Italy trip 2014

Norwegian airlines might be worth a try, new one on me. The flight was part of a package and I discovered that booking a flight home independently was only £40. We stayed at a decent hotel in Sorrento, the Hotel Parco del Sol, just 15m walk west from the centre of town. An extra night bed and breakfast if you want to stay on in the hotel is 80 euro,  bit pricey if you are doing a bit of independent travel. 

After a lazy day following a late night arrival in Italy we went by coach on a tour to Pompeii and Vesuvius. Italy has been hit by the same silly weather that we have had in England this winter, a few days of thunderstorm, rain and cloud, most unusual says the barman at the hotel. Our coach approached Pompeii under a giant bathload of water tipped over the area. Can I believe what I am seeing? The roads are covered in floods, cars are churning through the waters like a wet day in Northumberland!



Sorrento

 

The local stores suddenly did a roaring trade in umbrellas (5euro) and 3 and 5 euro ponchos. The three euro poncho was barely better than cling film, one of which I proceeded to puncture with my umbrella tip!

Pompeii

Quality mosaic

 

Pompeii is an extensive sight and remarkably well preserved. The amphitheatres are in good shape as is the main forum covering an extensive plaza with views over the surrounding hills. We had a guide who was difficult to listen to with her thick Italian accent, especially when you are dipping in and out of conversations and taking photographs. One incredible sight  was seeing the figures of perishing inhabitants from the volcano immortalised in solid material. Some of the mosaics were beautiful and incredibly well preserved. The guide made a lot of the area that was frequented by prostitutes and there were some pretty brazen images in the brothel building. We had a couple of incidents of persons going missing from our party but left with a full complement!

Vesuvius

After Pompeii the coach took us up the slopes of Vesuvius, lots of hair pin bends. About 20 minutes walking distance from the summit we park up and set out on foot. We straggle up the hill on a well marked path and before too long arrive at the lip of the volcano. Here you look down into a massive hole as if a giant has scooped the top off the mountain, and yes, smoke and steam was seen coming out of the mountain which nicely mixed with the gloom of the low cloud. You can circumnavigate the lip of the volcano a fair way, there are even a couple of cafes up there, and I had a quick coffee. This lethal old daddy of a volcano is slap bang in the centre of a region with about three million people, and needs respect, even if it has been 70 years since it last erupted in 1944.

 

Herculaneum, a Roman town, is something else. If you are limited for time I would be tempted  to visit here rather than Pompeii, as it was buried deep enough in mud to preserve the upper stories  of the buildings. A few stops on from Pompeii towards Naples, there is absolutely no evidence that a wonder of the ancient world is hidden just down the road when you leave the station (titled Ercolano) surrounded by modern apartment buildings and a commercial hub. Take no notice of the rip off artists outside the station and proceed down the street towards the sea. Then you will see the brown signs directing you to Herculaneum. It's a bit of a walk, allow at least 20 m. Basically you go ahead, then left, straight ahead again, then right, straight ahead, then right into the site. It costs 11 euro for an adult, plus extra for an audio guide, well worth it. Herculaneum is a gem sitting in a basin surrounded by modern development and open towards the sea.You get great views down onto the site on first entrance. It's very easy to get round with a map for guidance.

You enter the site through a tunnel which takes you to the lower levels where the beach used to be. On the map are numbered points which correspond with numbers marked on site walls. Either a little guide book or the audio will fill you in on each spot.  The Vesuvius disaster encased the town in a sea of mud and this has helped preservation. In its prime it must have been a glittering site with the original finish on the buildings and the bright colours of the mosaics and wall friezes. You get the impression inhabitants lived in the lap of luxury what with the weather, the hot and cold baths, the  massages, the gym and so on. There is ample evidence of the palatial villas with their gardens that testify the elite of the Roman world lived here, that is before disaster struck. 300 skeletons have been found testifying to what happened that terrible day in 79AD when the pyroclastic flows from Vesuvius buried the place. Those skeletons found on the sea side show that the town was not fully evacuated. Herculaneum needs a day trip to do it justice. Within the site there are vending machines for drinks, ice cream and savouries with a seating area, but no proper cafe, although there is at least one cafe outside.

Capri

Capri from near Sorrento

 

There is no way of avoiding high prices with Capri. You are caught in a giant spider's web. Supply and demand dictate that there is no low season in this most desirable spot on God's earth. The most you can do is take a packed lunch. We got the ferry from Sorrento, an half hour journey on the fast boat, but still 35 euro return, very expensive for a half hour trip. You pull into a small port serviced by large ferries, some jet speed. Then you alight and either face a half hour hike up the hill to Capri town or a quick funicular ride, 1.80 euro one way And 3.60 return. This deposits you bang in the middle of town  at a viewing platform for great views of the island. Buyer beware! There is a little square here where your wallet will literally catch fire. A lemonade costs 6 euro which is something like a fiver.  A normal drink can set you back 10 or 12 euro. 



