Circumvesuivana: Naples & Amalfi Coast

Leaving Rome, Jason could be forgiven for thinking that the “old rocks”, a.k.a Roman ruins, may have been over, but Rome was only the beginning. As Jason said to Ricky, “you're drawn to old rocks like a magnet” and there was so many rocks to explore in Napoli and all around Mount Vesuvius. After our experience in the Roman countryside, it was a change to be located in the heart of Napoli. Amongst all the dirt and grime of the metropolis sat our newly-renovated, Neapolitan apartment, which became our headquarters for eight days as we unearthed all the wonders of the ancient world residing in Vesusius's shadow.

You could also be mistaken for thinking that we had run away and joined a cult, the cult of Google, worshipping the holy trinity: Google, Google Maps and Google Translate. Religiously, we have been consulting the Google oracle for advice on all types of topics. Google Maps has been guiding us and showing us the path. Unfortunately, the path hasn't always been the right one. And Google Translate has helped out in some tricky situations. But over time we have lost faith in our Google God, or Dr. Google as some other denominations refer to the Supreme Being. For one thing, the information received from the oracle is not always correct or is often lacking information, leading to some poor, ill-informed decisions. (Blind) faith lead us to take the Trenitalia train, the “Genitalia”, instead of the Circumvesuviana, which would have gotten us to the footsteps of the Pompeii ruins rather than a 25 minute walk.

After a few days adventuring around the Campanian countryside (see Pompeii and Herculaneum blogs), we decided to explore the streets of Napoli. With all of the recent “terrorist” activity in Europe, we have been constantly alert but not alarmed. Jason, the drill commander, was prepared for anything and would instigate a practice drill randomly throughout the day. Without notice, and normally prior to crossing a busy street, the drill commander would call-out “run!” and then would proceed to bolt across the road. Given that Jason tends to walk 20 paces ahead as if he is on a mission, he always has a head start, leaving Ricky behind. Post-drill analysis is generally that if this was a real scenario Ricky would be a goner. Goodbye you are the weakest link! And wherever there is a crowd, Jason normally asks “what would Carrie from Homeland do?”. The answer is normally get the hell out of there immediately. So when we stumbled upon a large gathering of people in the side streets of Napoli, the question was raised again. But against the drill commander’s training, we ignored what Carrie would do and blended in with the crowd. Then two minutes later Lana Wachowski, director of Sense8 and the Matrix movies (among others), walked out of one of the buildings and down the street through the sea of people. Luckily, we disregarded Carrie's advice and stuck around.

Having explored most of the inner city of Napoli, stumbling across model shoots, famous directors and getting caught up in the crowd of boat people (i.e. the cruise ship tourists docked in the Bay of Naples), it was time to venture out further to Sorrento and the Amalfi coast. We got up early once again to head down the coast. It was an hour earlier than normal, because unbeknownst to us daylight savings had ended and all of our clocks had been automatically set back. No wonder we felt more tired than usual. Weary-eyed, we jumped onto the direct, express train headed for Sorrento. Apparently, direct and express have different meanings in Napoli. The rattling Circumvesuviana was neither direct nor express, unless you consider by-passing a couple of stations and stopping for shorter periods at each stop direct and express.

We survived the Circumvesuviana to Sorrento, albeit a little shaken-up, and had a few hours to wonder the streets. It was enough time to feed our new cannoli and sfogiatelle addiction before jumping on a bus to Positano. After winding through the mountains of the Amalfi coast for over an hour, we reached Positano. When we were ready to return to Napoli, we waited an hour for the only bus that travels from Amalfi to Sorrento, for it to by-pass us packed full of passengers. Then, we waited another hour for the same outcome. Stranded on the side of the road along with a Russian couple and a Japanese woman, we were convinced that we weren't getting out of Positano. The Russian man came to our rescue and flagged down a taxi to get us back to Sorrento. The only other alternative was a 3 hour walk (or a night's stay in the seaside town - doesn't that sound horrid?).

Our last day in Napoli was spent touring around Reggia di Caserta, the royal residence of the Bourbons. Walking through the neglected royal gardens, some teenage boys were playing with a soccer ball that seemed to have ignited the inner Beckham in Jason (or is that the inner Maradona now we're in Italy), who, when confronted with a stray ball flying at him, did a bend-it-like-Beckham. After lunch in the gardens and a wander around the royal residential apartments, it was time to return to our headquarters in Napoli and prepare for the next leg of our journey.

Next stop: South America via FrankfurtRead more