Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento

Oy. This weekend was quite an adventure.

SO, I went to Naples, Sorrento, and Pompeii with Allison and Nathaniel. We took the 10:25 train from Rome to Naples, and arrived there a bit after 12:30 on Friday. We walked out to a busy city, but on a beautiful day. On the train we had planned the major attractions we wanted to see in Naples, so we headed for the Castles along the coast first. Luckily, we had the map from the “Italy 2011” guidebook my dad gave me (Dad, thank you! This book has saved SO much money on maps, and really been the best asset to my travels. Totally worth the weight to carry it over, but I have been cutting the pages out, so you know where I went by which pages are missing, haha). Along the way we got our first piece of Napoleon pizza- and it was just as amazing as everyone said it would be. The pizza really does taste different here- better- of course made with the best ingredients! And the dough is perfect! I read it rises for over 4 hours! Anyway, we saw the outside of Castel Nuovo, then walked to the Castel dell’ Ovo, which was so cool because it is a 12^th century fortress built over the ruins of an ancient Roman villa that juts out of the harbor. It has beautiful views all the way around of Capri and the whole harbor, and was a free location just to hike around and get some great shots. After this we walked to the Teatro San Carlo, which was literally the most beautiful theater I had ever been in. For only 3 euro we got a brief tour- the only way to get into the theater itself, and found ourselves sitting in luxurious red velvet seats right under the royal box. The entire place was red velvet and “pure golden” as the guide kept saying, and is the oldest theater in all of Europe. Finished in just 9 months in 1737 (impossible today), it was also the largest, seating 3,300 with 200 boxes arranged on 6 levels, and a huge stage (12,000 square feet) that even permits productions with animals, such as horses, camels, and even elephants! Of course no pictures were permitted, so I will have to steal one off Google.

Across from the Theater we also hit a famous caffe, called Caffe Gambrinus, which was founded in 1850, had beautiful gilded ceilings and mirrored walls, as well as fancy uniforms for the workers to wear. MY favorite part was the coffee and pastries- they were endless! I had the most amazing drink (Colin, I wish I could have brought this back for you!) called a Caffe Veneziano- an espresso made with chocolate and a dash of milk, topped with caco. AMAZING!

Our last stop in Naples was the Archeological Museum there, which hold world-renowned archeological finds of ancient sculpture, the biggest I have ever seen, as well as mosaics, paintings, and frescos, from Pompeii and Herculaneum.

At this point it was dark out, and we had to walk back to the train station in order to catch the Circumvesuviana train to Sorrento, where we had booked a B&B for two nights. This is where the real adventure begins. Not only was the walk to the train station a bit scary, with beggers approaching in ways we had never seen in Italy before, as well as gunshot-like sounds coming from loud alleyways, but we discovered upon arrival that there was a “Sciopero”, or strike, going on because the workers had not been paid the week before on payday. Well, we were stuck. There is no bus that goes to Sorrento, even when I called the B&B to ask advice (my cell phone has all bad memories associated with it since I never use it but for emergencies). We had no choice but to take a taxi (there was no way I was going to spend the night in Naples), but they all knew about the strike, Sorrento is 60km, so prices were 120 to 150 euro. And then, an angel appeared. His name was Julian. He had a British accent, and saw us at the help desk, and asked us in English if we would want to split a cab with him, since he lived in Sorrento and had to get home but could not afford the whole cab by himself. He was fluent in Italian, and had found a man offering 100 euro, which would only be 25 euro each (still more than the 5 euro we planned, but a great deal considering the situation). We took it. It was horrifying to get in a cab with someone we just met going to a place we didn’t know, but we had no choice, and luckily we got to Sorrento in a bit over an hour. We learned in the cab that Julian was born of Italian parents, who moved to London to have a family, where he was raised bilingual. His father moved back to his hometown in Sorrento when his mother died, where Julian had been living in his father’s house when he got sick. His father died only 2 weeks ago, and Julian already bought a place just outside Rome, where he was to move once everything was packed up and sold. This man really came from heaven for us because not only did he get us the cab, but when we arrived in Sorrento he walked to the station with us, where we learned that the last bus to take us to the B&B stop had only left 10 minutes before. We were again stranded. Julian offered to take us to the B&B in his car, and again we had no choice since the location was a good 30 minute walk outside the town, uphill with no lights and no map. We waited an hour for his bus to arrive, got off at his house, and literally walked into a stranger’s home in a forgeign country. Every bone in my body told me this was against everything I had ever been taught in my life, but God was watching over me because Julian drove us to the B&B- a place we NEVER would have found without him, even if we did take the bus- and never asked for anything in return. I will forever be grateful. Scheduled Arrival: 7pm Actual Arrival: 11pm. But we made it safe and sound. Thank god.