Mainland from Capri

 

We decided there was just enough time for the 45m walk to the Villa Jovis, the little pad that Tiberius ruled the Roman Empire from on top of the hill at the western end of Capri, and he had at least one other villa on the island! It's worth taking note that the villa closes at 1pm which seems kind of strange, so once you are on the island you need to get straight up there. It's a fair hike, mostly uphill, but passes some pretty opulent residences. Flower strewn foliage mushrooms everywhere across walls, over gardens and houses. High walls conceal luxurious green, and peeping over walls people take great care over their vegetable gardens. The Villa Jovis must have been some sumptuous palace, covering the top of the hill like custard atop a Christmas pudding. The ruins are substantial and pretty well preserved, lots of walls and ancient brickwork, but a distinct lack of ceilings. There are still remains of the original mosaic flooring, very similar to Herculaneum, with tiny pieces of white mosaic stone. The views from the top are spectacular across to Sorrento and down to the shimmering blues and turquoises of the sea below, and we are talking sheer drops. All this will cost you a 2 euro entrance fee, and getting there near to closing time the guy in charge gave us 20m to get round, just enough time. However, I suspect it was all Latin bluster, as he appeared to let another couple in after we had left. Call it Italian time!

 

To give you an idea of prices a small bottle of water from a supermarket outside the centre of Capri was 1 euro whereas a large bottle in a Sorrento supermarket was 48 cents.

Some of our party did the boat trip to the grotto, 13 euro for the boat and another 13 euro to enter the grotto. If you fancy taking the bus from Capri to Anacapri, the other main town on the island, go for it, or you can take a chair lift to the top of the highest point on the island.The island itself is not very big, with two big ups and downs. My guess is you could walk the length in a day. It is lush and hilly, and sticks up out of the ocean like the upended bow of a sinking liner.

A little tip is to get a boat as early as possible, then you have more choice of later boats back. We got the ferry at 9.50am, a profoundly civilised time for an Englishman on holiday, but still had to be on the 15.35 boat back. However I did manage to swop my ticket for a 15.55 return.

The trip to the Amalfi coast was a day trip on a coach with a proper guide Rosanna (I've changed the names here!) was somewhere between an Italian model and a senorita promenading on the seafront of a balmy Mediterranean evening. She had a sing song voice that would take away all pain if you were sitting in a dentist's chair. However, that voice became a continuous bubbling stream, perhaps a bit too much for some! She was still very good. We had an excellent driver, Guiseppe who again looked as if he had just stepped out of a catalogue for the mature man. Rosanna gently teased him through the journey. Right from the start she gave us a travelogue which included ample references to Sophia Loren, Franco Zeffirelli, Gina Lollobrigida and the houses of the rich and famous. Our resident James Bond expert informed that no Bond scene has yet been done on the Amalfi coast, and one can see why with the traffic jams. Bond's Aston Martin would get stuck behind the local bus and he would have to do a car roof chase. Rosanna tried to convince us that Sophia Loren lay reclining offshore in the form of some rocky islands (she looked a bit pregnant or fat-bellied), whilst Garibaldi  espied her from afar in the form of a coastal rock in the shape of a human head. Wild imagination needed! We crawled through Positano with ample commentary on the wonders of the place.



Amalfi coast

 

Three of us popped back to the Amalfi coast. We caught the bus from Sorrento rail station return for 6.80 euro, well worth the ride. The journey took 45m to our  destination, Positano, one of the jewels in the Amalfi crown.

By the way don't come to this area if you are a beach bum. There are beaches but much of the coast is very rocky and full of sheer drops, cliff faces and mountains tumbling into the sea. You can come here as a modern 'aristocrat' doing the Grand Tour of Pompeii, Capri and suchlike, but you might be a bit frustrated by the lack of wide open beaches and golden sand. That's another thing, a lot of the  beach space there is seems very regulated with rows of sunbeds and umbrellas which are worth buying perhaps for a day, but you will have to search for a bit of free beach to put down your towel.

Stayed  in Nap!es last night at an Airbnb estabishment for £29. Train from Sorrento St Agnello to Naples costs 4.10 euro. I alighted at Naples Garibaldi which borders the big main line  (station Naples Centrale). From there you get the metro (1.30 euro) to Montsanto, an inner city district which is just as you expect Naples to be. Towering ancient apartment blocks astride narrow streets giving a canyon like effect. Motor bikes and cars jumbled along the sides of the road, with families sitting outside or hanging over the balconies. Piles of rubbish everywhere, as if there is a national bin strike, wet pavements outside recently closed fishmongers. 

