The Real Thing

Like a previous trip I have been extremely remiss in not staying current on these posts.  However I did use that wonder App called Track My Tour (please tell Chris that I sent you if you check it out) which did a much better job.  Here is the link to this part of the trip -- Click here.

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Disaster!  It was raining on the day we were due to move from Naples to Amalfi via a walking tour of Vesuvius and of course Pompeii.  Vesuvius was closed as the weather had closed right down but don't worry, said Daniele, we have lots to do.  Spend more time in Pompeii and then there is a nice surprise.

Well, who doesn't like surprises?  And as it turned out, this would be a recurrent theme with Daniele.  Ending up with a nice surprise.

First of all Daniele apologised for his poor English.  Really!! Our Italian is pathetic and as it turned out Daniele had no problem in out talking both of us.

Our guide in Pompeii however was another thing.  Lovely lady, she again apologised profusely for her terrible English and from that point for the next 3 hours hardly drew breath.

Our guide warming to her task

As we wandered around this huge site, the rain did abate but I don't think it would have mattered as it was such an amazing experience.

These days Pompeii is 3 miles from the sea but this is the dock which is near one of the city gates.

The story is pretty well known.  Town of 20,000 sleepily going about their business for several hundred years were abruptly drowned in ash one morning in 79 AD when Vesuvius exploded.  I told our guide that I was in the process of reading the Pompeii book and she then said that most books were historically rubbish but that one wasn't that bad.  In fact she showed us the main roads mentioned in the book.

This is one of the main roads into the Forum ending at a drinking fountain that bears symbols marking the quarter of the town and of course for drinking.  Two roads into the middle of town from each direction.  Each of these main roads leads to one of the city gates.  Ramrod straight too.

Actually it is quite amazing to reflect that the only person to ever mention Pompeii and its destruction was the Roman author Pliny.  He was an admiral in the navy and happened to be in port that day so witnessed things first hand.  Had he not done so, nobody would have known Pompeii existed and bothered to look.  That's what happened to Herculaneum after all.  It was discovered under a pile of mud in the 20th century which is why so much more of their stuff was preserved whilst Pompeii's was largely destroyed in a maelstrom of fire and ash.  Pompeii is about 8 miles away from Vesuvius so wouldn't have been touched by lava.

The block of stone in the middle of the road is to step on when you are crossing.  It keeps your feet dry.  This road is one cart width wide.  People walk along the pavements.  If it rains, the water and undoubtedly all that other nasty stuff, runs along the cart path meaning that those strategically placed stones are really important.

Now that I am on the subject, I forgot to mention something.  Right next to the Norman castle in the centre of Naples was going to be a new subway station but in the digging they found an entirely new Roman settlement so the entire area is submerged in tarpaulins and plastic as the archaeologists works away.  So it really isn't surprising that Herculaneum took so long to discover.  Unlike Pompeii nobody knew it ever existed.

The site is very large and set out in the traditional Roman manner.  In the middle is the forum with public baths off to one side.  Obviously the temples to Jupiter and Venus are there, Jupiter dominating as he should being the bigwig amongst Roman gods.  But also the shops and taverns.  They could even identify what kind of shop from its layout -- multiple counters could mean a small tavern or cafe.  Lots of marble and running water could mean fish and meat.  Very clever all of it.

The forum in Pompeii

Ruins of a theatre that is currently used for productions

Standard layout for a Roman villa.  Longish entrance into small vestibule with fountain or pond open to the elements.  This is the greeting area off which is the meeting room and other small business rooms where the man of the house conducts business.  Behind is this quadrangle with a garden in the middle and bedrooms leading off in all directions.

The largest villa in Pompeii also housed the Alexander floor mosaic from the museum.  This is just bigger than the others and is the place where all the really important pieces that still exist were found.  It was called the Pan Villa because they found a statue of Pan but in recent years this has been debunked.

Alexander, or rather a replica

You just have to go and experience it.  I could spend a couple more days there easily.

And the surprise?  Sadly I have forgotten!  But here's a video of Pink Floyd playing 'Echoes' at Pompeii in the 1972.  My gift to you.

Hopping in Napoli

Like a previous trip I have been extremely remiss in not staying current on these posts.  However I did use that wonder App called Track My Tour (please tell Chris that I sent you if you check it out) which did a much better job.  Here is the link to this part of the trip -- Click here.

**

Seeing as we only had one day in Naples we thought the best thing to do was the hop on/off bus tour that is in many cities these days.  It left from the big castle so was just perfect for us.

There are two routes -- one along the coast and one into the city.  We took the first that came along which was the seaside route.  I do like these buses as the format is the same wherever you are -- every 20 mintutes or so another one comes along with 8 choices of languages describing the scene.  With this tour in between the chatting was interspersed local crooners singing songs about old Campania and Naples and all the rest of it.  Just charming... to start with.

The Bay of Naples is huge and the city is sited on pretty much the only flattish land hereabouts.  This is one old city founded in the 7th century BC by Greeks looking to expand onto the mainland from their stronghold cities in Sicily.  They landed further north in a place called Baiae and further south on the bottom part of the massive bay that encompasses Vesuvius and reaches Sorrento.  Being Greeks they fought amongst themselves more than anything else according to the very limited writings around today so while you may have thought that the Greek settlements here may work together in reality it was just like home with competing city states looking at one another first.  This was never part of the Roman make up and one of the reasons why the Romans were so contemptuous of the Greeks, even though they did acknowledge that the Greeks did come first.  The Romans were all about solidarity, country not city, and global not country which is why their empire was so much more successful than the Greeks' attempts.  They had their chance when Alexander was around but as soon as his appendix flared up, his 'friends' and inner circle started divvying up the pie and of course quarreling.

