Reggio di Calabria 2

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Monday, 10th November, 2008

Plan for today, visit Paestum.

We left about eleven o'clock and initially headed for Agropoli to get some money from a cash machine. The Bank ATM didn't like us, but Pat had spotted a Post Office, with a cash machine, and we were successful, so a good idea for the future.

We then headed for Paestum, which has brown signs directing, it's only a few miles up the road, so an easy drive today.

We stopped at the supermarket on the way out for some food, for lunch later.

Finding the site is easy, basically because it's a big site and surrounded by a largely remaining city wall. Getting to the entrance and parking is another matter. The road goes all the way around it, so you can go round in circles, which we did a little bit. One brown sign directs you straight ahead to a road which you are not allowed to enter!

It turns out there is no official parking. They have cut off the road outside the entrance and you have to park in one of the local restaurant car parks, and of course pay a fee. As it happened there was nobody around where we chose to park, so we never ended up paying. A short walk then to the entrance, the site was open but the Museum was shut, don't know why. Entrance was €4.00 per person, so not expensive.

The site is pretty big, and it certainly kept us interested for a couple of hours. The town was originally thought to have been founded by the Greeks, who were in this part of Italy for quite a while. Later, it was taken over by the Romans. One of the reasons it is an interesting place is that it has three fully standing temples. These are individually quite a size, but three of them around the site, makes this place pretty amazing.

Having just been to Herculaneum, also gives you a much greater ability to imagine the full scale of something, when all you see left are the very bottom of the walls remaining.

It was now about two o'clock and because the Museum was closed, this gave us a little spare time. So rather than head home we decided to simply head East.

Initially we drove through quite a well spaced and laid out town, which we think was the Paestum. Then headed for Capaccio.

We ended up driving half way up a mountain and got to see some beautiful scenery looking back across the very flat valley, back towards the Sea.

We passed a village called Trentinaro and then our general direction was down and back to Agropoli.

We stopped again at the supermarket to pick up some milk, and then went back to the Apartment.

We arrived back around four o'clock and this allowed us to watch the sun setting across the bay straight from our balcony.

The temperature was again pretty good, both Pat and I spent the day is shorts and T-Shirts.

Okay, now for my occasional little anecdote. Italy is not what I imagined. I have to say that it is a lot less like Northern Europe, in it's standards. I don't say this just because things are different. The Museums and things in general don't seem to take credit cards, for example. I'm not talking just about the little one's round here even the Uffezi wouldn't take cards.

The whole air of the place is not quite as up to scratch, as you think it should be. It would be unfair to say that it was backward or third world, but I think that I am trying to hint at it.

The thing is that this doesn't make it quaint and have old charm either, it just means that places are tatty and not up to date.

I have to say also that for all it's lack of standards, Italy is not cheap. We are spending far more per day than we did in France.

Tuesday, 11th November, 2008

Plan for today, visit Pompei

We were up ad about pretty early for us. Raffaele our current landlord, who is a fisherman by trade, had asked if we wanted any fish. This morning he rang the bell, as he had just finished his latest catch and had a car full of fish. Octopus, Sole, Cuttlefish and all manner of things. A lot of them still alive and wriggling around in polystyrene crates. Pat chose a couple of Sole.

After this we were on the road, no later than ten o'clock and on our way We went the quick way via the motorway. The Pompei archaeological site is quite literally as you come off the motorway. The place was teeming with people. We were pounced on straight away by someone offering us car parking. We had read that this wasn't very easy around the site and accepted his offer of €10.00 for the day in the restaurant car park. A very short walk then across the road.

As we made our way to the ticket office, we were continually offered personal guides around the site, which we declined.

This site is a very big one compared to Herculaneum. All told, we walked around the site for a solid four and a half hours. We certainly didn't see all of it. There is an astonishing amount to see and it really is an amazing place.

Basically, it is a town that was covered up with volcanic ash and is now slowly being brought back to daylight, centuries later. You could describe it as an unlucky town, because about thirteen years before the volcanic eruption, it was hit by a large earthquake, and some things where still being put right from that.

You walk through town streets, with shops and houses and get a very good feel for what a Roman town, must have been like.

There are still large areas that they haven't excavated, but you still get to see a vast amount.
There are some of the body casts of people who didn't survive the eruption, that you see pictures of in books and so on, dotted around and they are really quite eerie. Their poses are not one of a quiet passing away.

We had hired the audio guide, so were able to get a lot of information from that.

We got talking to some Americans who were off a cruise ship docked in Naples for the day, oddly discussing the credit crunch and the future of the cruise industry.

Very glad to have been able to visit such a wonderful and famous site, after reading and hearing about it, for most of my life. Again, I would thoroughly recommend a visit.