My room was nearly at the top of one of these apartments after a tiring stair climb overlooking an empty space from top to bottom. Amidst all the apparent surrounding squalor I ended up in a very tastefully decorated apartment, spacious and cool. These were arty people, an easel stood in one room and my room was a blaze of colour from an array of large canvases all over the walls which were enough to keep you awake even with the light off. About midnight fireworks went off seemingly across a wide section of the city and I looked outside unable to spot any patterns in the sky above the serried ranks of housing climbing up to the castle above.

The hosts recommended that I go to the Vecchia Cantina restaurant which indeed I did to dine on Naples pasta and tomatoes followed by meatballs. Basically you go down Via Ventagleria past Montesanto metro, then past the hospital on the left, then take a left turn down a narrow alley, ask at this stage! It's on the left. It's a bit of a contrast making your way back past mountains of rubbish and dodging the motor scooters.

I slept well and was greeted in the morning as in the previous evening with some very fine coffee in a very small cup provided by my host, as well as a cup of tea and biscuits.

That morning I caught the 11.45 train from Naples to Tropea changing at Lamezia for 38.50 euro, about £32. The train carves its way down through Salerno and traces the coast right the way down, sometimes virtually hugging the beach and other times swathing under the coastal mountains, often using very long tunnels. The landscape is quite green and settlement regular. At Lamezia we get off the rather powerful express train and join a two carriage runt of a train that will chug round the coast to the west until we get to Tropea. The weather has been very odd today, cloud and haze with the sun threatening to burst through but never quite managing it, although when we reach Tropea I have to reach for the sunglasses.

I sit in a cafe and finalise my booking with Airbnb. Suddenly Germany v the USA comes up on telly in the world cup and loads of German tourists with shirts and painted faces appear from nowhere. Judging by the number of bars and cafes showing the match Tropea has become a German colony.

I have to say my room is terrific. In an apartment block in the old part of town and near the beach, it is light and airy, spotlessly clean and with new furniture. It all looks like a  fresh venture. Perhaps I am the first one! 

The old centre of Tropea dangles on the edge of a sheer cliff face down to the sea, where pearl patches of white sand edge up to a huge rock standing separate from the sheer cliffs. The old town itself is small and compact, the usual ancient Mediterranean tourist trap, but very nice with it. Pretty well everything can be covered in a small and roughly circular area of ancient twisting alleyways, churches, cobbled streets and popping up everywhere bars and restaurants. When you have taken your morning coffee in a cafe you can visit the cathedral and museum at the northern end of this area. The cathedral opens at 9 and the museum at 10 , but close later before reopening in the evening. The cathedral is very pleasant inside , with a wooden ceiling and light columns holding it all up. AgaIn it is far more appealing than some of the dark North European Catholic churches, much more uplifting.

Tropea Cathedral

 

In the afternoon you can hit the beach, and there are two lovely spots right below the old town cliffs. This is the great advantage of Tropea, everything  is so accessible. and the beach is much better than at Sorrento.

Serious beach here

The beach is great, coarse light sand, but be warned unless you have a car that there are a number of staircases down to beach level which have to be ascended later, quite a climb in the heat.

The Italian lady who translated for the chap that was renting my room suggested I make a boat trip down the coast. A day or two later I joined a gang of tourists on a small boat heading south to within sight of Sicily. We hugged the coast down and back up again for a good three hours or so, and stopped for a couple of swims. At the first stop our skipper, a lively Italian named Paulo, decided to attract the local fish population by throwing some bread into the water. A pulsating swarm of grey shot to the surface to devour the bread, quite a sight in the translucent sea. I was the only person on the boat on their own, and one of the ladies from a very sociable group offered to take a couple of photos of me without prompting. perhaps she felt sorry for me!

I am now on my way to Palermo in Sicily. I caught the train from Tropea this morning at 11.38am to Rosarno, then changed for Villa S Giovanni where you get the ferry to Sicily, then on to Palermo. I arrive in Palermo tonight at 7pm. Italian time seems to work both ways. Just as you might have to wait a while, you also may find your train leaving early! My train was supposed to leave at 14.25 but was easing out of the station 14.22. Don't you just love it? If I had arrived a minute or two before I would have missed it. On the other hand, the train progressed a little way, then cut back on itself on a side track onto the ferry, so perhaps they expect latecomers to leap straight onto the ferry.

 

Another novelty is that the train is actually going onto the ferry and will then continue on the other side! Never experienced that before. It"s all moving at snail's pace at the moment.