Once the Roman Empire collapsed, the region obviously remained and the Amalfitana Empire rose up -- a strong maritime nation that did pretty much what Roman trade used to.  The city of Naples itself carried on for 500 or so years until the Normans arrived ... always the bloody Normans.  The Normans are the descendents of the Vikings (Norsemen) who gave us such a hard time.  

The Normans got first into Sicily by offering to help against the Moors who kept on calling.  They then turned around and massacred the encumbents and took over moving a couple of hundred years or so later over to Naples where they created the Kingdon of the Two Sicilies.  This endured through various invasions until the Risorgimento in 1860-61 about which more later in another post.  

Architecture therefore is massively mixed.  The big castle for example is Norman whilst are there are huge numbers of buildings from many different eras.  One constant though are the tiny roads and the constant congestion wrought by Neapolitan drivers who must be either the best or worst in the world.

A typical snarl up in the old town

These days the region is very poor.  Most industry of any sort is either struggling or has closed down. Employment is high in this area whilst all the problems of southern Europe are here in spades ... immigration to the fore, particular illegals arriving by boat.

This is a deserted tuna canning factory that has been abandoned for 20 years right on the Bay of Naples, so its a pretty good location.  The commentary on the bus was hopeful of development but didn't provide a time line.

But as everywhere there are always people who are well enough off as well the very rich.  The local tennis club for example is sited right on the King's favourite footpath on the sea front.

About 8 red clay courts.  They looked pretty darn  nice.

Security was curious.  There is heightened tension with worries of terrorist attacks so in various places small groups of armed soldiers are placed looking ominous.  But to me there seemed little rhyme or reason for their location or precisely what they were doing.  I hope someone knows better than I.

As we were stationary for 20+ minutes here on the bus, we could tell that this was in fact a chemist that these soldiers were protecting.  Customers kept coming and going all the time.  

However there are precious few bad views here.  Something we were to discover later on this holiday in other locations.  

And of course Vesuvius was everywhere.

See Naples and...

Like a previous trip I have been extremely remiss in not staying current on these posts.  However I did use that wonder App called Track My Tour (please tell Chris that I sent you if you check it out) which did a much better job.  Here is the link to this part of the trip -- Click here.

**

We'd talked about it for quite some time or rather I'd droned on about it, that we wanted to follow the European red clay tournaments from Monte Carlo in mid-April through to the French Open in the last week of May and first week of June.  However life does get in the way some times so we finally agreed on a cut down version which looks something like this:

• 2 days in Naples
• 6 days in Amalfy
• 8 days in Rome for the Italian Open with a group of tennis guys from Bermuda and Canada
• 7 days in Portugal, bottom left part on the western Amalfi Coast
• 6 days in Paris for the French Open (just Viv and I)
• 5 days in England

That's about 5 weeks.  Fantastic!

I confess to being a little anal in that I really do like to know the whats, wheres and hows of the places that we are going to visit but what the heck!!

I'd never been to Naples.  Viv had but on a cruise ship years ago so our collective knowledge was rather light however I'd started to read the book called Pompeii by Robert Harris and a book about the fall of the Roman Republic so was in the right mindset for Naples despite its more recent history (and there is a lot of it) is really, really old.

The route in took us over the Alps!! Just beautiful.

Naples or Napoli for the Italians was Neapolis for the 7th century BC Greeks who founded the city and Napule for the Romans who used the region as a holiday resort as well as enormous port city (according to Wikipedia anyway).  Home to 3 million people these days, Naples is quite simply a mess and mass of steaming humanity... crammed pack full of wonderful old stuff and really tiny roads.

This of course means road congestion.  

Of course there can be no reference to Naples without reference to Vesuvius which is right next door. It dominates all landscapes being so huge a double mountain, these days.  Formerly it was a single peak before that famous explosion in 79 AD blew it apart and submerged Pompeii, Herculaneum and I am sure a host of other unnamed and unremembered places.

Our first view of Vesuvius

We'd organised as much as possible a driver for all occasions as there had been so many of those warnings about tourists being stiffed over everything.  I found Daniele on the internet, Trip Advisor and the various online tourist guides.  His company could provide transport and tours of the entire region but also he was a sommelier and provided culinary events as well!  Simple choice really. Daniele's website is here.  Do check him out.  He is great.

It was one of Daniele's drivers who collected us from Naples Airport and took us to our downtown hotel.  It was in a maze of little side streets but importantly just up the hill from the central square and the old castle that was the feature of this part of the city.  Not Roman but still 600 years old!  Just a snip in time in fact.

The day we arrived was cloudless.  This is the view from the hotel terrace with of course Vesuvius in the background and the castle in the foreground.  Naples has always been a significant port town.

There really wasn't much time to do anything more than have dinner so we took a recommendation of a place called Il Garum from the check in guy and strolled down the street to enjoy it.

Different cities and countries have dinner at different times.  Spain before 10 pm is unheard of.  Here in Naples, it was 9.30 pm so as we arrived an hour earlier we had the place pretty much to ourselves.  And of course it showed us to be tourists as well.

Dinner was spectacular and looking back on it one of the top 3 meals of the entire trip.

Linguine alla colatura d'alici

Local fare is seafood even though pork, boar and porcini mushrooms are popular local dishes too.  But this one is the #1 -- anchovy juice cooked into home made pasta with olive oil and garlic.  This one was sensational!  It is also very traditional dating back at least to the Romans.  They called this sauce... wait for it... Garum.  Coincidence, eh?  I think not.

I just love the local in season little strawberries called Fragolini served with lemon juice, local of course, and a little sugar which is mostly unnecessary but when in Naples... 

I'd really missed the end of day Gelato and was not going to get off on the wrong foot!

And the night time view over the city ...