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For Adam
He is everywhere but I get embarrassed taking photos of tatts.Sometimes it is hard to keep track when you have been travelling for a while. Days of the week tend to go pretty quickly. What do they really matter anyway when for you it is more or less a permanent weekend? Hours of the day can then disappear. It is light pretty early here in Italy and stays that way late. You eat when you are hungry and you sleep when you are tired. And you forget where you were a few days ago but remember where you were last month or last year. I think that it happens because you see so much. You constantly relate what you are looking at today to something you looked at that might have been similar. Time tends not to matter that much. Or it maybe that we are both sliding into the twilight zone, I suppose.
I should point out that I haven't forgotten to upload photos. It is the system here that wont let me. Will rectify in due course. In the meantime you have a few words to sustain you.
Here in Italy you need to up the concentration level. Forgetting what day it is can be an issue.
Adam
Might have to look hard I mentioned shopping hours in a previous post. Forget what day it is and you may be searching hard for something to eat. Hit town at 2.00 in the afternoon and, other than restaurants, the place will be locked up tight. Go for a drive on a Sunday - not appreciating that it is one - to do a bit of shopping and you find that you are searching for 'Domenica Aperte' signs (Sundays Open). They were few and far between in southern Sicily. We were worried that the same might happen in Sorrento but it looks as if the needs of the tourists outweigh the need for the good life. Sorrento was open, but not between 12.30 and 17.00.
This post takes us from Palermo, capital of Sicily, through to Sorrento and Naples. We are actually now in Rome but we will leave that for another post of its own. It is looking like it deserves one.
Palermo is written up as a city that is worth seeing. We wanted to see the sights, of course - you have to see them all don't you? But we also needed to pick up some important mail. We had
For Adam
Look hard now. We will find some for others - Pete you can have the buildings picked Palermo as the place for this item to be sent because it was the biggest place we were going to be in for a while and we thought it would offer the best chance of a good service. There are times you get it right and, sadly, there are times you get it wrong. But let me tell you the story. I will leave out some elements. They aren't important. Just swearing and cursing and such.
All of the books tell you not to drive in most Italian cities and Palermo is close to the top of the list. We decided to camp outside at a place called Sferracavallo. Nice place by the sea. Their 'beach' unfortunately is rock, not just rocky but actual large rocks. Handy for sunbaking on though and that is where the people are on Sunday arvo. We had ignored the Lonely Planet - which doesn't have many campgrounds in its listings anyway - at Agrigento to our cost. Their recommendation was better than the one we picked. They have this thing with the word 'International' in Southern Italy. At this stage we are ready to conclude that if it is spelt in the
English form then stay away. It needs to be spelt in the Italian way 'Internazionale'. Then you have a chance. We blew it in Agrigento so took the LP's advice in Palermo/Sferracavallo. They blew it there. OK campground but no wifi, extra cost for a, very short, hot shower, extra cost for power. But in a good position on a bus route so maybe we will not bag them too much. Except that down the road and around the corner there was a campground, called La Playa that had wifi, etc. Would have been a better option.
The above is really all just setting the scene. Sferracavallo is a beautiful place about 10 kms north of Palermo and is a good place to wander about. Palermo is neither of those things. It is hard to wander about and its beauty is hard to find at first. But before we talk about those things the Post Office must be dealt with.
In Italian, Poste Restante is actually Fermo Poste. Not the most important information you will receive today but it was useful for us. I should explain that we have experience of the Italian postal system. We needed to
send something somewhere so found a post office in a place called Otranto. After the obligatory long wait - it seems that the services we want always come from the busiest and slowest counter - we were called up. The request was made in halting Italian, perhaps with a couple of French words that snuck in, the man behind the counter smiled, answered in slow, yes slow, Italian and a little English. We received what we wanted. Everybody was happy and we left.
In Palermo, at its main post office at 322 Via Roma, we waited as usual with our ticket in our hand. For an hour and a half. Up to the counter. Consternation. No, no, no. We apparently must go somewhere else. It sounded a lot like we must go around the back and through a door. Sounded reasonable. Off we went.
The back of the Post Office may very well be used at night as a sleeping place for the city's homeless. I suspect that they also use the space to take care of various personal ablutions there as well. We found a couple of doors and gates that could be candidates. No signs or
San Stefano di Camastra
Shop window ceramic town anything but you can't have everything. None of the gates were open and some were pretty forbidding. We did do a bit of pushing and such but we still couldn't get in or find anyone who could assist. Perhaps we got it wrong. Perhaps she actually meant another street around the back? Off we went. Nothing. Did find a place called the 'Aboriginal Cafe'. Surliest waiter we have found served us a coffee and a soft drink and let us onto the internet. There are other places that serve all of these things. Go to one of those and put this place out of business.
