Pompeii, Naples & the Amalfi Coast

The auditorium, cant you just hear the crowd?
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Sunday, 16th November We had made such good time last night that we found ourselves in the outskirts of Napoli by 10 next morning….23 Euros worse off after having paid the tolls! Found a great camp site opposite the entrance to Pompeii entitled Camping Spartacus! The site was nestled in an orange grove, we could just pick them off the trees whenever the need arose! For the first time in our trip met a variety of travellers from NZ, UK, Germany and Canada! So this was where they all were! Decided to wait until next day to visit Pompeii as others said you needed a complete day. Various cleaning jobs on the motorhome were overdue as were showers for us! Cant help but reiterate our disbelief as some things Italians do. Apart from having speed limits of between 130kph and 150kph on their autostradas they seem to drive at that speed simply everywhere disregarding pedestrians…..try using a ped crossing, what are those stripes on the road for? Damned if they know! And parking? Solid lines, they’re just there to be disregarded why not park on them across the pavement and the oncoming traffic, why not stop in the middle of the bloody road in an oversize truck right in front of a couple of aussies in a motorhome? Tonight a guy approached a cross road in a small Fiat with total disregard for oncoming traffic and cars to the left and right, proceeded to do a U turn in a very slow and sedate manner causing traffic to look for various escape routes. He then blithely returned the way he had come! And no-one seems to care! Occasionally a caribineri stops a motorist but not sure what for? And of course the “siesta” as the Spanish call it, guess its ok to shut for 2 to 4 hours in the middle of the day but it gets pretty frustrating when the real reason is to “rest” from the heat of the day…..not much of that in winter! Glad we got THAT off our chest! Monday, 17th November Pompeii – where do we begin? As most know, Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD coating the city in a thick layer of ash. The irony is, the site would not be so exceptionally preserved if this had not happened! Took over 100 photos and scaled them back to over 80, unable to delete any more as this is the most impressive archaeological site we have ever been privileged to see in our lives. The site is over 66 hectares with over 50 of them excavated. The balance seems to be covered in vines and no doubt one day the land will be purchased. However, many generations will have to be involved in continuing the excavation of what has already been started. Massive pillared temples, villas belonging to the wealthy, whole streets with named shops eg: bakers, butchery, market place even a well documented brothel are there to be seen, some of them well intact with frescoes on the walls and intricate mosaic floors. 2 theatres were incredibly preserved one sometimes used and the arena was mind blowing – you could “hear” the shouts of the crowds as the gladiators performed! The streets were cobbled with massive boulders which sat about 1 foot below the pavement edge, hard on the feet! Extra large boulders were lined up at each intersection to enable the residents to “cross” the “road” without getting their feet wet! All this and over 2,000 years old! After 5 ½ hours of viewing we returned to the motorhome exhausted but so thrilled to have seen wonderful Pompeii. Wednesday, 19th November Sun still shining but very cold! Went to Naples by train., only 25 mins away. Wish we could have photographed the total chaos everywhere – trying to cross the road ANYWHERE is a nightmare with noisy motorbikes weaving their way around you – cars just missing you – buses hooting, people everywhere, what a place! What a country! We tried to find a car in Naples that was scratch or dent free! No luck! We had to jump out of the way at a speeding car coming at us up the wrong way in a one way street with the passenger in the front hanging out a white cloth? Decided they were trying to get to the hospital quickly as cars pulled away from them and reversed wildly to let them through! Strange place Naples. Very busy city, full of graffiti although that describes Italy. Liked the little back streets in the old quarter cobbled with large square charcoal coloured cobbles probably hewed from volcanic rock. The washing hung from the sides of the paint flaking buildings in the narrow alleyways, shops showed their wares – bread, crap from China, lots of pizza, and a million plastic Xmas trees in the market place! Viewed the city from the hilltop above the city arrived at via Funicula railway and a long walk….very hazy. Surprised at the underground system they had, quite clean and efficient. Italy is such a strange place, they force you by law to sort your garbage into FIVE categories, a lot of the wc’s have electronic eye technology yet they allow the motor car to RULE their lives in every way possible causing chaos, noise and pollution! Cant work them out at all!

