Advertisement
Published: March 15th 2010
Edit Blog Post
So last Friday (March 5) began our ECCO spring break. The week started off with a group trip to Naples with an unfortunately early train at 7:20. Meaning, i needed to be at the station at 7, meaning we had to leave Forni at 6:30, equalling i needed to wake up at 6. Yuck. We took a FrecciaRosa, which are the fast Italian trains, so we made it to Naples in 3 hours (amazing considering the fact that to get from Milan to Bologna is 3 hours by the Regionale trains). The train ride to Naples, although early in the morning, was fun, and it was nice to ride through the Appenine Mountains, which are beautiful, and I love them. every other time i had been in italy, i had been based pretty much in the mountains or the hills, but this time, Bologna's in a pretty level area, so there are no hills or mountains to see. So it was a pretty train ride.
I wasn't sure what to expect from this trip, I had sort of been to Napoli before, and didn't remember great things about it, but at the same time, i was barely there so it
wasn't really fair. I also had heard a lot of negative things about the city, but was trying to keep an open mind.
However, if you want a positive impression of a city, going through the train station rarely will give it to you. And Napoli is definitely not the best. The South, in Italy, is a lot poorer than the North and it was very apparent in Napoli. There are beggers everywhere, and leaving the train station you get assaulted with people telling you they have no money to feed their two children or sick child or they are old and can't get a job. We were quickly herded onto a bus to take us to our hotel.
Napoli is grimy. And dirty. The trash collection is a major problem and there was trash EVERYWHERE. as i found out, the EU's top court has a major problem with Naples and the trash collection, to the point that it has accused the city and Italy of endangering people's health due to the failure of Napoli to effectively maange its trash. Everywhere you went there was trash. When it was windy, it was ridiculously disgusting because trash was flying
around.
Well, we get to our hotel which is awesome because its on the water. Of course, our hotel is going through renovations (which we will come to learn is pretty much the theme of the trip), so finding the entrance was a little difficult, but we all get settled into our rooms and have about an hour before lunch (the best thing about school trips is that they pay for most everything, from hotels to meals to transportation...its great).
What was not great, however, was the meal that we had. It started off okay, vegetables and mozzerella...and went downhill from there. There was gnocchi and tomato sauce with mozzarella. But for some reason in Napoli they make mozzarella taste like bacon. I dont undestand. And the gnocchi and sauce was burnt. It was severely unfortunate. Dessert wasn't very good either. Drenched in alcohol...not wonderful. I'm not sure what it was supposed to be to start with--some kind of tiramisu i think. Anway, first meal in Naples: Fail.
Afterwards we get on the bus to start our tour of Naples. The first part is on the bus and Alessandro, our tour guide, is explaining something to us about the city as we drove up the mountains to get a beautiful panorama of the city. I wish I remember what he said, but to be honest it had been a long day and italian was not being comprehended in my head. We stopped to take photos with a beautiful view of the water (its a shame that Naples is otherwise dirty and not necessarily nice, it is set in an absolutely gorgeous part of Italy) before being dropped off in the middle of the city to get a walking tour. Of course, right when this happened the weather turned and it started to rain :/. Luckily, i had my umbrella and we didnt need to walk that far, just to the Duomo of Naples. The Duomo was beautiful, but not my favorite basilica in Italy. Also, at this point in the day everyone's energy had waned given our unfortunately early wake up time and the last thing we really wanted to do was walk through a city that was half raining. But our tour continued past the Duomo and through the streets of Napoli in the historic center.
The historic center is actually pretty cool, with a ton of shops and food places. The way Napoli is set up in terms of buying food is very different than in Bologna. The concept of "fast food" which in Bologna means a kebab that you sit down and eat, is alive and well in Napoli (and has been for centuries). The stores all have their counters where their windows would normally be, displaying their wares, with passerbys coming to by them from the counter before continuing on their passeggiata (walk). There were pasticcerias and pizzerias lining the street (and we all made a mental note to come back). It was also cool because while we were walking we saw the traditional Neopolitan way of shopping: someone who lives on the higher levels of buildings will shout out their window to a salesperson and banter about the price of a good. after agreeing on something, she will lower a basket with money enclosed and the salesman will inturn place the good into it. It was awesome that people still bought things like that.
I was super lucky with dinner that night. Tamar's mom's cousin lives in Naples and offered to take Tamar and three of her friends out to dinner. We went to this awesome pizza place (i forget the name, fail) and i had the plain and simple pizza margarita (plain pizza in the US) but it was so good (and i didnt feel so lame about ordering it because Olga, Tamar's cousin, got the same). Afterwards Olga showed us her beautiful apartment before driving us back to our hotel since it was past 11 and we had to be ready for the bus at 8:45 to go to Pompei
Advertisement
Tot: 0.214s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 54; dbt: 0.1664s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mom
non-member comment
Naples
I had hoped you would like Naples a little more but it seems you saw the best (along with the not so good). Shopping thru the window sounds like it must have been pretty cool. I love that bargaining back and forth (wish I could do it but I just fold). Naples is set in such a beautiful part of Italy -- nice that you could see that beauty. Maybe Tamar remembers the pizzeria's name. We can have a list of restaurants to go back to .