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Published: August 15th 2006
Pompei Vista
Pompei ruins with Mt Vesuvius in the backgroundNaples, Pompei, Salerno, Paestum, the Amalfi Coast and Bari.
Anyway, hard to believe that you can travel just an hour or two from a great city to reach a nasty, nasty town. I am speaking of Naples. Whilst I did enjoy the best pizza I have ever tasted (buffalo mozzarella, baby tomatoes, basil, and olive oil), and had a good hostel room, nothing else about Naples was good. Ok, so I did not get any further than about 1.5km from the train station but that was because I was tired of holding onto my bag for dear life. So many illegal street vendors and low lifes. Fortunately, I only stayed one night to allow me to visit Pompei - although in hindsight, I could have done that from Salerno!
Pompei was good. It was extremely hot and therefore hard going walking around the ruins. Saw some great frescoes, mosaics and heaps of dogs. Can't explain the reason for the latter but they were everywhere.
Salerno was a great base for the rest of my stay in Italy. It is a lovely
Pompei Mosaic
The most famous mosaic at Pompei - the dog! town with not much to see, in terms of sights, just an old quarter with a great cathedral and a lovely harbour, but it had a cheap hostel and a relaxed atmosphere.
Went for a day trip to Paestum with Marita (Canadian) and also picked up a random Belgium boy at the station (he was looking as lost as us). We wandered through some fantastic Greek ruins in Italy! Also found the nicest beach I had seen in this country. It actually had golden sand and a few little waves!
Also went for a day trip to the Amalfi coast by catching the ferry to Positano and then a bus to Amalfi. The ferry was great. It is such a lovely coastline. However, the 2 towns were too touristy for my liking . I dislike the concept of paying to sit on a beach (12.50 euro for a front row position with an umbrella and chairs in Positano) and the shops were full of touristy rubbish - except for limoncello. As in Cinque Terre, the coastal towns love making their own limoncello - normal and cream varieties- and don't mind providing free tastings. [Andrea - you can
Pompei Victim
One of the plaster casts of the victims of the Mt Vesuvius eruption buy 1l bottles of the stuff at the supermarket for 3.5 euros - not 700ml for 17 pounds!]
Finally, an unexpected highlight of my stay in Salerno - the best aerobatics display I have ever seen. My pictures don't adequately capture the spectacle and nor will this description - but I will always remember it. There were thousands of locals and tourists lining the foreshore and the first stars of the show were 3 small planes, followed by 2 helicopters, and then the big guns came out - Italy's version of the Roulettes. Sensational. The sound was incredible and there was such a festive atmosphere.
So, time to leave Italy. Caught trains to get to the east coast and expected to catch the overnight ferry to Patras in Greece. However, when I arrived in Bari, the Italian port town, I was told that the ferries for sailing that night were fully booked. So much for all the advice that booking was not required!
As usual, something good always comes out of a bad situation. Whilst waiting for the bus to go to the port to reserve my ticket for the following night, I met Mark and Wendy
Positano
Very pretty but very busy Campbell who have fast become great friends. They are, of course, Victorians!
We all got tickets for the next evening's sailing and shared a hotel room to try and reduce our unexpected costs. Mark and Wendy are travelling for a total of 10 months and have just 2 months left on their journey - Greece, Turkey and Thailand to go.
We wandered around Bari that day, night, and following morning and were reasonably surprised with the place - not bad for a port town. In the evening, we wandered through the old quarter where the locals were out enjoying themselves - eating, chatting, making pasta. It was great.
On the lowlights of Bari, my 'Rough guide' had warned me about the 'Baresi bag snatchers'. Well, we saw one set of operatives in action. One guy grabbed a lady's handbag, ran 50 m along the foreshore and then jumped on the back of an awaiting vespa. Not nice and oh so quick!
Finally it was time to get to the ferry. Whilst waiting for the shuttle bus to the ferry, we were treated to a thunderstorm - a nice break from the heat of the previous few
Amalfi
Another picturesque spot with a large crowd. weeks. We all got soaked loading our bags into the bus and then disembarking (not helped when the driver parked in a huge puddle). Looking like drowned rats, we got on the ferry to find that 'deck seats' literally meant sitting on the deck. Given that it was still pouring, we found a little alcove near the stairs to set up camp for the night. In comparison to the later arrivals, this was luxury. The place really did look like a refugee camp by the time we set sail. Every piece of available floor space had a body lying on it. Occupational health and safety standards do not seem to be an issue for the Greek ferry operators. The best was yet to come. At 10pm, the 'lounge' we were sitting outside turned into a disco! Great, loud music until 3 am and then we were kicked out onto the deck at 7:30am. In between times, we were treated to the life story of Matt, the Texan. No matter how many metres away from us he was, we could still hear everything - even through ear plugs!
Made it to Patras, tired and 24 hours behind schedule, but had
Natural Viagra?
Outside a store in Amalfi! made some great new friends.
Goodbye Italy!
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Robert Bruce
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The Italian Affair...III ....The Final Chapter
If your journey was an horse race.......would you be kicking in about now......or ....drifting in or out some...? Take care and wishing you a safe and pleasant journey home.