Back to the Post Office. This time ask a security guard. He sent us back to the same counter we had been sent away from before. No good going there. We tried another office in the complex that could, possibly fit the directions. No. We were again sent back to the same counter. We gritted our teeth and went back. Waited again in the queue but it was shorter this time. Different person on the counter. Yes this is the place for Fermo Poste but you have to do it in the morning. No
Night View
Calm sea at Marinello good in the afternoons. Come back in the morning. We did.
Next morning same counter. Less people because we are earlier. Italians like their sleep. Different woman. No this is not the place for Fermo Poste after all. But very explicit directions and even a roughly drawn map. She was a lovely lady and very helpful. Not her fault that the system is a stuff up. We go around the back again. Pick our way through last night's rubbish and there is a gate. A massive steel barred gate open about a metre. We enter. A door is open up a short flight of stairs. No signs or anything. No indication that this is the fabled place but no indication that we shouldn't go in. So we did. Poked head in the door and find a mail sorting room. A number of women working. 'Fermo Poste? Poste Restante?' We were beckoned in. One lady who may have been very tired after working all night went over to a box and came back with a pile of letters, approximately a foot thick. Ours was second from the top. They were all very happy that they had found an owner for
Sicilian Mountains
No wonder they are tough one of the letters. Lots of smiles and laughter. Tried to get us to take more of them but alas they were not for us. Still they had delivered one and that had to suffice, perhaps for the next year or so.
You do need to give yourself time to get used to Palermo. There is plenty for the tourist to see and do but it didn't seem to us to be immediately obvious. It could not be called a clean city. There seemed to be some kind of garbage strike on but that only exacerbated the problem of litter everywhere. There is probably a lot of pride in the buildings of the city but it is not reflected in expenditure on maintenance of the exteriors, at least. This is definitely no Prague. But you do get used to it and start to look beyond the grime that covers otherwise impressive buildings.
Typically, with other Italian cities we have visited so far, we found it difficult to find tourist information, maps and the like. The tourist office when we found it was closed for lunch for a couple of hours. We persisted and did get some advice and
Tunnel
One of many many attempts a map. A little unfortunately, different places have different closing times. Two of the Arab/Norman churches we had marked down as possibles closed as we, along with a reasonable number of other tourists, walked up to them. They would open again in a couple of hours but by that time we were on the other side of town.
The mix of architecture, sculptures and other buildings that you see just walking around the central area along Via Maqueda, Via Roma and Via Vittorio Emmanuelle provide an indication of the turbulent history of Sicily with the influences of its various invaders still reflected. Sicily has been invaded by the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Arabs who gave it a golden age, then the Normans who threw out the Arabs, who were followed by the Swabians, then the Angevins who were turfed out by a coalition of local families, then the Aragonese who lasted from the 15C to the 17C, the Hapsburgs, Spaniards again, then another imposed king. Garibaldi landed in 1860 and Sicily was annexed to the new kingdom of Italy. It is now a region of special status within Italy.
Quattro Canti is the intersection where the main streets
intersect and is seen as the centre of the city. After all of the material that I had seen, I was looking for an intersection with a bit more size about it. It is the intersection where the 4 major districts join, and each facing building has a concave facade with carved sculptures of the various kings and such of Spain who governed Sicily for a couple of centuries. The Palazzo Reale was very interesting and the over the top architecture of buildings around the city such as the Teatro Politeamo and the Teatro Massimo. The most outstanding place for us was the Capella Palatino which is an Arab/Norman church incorporated within the Palazzo Reale which is still the seat of power as the Parliament House. The entire interior of the church is covered in mosaics. The mosaics depict, as you would expect, Bible stories. The workmanship and design is amazing and beautiful. A church that I am forced to admit is well worth a look.
We had thoughts of a ferry to other places from Palermo. The Aeolian Islands or Sardinia/Corsica were options but instead headed along the north coast for Messina where we could find a ferry
for about 30 euros to take us back to the mainland at Villa San Giovvani. One reason was the desire to drop in at San Stefano De Camastra, famous for its ceramics. This is one of those places that dedicates itself to the pursuit of the production of one thing. Every store in the street sells ceramics of one type or another. Inevtiably, there is some pretty garish stuff. We ended up with cups, a bowl and a few plates that were less than garish and a reasonable price.
Our camp was at Marinello in Falcone on the coast. We arrived on 1 June and this is the day when the summer season starts. The weather doesn't change appreciably but prices increase substantially. This was one campground that was actually worth the extra with good facilities - and it is always nice to camp among the gum trees, as long as they are pretty young and have no limbs likely to fall. We were right on the beach - gravelly but some sand - and it was all very pleasant for a couple of days.
Off to Messina and the ferry and a good solid days driving to
Sorrento mainly along the autostrada. Again a pretty reasonable camp in the Santa Fortunata Campeggio with good facilities - although still no camp kitchen and an internet point that was a kilometre up a steep hill. A bus outside the front gate took us into the centre of Sorrento which, although it is apparently the package tour capital of Italy, is a reasonable place. A lot of tourists about but the place seems to handle them pretty well.