After our very full day, we headed back. The journey is about one hour. A quick visit to the supermarket on the way and we were back at the apartment by about five o'clock.

I cooked our tea, some fresh Pasta and a Bolognaise type sauce, with some local bread. Some grapes for dessert.

A quiet evening recovering.

We have decided that there are still enough things in this area to keep us busy for a while longer, so we have added a further week to our stay here.

Wednesday, 12th November, 2008

Sunbathing first thing in the morning, on the landing by the front door to the apartment, life couldn't be too much better.

There are many cliches regarding Italians and I certainly won't go into some of them,but the one that seems to be a truism, is “how do you know an Italian is talking, because he is moving his hands”. From our own experience now, I can confirm this, as you see it all the time.

When they are on the phone for example, there hands go everywhere. The only complication to this is driving. You will see a large number of them on the phone while driving, that is one hand occupied, the other is waving around, because they are talking, so which hand is driving? I kid you not, that they don't have their hands on the steering wheel sometimes, because of this.

Plan for today, a slow day, visit to Agropoli and the supermarket.

One of our goals was to find a restaurant that Raffaele had recommended for a meal on Saturday, to celebrate Pat's birthday (which is actually on Monday).

This was along the seafront and we found it straight away. It looked okay, so we will probably give it a go.

We then left the car and walked into the town centre. We passed a patisserie and bought a brioche and doughnut thing, to keep us going.

We walked for a little while, and found another small beach area, then headed back to the car.

We popped to the Spar supermarket on the edge of town and stocked up with supplies.

Our next mission was to find the train station and what information we could find about getting to Capri.

We understand you can get the train up to Naples, then a boat / ferry service. The train ticket office and travel agent next door where shut, siesta time, but we found out the train times, on a timetable in the station, then headed home.

Lunch was a smörgåsbord of local olives, hams, cheeses and bread.

Coincidentally, not long after we returned, Raffaele had found the ferry times for us and some other information, to help with our visit to Capri. We plan to do this on Friday.

We sat on the balcony, enjoying the lovely sunset. The evenings are drawing in and it is cooler in the evenings, but not cold!

Dinner was pasta and chicken in a cream sauce that Pat prepared from scratch.

Thursday, 13th November, 2008

The weather was gloomy and trying to rain, as we woke up.

Plan for today, sort out our visit to Capri, tomorrow.

We set off for town about 11.30 and the house down the hill was having it's drive installed, so the cement lorry was blocking the road. So we turned back.

As it happens the weather got worse and the rain got a lot heavier, so we stuck it out, until siesta time was over.

The weather had improved by the time we left, about two thirty and headed for the station.

The Travel Agency next to the station, sold us our rail tickets, but wasn't much help on the ferries across from Naples to Capri. So we will just have to play by ear tomorrow.

We popped to the supermarket, and picked up stuff for our dinner.

Then headed for the petrol station, we had seen a car wash. Unfortunately, it was closed.

We went to our second option and after some hand moving and pointing, we managed to get the car washed. It was a mixture of hand wash and machine, but the job got done, and the car, which was looking in a bad way, from being parked under trees and general road grime, now shines.

We stopped along the seafront and went to the Cafe, that said it has wireless internet, so we bought a coffee, and then found out the internet connection wasn't working. Nothing new for this town.

Any we headed back to the apartment and settled in for an early night.

Another beautiful sunset.

The temperature was certainly a little cooler today.

We still have a few things that we want to do in the area, but we are both feeling happier to move on. The whole place is much less up to date, than we had expected.

Dinner was pork chops and pasta, with some sliced courgettes, fried in butter.

Friday, 14th November, 2008.

Our plan for today, visit Capri.

We had made our various plans and investigations into today's journey, now was the time to put it all together.

We planned on catching the 0840 Train from Agropoli to Naples. Pat set the alarm and we were at the station in good time.

We parked the car not too far from the station, where all the other cars seem to park, on the main road. I parked close to the wall, tucked in the wing mirrors, and got out the passenger side.

Our tickets were only for the local train, not the fast train ( kind of like not inter city ) and you are supposed to do something to them on the platform, to validate them. I put them in the machine, but couldn't tell you if it did anything. They weren't checked on the train, so we were okay.

Our train arrived and we set off on time. The journey was about one hour and ten minutes, as per the timetable, but took an extra twenty eight minutes. So train services don't seem to be any different here.