So the next morning we had planned to go to Pompeii, but the strike forced us to plan on the Amalfi coast instead. We walked down to the town (a steep walk down some homemade stone steps, hahaha) and made it to the train station just in time to watch the bus going to Amalfi pull out, with the next one arriving in 2 more hours. Needless to say we were frustrated, but only for a minute, as Nathaniel decided for whatever reason to go into the train station, and found that the strike was over! It was scheduled to continue, but we are guessing the workers were paid, so everything was running as normal. And so, we actually got to see Pompeii! It was pretty awesome- we spent over 4 hours there. It was eerie to walk the streets of a city that used to be a lively center of the arts, as evident in the numerous theaters, most famously the huge amphitheater that rests at the farthest end. It is a snapshot into the life of a city at the height of the Roman Empire, frozen in time when it was buried under 20 feet of ash and pumice on August 24, year 79. We really just enjoyed roaming the streets, walking into reconstructed homes, and photographing some of the most famous ruins of all time.

After grabbing some pizza on our way out, we decided to visit Mt. Vesuvius. The train was scheduled to arrive at 3:25, but by 3:45 and still no train we began to worry about the strike starting back up. After much debate and waiting almost an hour, we got on the extremely late train toward Vesuvious, only to find out within 5 minutes that it had closed at 3pm. Despondent, we got off at the next stop, waited 30 minutes for the train back to Sorrento, and rode that all the way back, arriving around 5:30pm. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of a nightlife aside from shopping, which we didn’t have money or need for, so we took the 7pm bus back to the B&B, the driver dropped us off at a “shortcut”, we walked up a dark road, got lost for about 15 minutes, then turned around and finally made our way back to good old Relais Diana B&B around 8pm. We were dead tired, and I went to bed by 9pm for the first time in who knows how long.

As if the story could not get better, we woke up at 5am Sunday morning to thunder, lighting, and pouring rain. In the eye of a huge storm. There went our beach plans. So we slept in an extra hour.

After getting a staggering 11 hours of sleep we finally got up, walked, or slid, down the hill to get to Sorrento train station, and took the next Circumvesuviano in the direction of Naples. When we left it had stopped raining, and we hoped it would hold out for the day, but two stops before Vesuvious it started pouring in buckets again, so we got off the train just to give it one last shot, met by some Italian men who laughed at us for still wanting to get on Mt. Vesuvious (all paths and buses were closed, obviously), and we turned around to go back. When we finally made it to Naples at 11:50 all we wanted was to get back to Rome and not waste any more time or money. We were able to change our train from the 3:17 to the 12:17, but as luck would have it the train arrived 20 minutes late and we had to stand in the aisles as it was packed and the seats we were supposed to have were taken (by some Italians who wouldn’t give them up). To make matters worse about 30 minutes into the ride they shut down the train, told us there was an accident on the tracks ahead that had to be cleared, and sat in the same station for 45 minutes before moving again. We pulled into Roma Termini 103 minutes late. Inconceivable.

And that is the headline for this weekend: Inconceivable. I can’t believe any and all of it happened, I obviously wish it had been more successful, but all factors that went wrong were out of our hands. Hey, I got to see Pompeii. I got some amazing pizza. I saw the most amazing theater and castle ever. And I made some hilarious memories that I am already laughing at. O, and the value of my own bed back on 9 Clyston Circle just went up significantly. 5 weeks from today I get to hug my family, kiss my fiancée, and sleep in that amazing bed. O la mia vita.