Arriving in Italy

---

Today marks 7 months since we left home. Sometimes it is hard to believe that it is that long; at other times it is hard to remember what it was like to not be travelling.

The boat is still moving in the waves when Evy and I wake up. The bathroom is also the shower which is a somewhat inconvenient arrangement, though it is somewhat novel to have the water sloshing around with each wave as you struggle to not fall over.

Benjamin and Joshua are still sleeping, so Evy and I head to the cafeteria for a coffee. I have brought the GPS with nautical maps of the Mediterranean, so we turn it on and determine that we are still some distance from the port at Brindisi, Italy. We get the kids up and pack up again, before wheeling our bags toward the stern deck for the disembarkation. It turns out we haven't accounted for the time zone difference, and we have nearly an hour to wait before arrival. Joshua and I spend the time watching the seemingly complex docking procedures of tugboats and ropes. He seems especially interested in the idea that they throw the “monkey paw” (a small ball on a thin line) to shore in order to be able to retrieve the larder lines that are attached to it.

The air is thick with cigarette smoke as people queue up to wait to get off. By about 9:40 Greek time (8:40 local time) the car ramp is finally lowered and we make our way down to the very industrial looking harbour. Despite the size of the boat, there turn out to be very few “foot passengers” aboard (most people were in cars or trucks stored on the lower deck) and the passenger terminal is fairly empty. There is a shortage of taxis and two taxis (both with passengers already) try to suggest 5 Euro each person to take us. As we don't want to split up and I am not sure if we are being had (it is only a short ride to the train) we decline. In the end, another taxi pulls up and charges 15 Euro for all of us. I think we will have to make some adjustments to the new price reality of Italy.

I always find the first impressions of a country are often the strongest. Our taxi driver is decked out in an expensive looking leather jacket, designer jeans and sunglasses and I am quickly aware of how shabby we look after so much travelling. As we speed through town, the shops all look quite stylish and boutique like.

At the train station we are told it would not be worth it for us to buy Italy train passes for the amount of trips that we plan to take. The sticker shock continues however, when the tickets for the four hour trip to Naples come out to 117 Euro (about $ 200 Can), far more than the cost of traveling in Greece or anywhere else we have been. As well, the next train turns out to not be until 12:45, meaning we have several hours to kill.

I find an INTERNET cafe and we let the holiday park in Sorrento know that we will be arriving late. By now it is pouring rain but we need a cell phone card so Joshua and I head off in the pouring rain and buy one, giving us a local phone number for our iphone. Benjamin seems to have taken travel in stride by now and spends his time reading in the waiting room.

When the train finally arrives, it turns out to be a very slick looking Eurostar and is very fast and smooth, banking around corners in a way that feels almost like you are flying. The olive trees here seem to be short and fat and look gnarly and ancient, almost like they have seen a lot of history unfold before them. Fields of grape vines are protected under neat rows of plastic tenting. We have the ocean to the East as we head North up the coast.

About 1:30 we passed through Bari, the other main ferry port. We start to head inland and and about and hour later we pass though the more industrial looking city of Barietta. Many of the signs on the roadways that follow that tracks appear to be in both Italian and English. There is almost a kinetic rhythm to the rows of gravevines that line up briefly with the train before before we pass to the next row. The blossoming fruit trees in the orchards seem to be dwarf - standing only about 5 feet tall but looking miniature version of full size trees.

By about 3:30 we have left the farmland and are passing through woods and through hills (though the train seems to be elevated about the varied terrain). There is snow of the hilltops and the train begins to go through a series of short tunnels, slicing through the rises in the land. In places the hills look unreal, almost as is green velvet has been stretched over them.

By 4 pm we have reached Benevento and shortly after, Castertu, where we get off to switch to our next train. We have only about a 2 minute wait for this next train, which is a far cry from the fast Eurostar, looking more like the commuter “GoTrains” at home. One hour later, we arrive at Naples (Napoi Centrale). We must look obviously confused as to where to go as we quickly attract a tout who at first appears to be someone working for the railway. He informs me that the express train to Sorrento leaves in just a few minutes and shows me where to get the tickets. It quickly becomes obvious that he is not with the railway and I give him a few Euro (he doesn't look too pleased) as we don't need to pay someone to take us in the direction that the signs are pointing us. We make a quick bolt though the connecting tunnels to the local Naples train to Sorrento, getting aboard the packed rush hour express just before the doors close.

The express misses most of the many stops, but gradually thins out with the few that does stop at. Sorrento is the last station on the line, but we can see the names of other places we want to visit (such as Pompeii), so it would appear travelling around won't be too hard.

After about an hour, we reached the final stop of Sorrento and got off. It would seem that the commuter train and the local buses are different management and the train office was only able to give us vague information about the bus we needed to catch to the camp site. After walking, retracing our steps a few times and asking around to various people, (we got several different answers as to where to wait) a lady takes pity on us, stops us and asks where we need to go and she finally clearly explains that we need to go to the the town square (a walk of a few blocks) where we eventually caught the bus.

Accommodation can be such a crap shoot that I never know what to expect. The campsite bus stop turned out to be very close to the centre of town. When we got off the bus, we followed a long road down a steep hill following the signs for the campsite office. The cabins we passed looked small and I wasn't quite sure what we had got ourselves into. At the camp office, they had been confused about our reservations and thought we were just a party of two, not four. They said there was no problem though, as we could have one of the apartments. An older gentleman who spoke little English led us off to find it.

The “Apartment” block, turned out to look more like a castle and was amazing (the building, it turns out, dates back to Roman times). We were the only ones in staying there and were shown a wonderful big and luxurious apartment beautifully renovated and wonderfully furnished. The sign on the back of the door read a daily price of 170 Euro, so I had to ask when we headed back to the small restaurant, if there was some mistake (the cabins were only 40 Euro a night). The owner said no, we could have it for the same price of the cabin - a nice upgrade.

Though the campsite restaurant was not really open for the season yet, they had a large tour group in and so it was open tonight. We all ordered wood oven pizza and it was just amazing, not surprising as Naples is where pizza came from. We returned to our beautiful apartment where we watched satellite news in English for the first time in nearly a month. After a long two days of bus, ferry, and train travel, this was a great way to start our first night in Italy.

---