The crossing takes about half an hour and you are allowed to get off the train and stand on the upper decks, and take a few pictures. An older lady from our carriage compartment points out Messina, the port on the other side. She says it is a modern city because it has been destroyed by an earthquake before. It's over four and a half hours from Villa S Giovanni to Palermo. The distance from Messina to Palermo is about 112 miles, so it is not the quickest of trains. Meet an older American couple on the train from Florida who had been to a wedding in Malaga and were now travelling Sicily. We spent a very pleasant few hours chatting including some interaction with the Italian lady, who ended up sitting in the corridor looking as if she was in rapture. She was on her way to see her grandparents home on Sicily and had a faraway look in her eyes..

Well here we are in Palermo, a complex mix of Roman, Arab, Byzantine, Islamic and goodness knows what else history. I am staying in a B and B with Airbnb for £21 per night, just outside the old city in a modern apartment block. As far as I can gather my host rents the apartment and then rents it on to travellers. It is spotlessly clean, I have a large, very pleasant room with balcony to myself, and my host provides a very substantial breakfast in the morning between 8 and10. The bathroom contains yet another bidet, a fixture I have never used. I did muse over the possible benefits of a bidet whilst there. They are the thing in Europe, and have been catching on in America. However I did no more than muse!

Palermo itself has some very impressive and ornate architecture. The traffic is incessant and requires constant vigilance, looking in all directions just in case a car comes round the corner a little too close to the kerb or a motorcyclist whistles out of a side turning. Pedestrian crossings just seem to express an opinion, and most locals just seem to walk out straight in front of the traffic and expect it to stop. I saw one car reverse back up a one way junction to take another turning oblivious of the effect on those behind. Sometimes there is barely any pavement for you to feel moderately safe and hugging the wall is the best bet. Even going through local street markets with barely enough room for two way pedestrians there are still scooters trying to get through! My host told me one older lady stood on the roadside for 50 minutes when she first arrived! However, you soon get used to it. After a few days I was stepping out into the road with a bit more verve and poise.

Palermo Cathedral

Visited the catacombs today just a short walk from my residence. In case you are unfamiliar with this, Italians once mummified their dead in full clothing and put them on display. It is in effect just another type of cemetery but you get to see rows and rows of skeletons dressed in all their finery, including the remains of very young children. Many of the corpses are from the nineteenth century and mostly present a very grey scenario, although sometimes the fabric is remarkably well preserved and has significant colour. Some items of clothing are very recognisable from period dramas, like little caps, bonnets and dresses. It's 3 euro to gain entrance and I ended up with a party of more Americans. One young man who was accompanied by a nun was taking photos, absolutely forbidden, and a disembodied voice gave him a good ticking off for not respecting the dead.

Palermo street market - dodge the motor cycles!

I have not met Inspector Montalbano yet. He is probably in some local fishing village dining some young lovely on pasta and wine, looking out over the perfect seaside setting. Having said that there is quite a heavy police presence.

Mount Etna, all 11000ft of it presides over Sicily as a still active volcano. Apparently its presence on the island has made the land very fertile for farmers. Couldn't help picking up this article from the Daily Mail about recent fireworks from Mt Etna since I got back, Just look at these photos, it's one giant Roman candle: Hot Italian article

This morning, my last morning of the holiday, I decide to visit the Palazzo Realle, possibly the most expensive tourist sight in Palermo. 16 euro gets you into the palace with an audio guide to the Chapel Capela and the Treasury, as well as some ancient excavations underneath. The chapel is the absolute highlight. You will not see anything more elaborate  or colourful in your life. It is a mosaic lover's dream. The who!e chapel is a blaze of colour, combining innumerable mosaics covering every available square foot of floor and wall. The mosaics tell the story of God's relationship with man through the ages, using  depictions of God himself, Jesus, the disciples and of course the prophets. This is a rich testimony to Europe's Christian past, albeit an often State imposed type. One wonders exactly how many people who stand in this Chapel today actually understand the significance of the mosaics..

Went to Cefalu today on the train. It is about an hour from Palermo along the coast and is quite an attractive seaside resort. The fare is 5.15 euro one way. Palermo Centrale, the main rail station is very quiet for a Thursday afternoon but the two ticket counters are occupied by two young men who seem to be booking tickets to Australia via ten different destinations. I cannot believe how long both of them are taking. I look at the girl behind me in the queue and she gives a knowing look. The train hugs the coast all the way. A glance inland shows a pretty mountainous interior, and we are not talking the South Downs. These are big hills. Cefalu itself is a popular spot with a jumble of old buildings stretching along the seafront as you can see in the photo. The beach goes a long way in the other direction and my sense is that this is very much an Italian resort frequented mainly by Italians. or Sicilians. Not much sign of Union Jack shorts here!

Cefalu beachfront