The one bit of the journey, we weren't to certain of, was getting from the train station to the ferry port. We were a little pressed for time, so rather than spend a lot of time figuring out buses, we jumped in a taxi. This was interesting taxi journey number one for the day. The Naples traffic was absolute chaos. Also, we seemed to have been followed followed by the student demonstration, and they were marching through the town, so the taxi driver went all over the place, but we got there. His taxi meter said in the region of €40, which we couldn't work out. But I waved a €20 note at him, which he took and seemed to say was Okay. We left it at that. It was now 1120 and there was a fast craft at 1135, so we had to find our way around, get a ticket, and get on a ferry in fifteen minutes. The ticket offices were fortunately in front of us, and other than the lady, in front of the queue not being able to find money, we got our tickets fairly quickly. A young Arab looking child begging directly at the counter, made a nuisance of himself. Turned out he wasn't the only one.

We asked directions and a thumb was pointed in the direction behind the ticket kiosks. This area was then open quayside, and found that we needed mooring number two. Time was moving on, and the quayside was empty of ships. Turns out of course that these vessels turn round really quickly and this one was only just on it's way in. So we waited a few minutes, the ship tied up, those on got off, those off got on and the ship sailed away. A very quick service.

There are ferries as well for vehicle traffic, but they take longer to cross.

So we were on our way, the crossing is about forty minutes, and was uneventful, some didn't take to the motion and crew were around handing out bags, if needed.

We arrived at the port area, and Pat had as usual done her homework and said we needed the funicular railway, up to Capri town.

We found the ticket office, then the train. If I haven't mentioned before, In Italy, the ticket office for something or where you pay, is in a different place, from where you enter or want the service. Coffee shops are an example. You walk up to the counter and ask for a coffee and they look strangely at you. What you do, is go the other side of the establishment / building, pay for your coffee, get a receipt, then go to the counter and ask for a coffee. Another one of those things we are getting used to.

Anyway, we got the train up to Capri. We wandered around, up and down for a while, just looking around. Sometimes, you can't see much as all you are doing is walking down a path or alleyways, that have walls up to head height and you don't see much.

We walked back to the central area and had a diet coke and a glass of wine, that you need to take out a small mortgage to purchase. We are only here once, so what the hell.

We decided not eat here, as the mortgage would only have been even bigger, so we took our last views from up top and walked down, the sign says ten minutes!

As we walked around we spotted some beer crates, just on the path, you wouldn't think much of it, until you notice they are filled with rubble. I then figured it out that as this place is more or less pedestrianised because of it's landscape and everything very close together, they have to move a lot of stuff around by hand in some parts. Some renovation work was going on and the crates were effectively small skips, and sure enough, some guys, were below a little further humping these things around.

Must put the cost of work through the roof.

As we walked down from Capri to the Port, they were doing some work on the narrow pathway, and they had this little vehicle, on caterpillar tracks taking a tub of cement up. They had to cover the steps in wood to get a smooth runway up, and the amount of time and effort was considerable. Fascinating to see happening, a nightmare, if you are actually having to work under these circumstances.

We found a little cafe and ordered some lunch, the heavens opened up and we moved inside. By the time our lunch was over, the rain had stopped, so for us good timing.

Lunch was Hamburger and chips, and a bread, prosciutto, mozzarella and mushrooms, thing.
This with a couple of drinks was the same price as we had for a two course meal in a nice restaurant in France!

We then decided that it was time to make a move to leave, so we popped along to the ferry ticket offices and the next fast craft was at 1630, so we paid and killed some time, before embarking.

The 1630 was very busy, but everyone gets a seat and the journey was again uneventful.

We decided again on the easy option and got another taxi, back to the Central Stazione this was memorable taxi journey number two. The guy drove his own lane between other vehicles and was dodging the traffic, like you wouldn't believe. We didn't feel unsafe, as he was not really travelling at any speed, but it was interesting to watch.

So, back to the Station and we found our platform and train with no problem, we caught the 1842 back to Agropoli. Didn't spot any ticket machines to validate our tickets, but we got on the train.

The ticket inspector did come round this time, and we presented our tickets, and played the tourist routine, when he said they should have been validated, etc. etc. I apologised and he figured out we were English, clipped the cards and went on his way. So, luckily no problem.

The rest of the journey went by, listening to the Italians constantly on their mobiles and all sorts of the usual stupid ring tones.

We arrived back to Agropoli, nearly on scheduled arrival time and the car was safe and sound. Back up the hill to the apartment after a long and successful day.

What do I think of Capri. It's another place I'm glad to have been, not sure really what all the fuss is about, and don't feel like I ever need to go there again. Another box ticked.

It obviously has an air of money about the place and certainly isn't cheap and tacky. I did notice how peaceful it was. The only traffic appears to be electric cart things, so the usual background noise of motor traffic isn't around.

They have the cutest small buses down below, and what look like stretched Fiat Brava as their taxi's.

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