The views even from our campground were magnificent as they are along the entire Amalfi Coast. Jaw dropping scenery around every corner, and I can attest to the number of corners on the road that runs along the coast. This is definitely a beautiful part of the world. It struck us though that it would have been tough to live here before it became 'beautiful'. The hills are steep, and that is where there are hills and before they turn into actual cliffs. Farming here would have been very hard. I hope that some of the farmers have picked up some real money off the developers as they moved in. Beautiful but maybe just a little congested.
The highlights for
Pompei
Vesuvius in the back us of our stay here were Pompeia and Naples. Pompeia is relatively short train ride from Sorrento We were there relatively early - earlier, that is, than the squads of package type large tours that move around in groups of 60 or 70 - so the place was not too full for a while. I suppose that you could say that we just loved the place. The villas of the rich people, the bars along the streets, the ruts in the streets caused by chariots and carts, the forum, the markets and even the temples. We had a great time walking around for the day.
We did wonder after a while what the authorities do with the money that the tourists pump into the place. I can well appreciate that they would have all sorts of uses for the cash that such a wonderful cash cow would generate but possibly a tad more could be spent on presentation of the site to enhance the experience for tourists. There are plenty of destroyed villas and other places to maintain the archaelogical integrity of the site. Would it destroy the integrity of the place for one or two to be restored
Ancient Graffiti
at Pompei in the Villa Dei Misteri so that visitors can actually get to see how the inhabitants lived, worked and played? It would, I believe, certainly enhance both the experience and the educative value of the place.
The train goes to Napoli and is cheap at about 6 euros per head one way. The boat across Napoli harbour is much nicer although a little more expensive. We took the boat. The tales of the traffic in Naples are legendary. We were there on a Saturday but it didn't seem a lot worse than any other city we had been in, although I hasten to point out that we were not driving. I am sure that my opinion would be different behind the wheel. Getting tourist information was, yet again, difficult. We never actually did find an information office of any sort.
We walked into a Piazza right on time to see a performance by a group of young people that may have had something to do with the celebration of the anniversary of a united republican Italy on 2 June 1946, or it may have been to do with a concourse d' elegance of the Fiat 500 club, or both. We were not too
sure. We had a good look at the cars but had to leave before a bevy a beautiful ladies who were attracting attention from young men with cameras did their stuff.
Our main purpose in visiting Naples - and this might demonstrate that we are becoming discerning in our exploration of cities - was to visit the Museo d' Archaelogica, which is also called the National Museo of Archaelogica. We found it with help of the map one of the lovely people at the Fiat 500 event gave us. The walk to it took us, fortuitously, along about 3 km of shops. That meant it took a while but at least being Saturday they were going to close early. The Museo was very good. Our main interests were the Farnese Collection of sculptures and others that had been brought here during the excavations of Pompeia. We had hired an audio guide but, for the first time, we didn't really need it. The presentation is so good and the material so complete that the audio guide was more of a hindrance. We could have saved ourselves the money.
The Farnese collection is impressive. One Farnese was the Pope and
another, his brother, was a Cardinal. They either deserve tremendous credit for bringing such a collection together and maintaining it in their gardens on the Palatine Hill in Rome or they should go down in history as highly accomplished thieves. That said, the sculptures were well worth seeing. I was a little disappointed to see how many of the bodies had originally had other heads, arms and even legs. This was apparently quite common and has been for years but I had the clearly naïve view that the sculptor got stuck into his or her blocks of marble with a particular person in mind. In some cases they obviously did but, often, heads were removed when the person fell out of favour. Still impressive work.
We had intended to try a 'real' pizza in the place where they are said to have been invented. As I have said before, shops shut around Italy on some days and at some hours and when we came out of the Museo most were closed. We found a place that served pizza but neither margharita nor marinara were on the menu so they couldn't be real, could they? I had what ranks as
the worst lasagna I have ever had and Pat had a risotto that was not much better. But, while these were the worst meals we have had in Italy, they didn't lead the field by that much. We have had truly memorable meals in restaurants but the food you find otherwise in the cafes and trattoria is not so good. It may be that locals know the good places and tourists get the crap but we had been looking forward to the food in the cafes and trattoria and, even though we haven't given it too much of a chance, it hasn't stacked up so far. Some pizzas are OK but not better than I could cook. Still, the supermarkets, fish and fruit and veg markets have excellent produce at good prices. We have been cooking for ourselves most of the time and doing pretty well for ourselves so we can't really complain.
Next instalment, Rome.
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Andrew
non-member comment
Speaking of pizza and Rome
One of the more memorable "meals" Virginia and I have had was eating slices of pizza sitting on the edge of the fountain in Piazza Navonna on a sunny day in March 1990. No doubt bought from a tourist trap but it was beautiful. Hopefully your luck changes too in finding some good cafe food!!