On To Naples!!

Well, first to Rome Fumicino Airport and then On To Naples!! a few hours later in the rental car. We flew on DBA, a German version of Southwest except that they offer you free beer and real German pretzels. Nice lime green team colours. Lime is taking Europe by storm. Not that you care. Upon arrival I immediately used up all my suitcase karma by winning the Luggage Lottery. My bag came out first. It was the only bag that came out for 30 minutes. I guess the baggage handlers decided to go for coffee and since my suitcase was evidently in hand, they threw it before leaving. A woman next to me leaned over and asked "Why do you get your bag and we don’t?" to which I replied "God ADORES me." She didn't take to kindly to this, so I moved out of mob-inciting territory and we waited for mid-morning coffee to be finished. The rest of the bags arrived, the car was rented and Hippie took off south toward Naples. It was a lovely drive from what I remember. Not scenic per se, we were on the freeway after all, but any time you can get out into the country for a few hours it's a good thing. Luckily we rented a car big enough for all of us plus our luggage. Unfortunately, it took us 3 days to locate the seatbelts in the back seat. Maybe you have to pay extra for them... we eventually located 2, which suited Mel’s dad fine, he’s not used to wearing them anyway. All I could think of was that Irish Seatbelt commercial where a car load of kids dies because the one kids that isn’t wearing a seatbelt bounces around the car and fatally head-butts them all. It’s actually a gruesome commercial, they don’t hold back on the blood here. Anyway, we arrived in Naples and tried to make our way to Monte-where ever Melanie’s friend Lauren lives with her husband Chuck. Monte di Prochida, that’s it. It’s an hour outside of Naples but still a suburb. We stayed with them in their sad little top floor apartment that overlooks the ocean and the sunset for all 30 feet of their terrace. Really, we’ve got to do better by our armed forces; living in such squalor. :-) They were wonderful hosts, I must admit. We watched the sun go down and then went for a traditional Neapolitan dinner at a B+B near their house. It was amazing… I inhaled every vegetable that passed by me during the antipasti course. Traditional Italian meals begin with antipasti, usually grilled veggies, meats, cheeses, olives, etc… and then proceeds to the pasta course, where appropriately enough, pasta is served. A meat dish follows and the meal is rounded out by coffee, grappa, wine, and lots of loosening of belts. They chose to serve 6 or 7 dishes of veggies, 3 or 4 pastas, a wonderful grilled pork and fresh salad. I was in heaven. Chuck and Lauren are Jewish, so they were less thrilled when the pork came out. The rest was amazing though… I’m starving to death here for the lack of veggie choices. We slept well that night with very full bellies.

Our plan for the following day was to drive to Sorrento, have lunch, then get on the bus to Positano and take in the Amalfi coast before heading back home. We got to Sorrento and had lunch. We got on the bus to Positano. We took in a good chunk of the Amalfi coast. It just didn’t happen quite like we’d planned it. For starters, we hadn’t counted on driving for 2.5 hours to Sorrento. But we did and we found a great parking space and Hippie was only moderately unnerved while driving with what can only be described as crazy stupid traffic while I navigated from the back seat. (back seat driver?) Anyway, we had lunch, we found the bus to Positano and we were off. Off on an hour long bus ride. Had I known, I’d have put more money in the meter. We arrive in Positano and realize that we’ve gotten off the bus far too early and now have to hike down the side of the mountain to the main square. Well, that was impossible, so we finally found the city bus and boarded it. Damn good thing we did. I’ve never gotten vertigo from a city street before. I cannot fathom how they managed to build an entire town on the side of a hill. Not into the side of the hill, ON the side of it. It was beautiful though. We got down to the main square and loaded up on our first gelato; I had coconut and watermelon. Yum!! We strolled thru the streets down to the beach. On the way we passed a church were people were getting married and Mel’s parents decided to sit in for a bit. With gelato! Sigh… I wonder if they made the video. We strolled down to the beach and Melanie and I waded in the surf. She clocked it at 76 degrees. I clocked it as cold enough to stand in the sand and squeal when the waves hit your feet but not cold enough for you to run out of the water swearing. Since she owns a pool, I’ll defer to her on the water temp. The beach was most unusual, if I may offer an opinion. I’m no expert on beaches, but they’ve always been described as either “rocky” or “sandy”, words which I can only assume adhere the traditional definitions of those words. But this beach was different. It was sandy in some places, with large boulders in particular spots, but most of the beach was more akin to a loose pumice stone. I’m sure it was good on my feet, but I wouldn’t want to lie on it all day. As we walked back to the dock, there were patches of sand so fine it was like standing on silk. After the trip to the beach, we sadly had to leave to make the bus back to Sorrento where, if you’ll recall, I left the car with a parking sticker until 7pm. Stupid me… I bought some limoncello, ‘cause they make it here, from a man named Enzo who assured me I spoke beautiful Italian. I love it when they lie to me like that… We made the bus back up the hill to wait for the next bus to Sorrento, and realized we’d have about 20 minutes to kill. So we had a bottle of wine. What else do you do in Italy? It was sold to us, opened for us, and packed in a brown paper bag by the bar at the top of the hill. We drank it out of plastic cups and watched the sun go down. And then the bus didn’t arrive. Nor did the one after that. I think 4 busses in total were skipped before we finally got one. And by missed I mean they didn’t show up. We were waiting at the bus stop, dutifully, but no bus. Maybe they joined the baggage handlers for coffee. Anyway, it was a magical ride back from Positano. The road curves around the coast on the hill, so you have the sea on one side and the hill on the other. Go round a curve and you have a view of Sorrento across the water. Go round another and you’re facing back to the lights of Positano, nestled in the trees. Yet another will show you the sun setting over the water. We all wished we’d spent more time there and in retrospect, we had plenty of time; we were just waiting for the bus instead of exploring the city.

