Saturday 9 & 10 April - Palermo to Salerno by train
I loved Salerno for the relatively lower tourist count (prefer to refer to myself as a 'traveller'), but didn't love it for making me feel like my havaianas were unworthy footwear on a Saturday night.
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| Ciao Sicilia! |
So on Saturday's Trenitalia is kind enough to do two for one Saturdays, making our trip €48 cheaper. Our first stop on the mainland was Salerno, where we arrived during siesta so the streets were deserted!
Jono had us booked in to an awesome hostel that was amazingly cheap and I think was in an old monastery. Our room had a little balcony overlooking the courtyard and both nights we were in Salerno, when we got home from dinner there were operetas being performed beneath our window!
After checking in we both crashed after the long night, journey and walk from the train station, emerging from the hostel just in true Italian style, just as the sun went down. We weren't the only ones to head out, either. The city, which had been a ghost town when we arrived was heaving with families out for their evening stroll. For the first time in my life I felt my havaianas were letting me down - apparently not appropriate footwear to be seen in on a Saturday night in Salerno.
We headed down to the water, through some markets with knock off shoes and handbags (oh the temptation!), back up to the Corso (where to us it was like late night shopping at Christmas, but for Salerno it was just a regular Saturday night) for some spectacular window shopping and then back through the little stone streets to find a restaurant recommended by the staff.
OMG that place remains our favourite, even as I write this on 27 April. Named after its street, Vicolo della Neve, we were lucky to turn up when we did on the Saturday, because when we left the line was out the street. We were seated at a little table with a checked cloth on it, when it came time to ordering I wanted to get the eggplant dish, but my waiter insisted I take another eggplant dish than the one I was after. It was basically just eggplant parmigiana, but it was the best eggplant parmigiana I've ever had! So much delicious cheese and all that yummy stuff the bottom of the dish to dip your bread into. I'm salivating just writing about it. We couldn't help ourselves and had to return the next night too for a calzone - that and the pizza were apparent favourites with the locals.
On the second day I headed out for a wander and ended up at the Salerno Diocesan Museum. It holds the Salerno Ivories. I quietly wandered in to the museum as I expected to have to pay but only had €5 - thought I could play the role of the unwitting tourist... I mean 'traveler', so I was creeping around like a cat. Of course, they have CCTV so it wasn't long before I had company and was quickly escorted. But to my surprise, I wasn't escorted out, but around the collections of art works!
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| Salerno Sunset |
Monday 11 April - Amalfi
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| Our room was below the rightmost arch. |
On the Monday morning we checked out of the hostel and made our way to the port to catch a ferry to Amalfi. On the way we discovered three things: one - a Perth mother travelling with her two young daughters, all with backpacks doing a six month world tour; two - in Italy the taxis start the metre once you call in the ride, not when you get in the car; three - a ferry full of school kids is just as hellish in Salerno as it is in Amalfi.
Amazing day for a boat ride along the Amalfi coast - the photos don't do the place justice! For the first time on the trip we were arriving somewhere where we didn't know where we would be plonking our bags down for the night. Thankfully, Amalfi is pretty easy to navigate and the info place is just off the jetty. The lady there referred us to 'James', who had a free room. WHAT a room! Straight out across the ocean, breakfast included at a little cafe around the corner and what we didn't get in a balcony was made up for in a terrace we made our own!
The original plan was to stay two nights, but we stretched it to three after the first one because it was such a great location. After dumping the bags we went out to join the hordes and explore the little village. Wasn't long before we hit the bottle shop and grabbed a bottle of red, a bottle of limoncello and a bag of green olives. Then went across the street and grabbed a couple of cheap birra for Jono and a freshly made calzone from an Italian who looked like Gaggin.
With our hands full we went back to the hotel to stake our claim on that little terrace and munched and drank and drank our way into blissful happiness, all to be topped off by a midnight gelato snack in town.
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| Amalfi at night |
Tuesday 12 April - Amalfi
On the second day we took a walk up into the valley, following the creek that feeds all the fountains in town. Back home we would never dream of drinking out of one, but in Amalfi all the locals put their mouths under the spouts for a tipple.
The path took us past local lemon orchards, fig and olive trees and then more and more ruins of buildings. Some of the ruins looked as though people visited them regularly… and not as tourists. On the way back to the hotel we explored one of the quiet pathways off the main drag – all white washed path, walls and stairs with quiet vigils tucked away in corners. We found a little restaurant on one of these paths with a tempting hand-written menu and as we scrutinised it a little Nonna walked up the path with her groceries to her apartment, stopping to tell us the place was ‘bene’. That sold it to us and we returned later that night for a very yummy dinner.
