought I’d upload pictures from the last couple of days while we wait for laundry.

Friday 24 May: Gaeta

Pizzaria Calpurnio; had dinner here; delicious pizza and lovely Italian ambiance

Gaeta at night; it was a beautiful evening

Saturday 25 May: Monte Cassino

From courtyard looking down the mountain

Polish Cemetery

Palace of Caserta

Front of Palace; so big couldn’t fit it all in picture

Nativity crib; this is just one side; it was huge. Naples is famous for them. We’re going to look for something small when we go into Naples. They are so beautiful!

Palace from the top of the garden; way too far to walk so we took shuttle bus

Can’t believe I ate the whole thing! At least everything but the crust.

Our Caserta flat; it’s small but beautiful and convenient to the train station.

An Abbey and a Royal Palace

May 25

For some reason I’m awake in the middle of the night (how irritating; not jetlag, just awake) so I thought I’d tell you what we did yesterday. Still can’t upload pictures but I’ll catch up with those later.

The drive from Gaeta to the Abbey at Monte Cassino was uneventful so we got there early enough to beat most of the tourist busses. We’re finding that this is a great time to visit Italy, at least so far. Other than a few spots in Rome, we really haven’t dealt much with crowds.

Anyway, the Abbey was amazing. It was first built in the early 6th century by St. Benedict and was the first house of the Benedictine order. It was sacked by invaders several times but managed to survive, at least until 1944. In an attempt to break the German Gustav Line, the Abbey was bombed. The Allies thought it was a German observation post (it wasn’t) and not only were 230 civilians killed, but the Abbey was totally destroyed. It so sad that what had stood for almost 1400 years was destroyed in only 3 hours. Luckily, the artwork, archives and library had already been moved to safety. The Abbey was rebuilt after the war.

The museum was incredible. Not only did we see the usual works of art, but there were also pieces of the original building. We’ve got some great pictures that we’ll upload as soon as we can. Our host is coming tomorrow (well actually today) to see if he can fix the internet. I was going to just reset the router but couldn’t find it.

After the Abbey we drove a short distance to the Polish Cemetery. It was a large group of Polish soldiers attached to the British Army that finally broke through the Gustav Line on 25 May 1944 (exactly 75 years to the day of our visit). Over 1000 of them were killed so there is a very nice Polish Military Cemetery near the Abbey.

Then it was back in the car for the hour drive to the Palace of Caserta which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was the home of the kings of Italy and is one of the largest palaces in the world. As European palaces go it’s fairly new, constructed in the mid-18th century. Not only did we visit the palace, but we took the shuttle the 2 miles through the park to the gardens. While the Palace itself wasn’t very crowded, the gardens had about a million school kids. Well, probably not, but it seemed like it…. they were everywhere.

While at the gardens we enjoyed lunch before heading back to the Palace. By this time, we had walked almost 15,000 steps and were exhausted so we decided to head to our flat.

Our host met us with his girlfriend, who speaks a little English. Between her English and our Italian, we were able to communicate without too much difficulty. The apartment is beautiful, only about a 15-minute walk from the train station which we’ll use on Sunday for a day trip into Naples. The flat has a washer but no dryer. Since we’re pretty much out of clean underwear, we did a load before going out to get groceries. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy, humid day and nothing dried well out on the line. So, we have underwear hanging all over the house. Hopefully some of it will be dry in the morning.

Speaking of morning, it’s now about 3:30am and I’m going to try to go back to sleep as we have a lot of walking to do today. Hopefully Daniele can get the internet working a little better so I can upload pictures. Talk with you again soon.

Driving Along the Sea

May 24

Note: I wrote this on Friday except we had a lousy internet connection, so I had trouble uploading pictures. It’s not much better at our flat in Caserta so I thought I’d publish what I could and do the rest of the pictures later. Thanks. L & P

After an hour-long drive in Friday morning rush hour (luckily, we weren’t driving) we picked up the car at the airport. In the past we’ve gotten small to medium sized cars which were great, but this time Peter wanted something smaller. So, we ended up with a Lancia Ypsilon. It’s not exactly a tiny car but it’s pretty small. There is just enough room in the trunk for our two carryon size bags, a backpack and Peter’s CPAP machine. Driving in southern Italy, we absolutely don’t want to have anything in sight of the Vespa bandits so luckily everything fits. Peter says it drives well, though, so I guess that’s a good thing. And the small size will be a benefit later in the day.

From the airport we headed south to the Sicily Rome American Cemetery in Nettuna, just north of Anzio. Like the other military cemeteries in Europe, it was beautiful. We were almost the only ones there but later in the evening they were celebrating the 75th anniversary of allied forces breaking through the German Gustav Line on 23 May 1945. Unfortunately, we weren’t staying that long but it would have been nice to see.

We wanted to find a nice place on the beach to eat our sandwiches but ended up driving around the tiny streets of several small villages without finding a beach. So, we decided to just head to Gaeta and have lunch there. We didn’t have a place to stay so I took a shot at booking.com and found a nice place for a very reasonable rate ($69/night). But….I wasn’t able to book it because the site wanted to confirm my phone number by sending me a text. Since we no longer have our U.S. SIM cards in our phones and our Italian cards don’t allow texts, we decided just to head to the hotel and hope for the best.

Have you ever driven into a small Italian town? Well….it certainly is an adventure. We set the GPS to the first place I found, and it took us to an apartment building. It’s possible that what I thought was a hotel was actually someone’s apartment that they were renting (like Airbnb) but without reservations it was a no-go. Strike one!

Plan B was a bed and breakfast that was only 0.5 km from the first address. I’m not sure what the GPS was trying to do but we ended up on a couple of tiny streets that were dead ends. Peter ended up either backing up down the street or making a 3-point turn to get out. Thank god for this teeny car or he would have never made it. We finally found the street the B&B was supposed to be on, but it was barely wide enough for the 2-person bike we rented at Villa Borghese earlier this week. To make matters worse, there were a couple of workmen on ladders that made the street even more narrow. On top of everything, we didn’t find the B&B. Strike two!

I went back to the booking.com site to look for a hotel that didn’t cost a fortune and found Hotel Gajeta right off the sea. It was a short drive from our second address, and we found it with no problem. Even though the booking site had a room for under 100 euro, the price quoted was significantly higher, but we didn’t want to push our luck trying to find something else. So, we spent much more than we usually spend for a hotel but have a beautiful sea view.

Ironically, the hotel is right across the street from the U.S. Navy base. Gaeta clinic was on my “dream sheet” my entire Navy career but I never got stationed here. Now that I’ve been here, I’m glad I went to Sigonella instead. This really is a small town and there’s not much to do here.

After having skipped lunch, we were both starving. The hotel clerk told us about a great pizza place so off we went in search of pizza. Except, we’re no longer in a big city so restaurants don’t open until 8pm. We went to a bar with outside tables and decided we’d have a drink (and the chips and peanuts that came with it) and go back out later for pizza. After spending a little time on our roof top deck, we’re back in the room until it’s time for pizza. We’ll let you know how it tastes. (Note from Lynn: It was delicious.)

Tomorrow we head to the Abbey at Montecassino which has a museum that, in part, covers the WWII battle that took place there. Then it’s on to Caserta where we’ll stay for 4 nights while we continue our exploration of Naples.

Talk with you tomorrow.