The next day we got up and hit the road, the exact same route, but we turned off early to visit the city of Herculaneum which was destroyed in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 ad. We had heard that it was better preserved that Pompeii and also much smaller, so we opted for that given that her parents were with us. Good parents. It was amazing. And spooky. And just the sort of thing you want to see when you visit old destroyed cities. When the volcano erupted, Pompeii got all the rock and ash, which crushed the city to knee height. Herc on the other hand got mud and lava. So buried under 80 some odd feet of mud for a century or two, the city is in tact. We walked thru the buildings, saw the mosaic floors, frescoes, ceilings, even wood that had charred but managed to stay in place. It was amazing and I cannot recommend skipping Pompeii enough! (Also worth noting, the guy that runs the audio guide stand said I pronounce the word quatro perfectly and was surprised that I wasn’t Italian. Hee…) After a little lunch we took the car up Vesuvius. Drove to the point where all the souvenir shops are and then Hippie, Melanie and I hiked to the mouth of the volcano. Hee-hee!! I hiked an active volcano! Melanie and Hippie sprinted it, but whatever. I’m girly-er and no one would ever think of me as doing such a thing, thereby making my hike cooler. Right? But yey!! I hiked a volcano!! And just a few months ago I was actually thinking of all the things I want to do before I die. This was one of them. It was a hard hike for me and I stopped more than a couple of times to take in the view of Naples, all laid out at the base of Vesuvius. Dear god… I knew the city was large, just based on the fact that it’s the 3rd largest city in Italy, but its sprawl is reaching LA proportions. Looking it over was actually awe inspiring. When I got to the top, I rested and took a rock for my Dad, who has the strangest rock collection on earth courtesy of his daughter here. As I was musing on how cool I was, all the Rangers came rushing out by me, causing me to eye the steam rising out of it a little more cautiously. But instead of taking whatever precautions you take when a volcano erupts (RUN would be my suggestion) they whipped out their mobile phones and started taking photos. Thinking this was odd, and wondering if we’d finally proved the existence of Sasquatch, I turned around. A rainbow had found its way over the far rim of the crater down inside. It was far enough down that you could see it as a circle instead of an arc. Strong colours too; I could see the land behind it turned red and blue and yellow. Just an incredible way to end the hike for me. And since I know a sign from God when I see it, I hiked back down the mountain quickly. Melanie again sprinted. Show off. J

After that, Naples was done for me. We took a ferry over to Capri, which is lovely, but didn’t get to stay long. Fine enough since the blue and green grottos were closed, and we’d gone with the express purpose of seeing them. So a leisurely hike/lunch/shopping trip was had and then back to Naples.

I do have to comment that Naples is the one place on earth I can honestly say looks exactly like the photos. Put pictures all the way round your head and that’s exactly what it’s like to be there. Also, they have the most beautiful coastline I’ve seen since the train ride from Genoa to Nice. (Which I highly recommend everyone doing) And yet the city itself is dirty and crowded and just not someplace I’d want to live. Monte di Prochida was nice and I’m so thankful Chuck and Lauren let us stay with them. That view is what I’ll remember most of my time there.

Up next: Roma!!