Wednesday 13 April - Capri
On the third day we talked to James and asked for an extension on our stay and then headed for the ferry to Capri. We couldn’t have picked a worse day to travel to the island – the wind was blowing over the snow topped mountains on the main land and the Mediterranean was whipping up a ride for us! Another regretful day for me and my havaianas!
Despite the weather we managed to explore both the towns of Capri and Anacapri and fit in a coffee and then a warming cup of tea in the afternoon. That night we tried to return to the restaurant we’d liked so much the night before, only to discover it was closed that one night of the week. The restaurant we did pick, on a similarly quiet street on the other side of the main drag had three sets of the same couples we’d seen in the other restaurant the night before.
Thursday 14 April - Naples
On our final day we packed up, headed down to breakfast (coffee, juice and a chocolate croissant) before checking out with James and doing some last minute trip admin. Then it was down to the docks for the next Sita bus to Naples.
Our bus wound its way along some hair-raising switch backs, where I thought that the only ones braver than our bus driver on the road were the cyclists gliding down the hills and pumping their way up them. Without helmets! We weren’t actually travelling that far in terms of distance, but with all the winding we did it took us a couple of hours.
From the vertical climbs of the Amalfi coast with its lemon and olive trees and roadside fennel we moved up the mountain and inland and then over the hill and down into Naples. The city and Mount Vesuvius came upon us with a bit of surprise - the sprawling mess after the neatness and sweetness of the touristy coast. There’s not much sweet about Naples, except those sfogliatella!
Still, with the help of some lovely cops we found the express bus that would take us in the direction of the hostel. When on the bus I didn’t get robbed or felt up, but I did take an interest in the number of redheads on the R2 bus. Our hostel was easy enough to find once we disembarked. The reception was on the seventh floor and the building required 5c to operate the lift, but the staff were amazingly helpful and they gave us a discount on our room when we’d asked to switch to one with a shared bathroom (to save on cash).
Before dark we took a walk along the waterfront and then hit up the local supermarket, where the checkout chick with a prominent cigar burn scar on her cheek asked if I was married. She seemed disappointed when I pointed at Jono and he explained that she probably wanted to sell me.
We shared our poorly cooked homemade meal (I’ll blame the facilities) and tried to share our €8 gin with a lovely German girl who was travelling alone in Naples as a distraction to the fact that her boyfriend was in Afghanistan on holiday. I practiced my German, which improved and then declined on a bell curve with the amount of gin I consumed.
Friday 15 April - Naples
The next morning was, naturlich, a slow start. We had an unfortunate skype date with our parents’, buried our heads and re-emerged at midday to face the thought of Pompeii. In these instances Naples is the place to be – coffee and pizza on every street corner. The day improved when we learnt it was cultural week and all the historical sights in Naples were open to the public for free.
Pompeii was fantastic and definitely required a day or two’s worth of energy. It’s one of those places from our travels where I wished we’d taken a guided tour and not relied on the €5 audio guide. The state of the place was awe-inspiring. My favourite was the Roman baths that were in pristine condition – hard to imagine the people who had been through there over the years, all those years ago.
After a few hours and after the rain settled in we decided to head home. We missed the bus by seconds and were forced to wait around for another 45 minutes. During this time Jono and I waited on the steps of a building by the bus stop and couldn’t help but notice the stares and gawks we were attracting from the passing traffic. I began to think we were accidentally sitting on the steps of a whorehouse because these weren’t your ordinary glances.
It clicked about twenty minutes later when two middle aged women walked by the bus stop on the opposite side of the street, one all in a tight black outfit that could hardly consume her and the other in inappropriately high shoes for the woman’s age. It clicked before these ladies started trying to flag down the traffic, but our suspicions were confirmed once they did. Now the gawks made sense! Good grief! Perhaps this was the one time in my life when I should have made an effort to look more like a tourist!
Saturday 16 April - Via Piana
Classic me, fit everything we can into the last day in Naples. Our final destination was a tiny place called Via Piana which we would reach by bus and then a lift, but en route we managed to fit in a sfogliatella and the archaeological museum. Two must dos!
Saturday TBC....
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| Check the bus - it's hooked up to the power lines like a tram! |