Naples, see and die? Perhaps!
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Friday, 21st November Everyone said ‘don’t drive along the Amalfi Coast’ – ‘motorhomes not permitted between Sorrento and Amalfi’ – ‘nowhere to park in Sorrento’, we rarely take a lot of notice of what people say but this time we did! And were we happy that we did! Oh yes! Took what can only be termed as the best value day trip in Italy – for Euro 4.80 you travel by train to Sorrento 30 mins and thence by bus to Amalfi via Positano and back! What amazing value! And so much cheaper than driving……if one was crazy enough to do it! Without doubt the Amalfi Coast road was the most spectacular and diciest road that we have taken since our trip through the Andes on a muddy road in a bus with no tread on the tyres! The amazing views beyond and below were awe inspiring as the road seemed to hover somewhere in the sky hanging off the very edge of the precipice. The sea surged and crashed onto the rocks below and here and there you could see the odd rocky outcrop with half demolished castles. Back and forth the bus wound sounding its horn at every turn and every tunnel swinging back and forth revealing astounding coastal views miles below. Poor Mike turned grey, then a palish yellow and then grey again as he inched his way across to the other side of the bus when his depleted legs allowed him to. I, meanwhile managed to get some great pics from the bus window which leant over the edge every few kms. WHAT a ride! Sorrento was charming, elegant and the cleanest place we have encountered in Italy. Lots of charming villas and views down to the marina below. The streets were preparing for Christmas with rows of hanging lights and a massive Christmas tree due to be lit on 1st December. In Amalfi we wandered around the tiny centre with its cobbled roadways and minute little back streets which had white washed fully enclosed narrow corridors winding their way up and down between the houses behind the main street. Anyone over 5 ft 10” would have to have ducked every few meters to negotiate these back alleys. Hidden here and there were little restaurants, bars, tourist knick knack shops and churches. We bussed back to Positano where we got off at the “low” side to walk to the “high” side to rejoin another bus……unbeknown to us was the height difference between the low and high! The little streets wended their way down to the ocean with slim views between the buildings down to the rocks. The shops were quite swish and somehow the place didn’t have the “old charm” of Amalfi. However in the pouring rain we managed to climb our way back up thousands of stairs to the main street above to rejoin the bus again, this time with a much more trustworthy driver as the previous one was practising for the Grand Prix with a bus and attempting to wear out the brakes in record time! What a great day! Saturday, 22nd November So, after nearly a week at Pompeii and having met lots of great people from NZ, Aus, UK and Canada we finally started out trip south towards Sicily. Chose to use the autostrada as it was free for once and looked to be picturesque from the map. Don’t know how the Italians do it but they manage to build roads thru mountains, not round them but thru and hanging off them! They take you through tunnels and then they just erect massive concrete pillars high into the sky and you ride atop them over valleys and round the edges of mountains. Without doubt, if they could run the country and drive to the same degree of expertise as they build their roads, Italy would be the winner! There were some roads where unfortunately you could see the concrete arches rising high into the sky ahead of you and there was no way out, you just had to head into them …. poor Mike and his vertigo. His legs went numb and he just stared woodenly ahead knowing that it could only get better. If you dared to look to the right you would have seen the sheer drops below and beyond to the mountains or ocean. All the scarier as it rained a great deal! Having only 100m kms to go to the ferry point for Sicily we turned off the road to park up for the night and found a great car park in a place called Pizzo which turned out to be a charming village on the side of the hill overlooking the ocean. We parked up and listened to the RAGING ocean below all night and walked around the charming village square with its white lit up church and little shops.

Tuscany was great but Pompeii is really SOMETHING!