Southern Italy Part III

Finding the bus stop was my first challenge of the day. I had set my self an ambitious itinerary of climbing Vesuvius in the morning and wandering about in the glamour of Positano in the afternoon. After my limited mobility the previous day, I had to compress my travel plans a tad to fit it all in. So, here I was outside the ruins of Pompei trying to find the right stop for the bus to Vesuvius. It was early… even the tourist market selling dodgy copies of ancient artefacts (yes, I bought one) next door was still closed.

Finally I deduced that the one bus stop with absolutely no signage must be the one that I wanted, and shortly along trundled the bus I wanted.

50 minutes later after a rather dramatic mountain road I was standing in the carpark for a volcano. This was a novel prospect for me. I have never set foot on a volcano and was looking forward to dramatic vents pouring forth steam and gas and bubbling pool of lava. Alas it was not to be. Vesuvius is a very civilised and considerate volcano (well, the day I was there it was anyway). I hiked up the steep by well-graded path spiralling around the cone, the temperature plummeted and wind rose. There is not a tree, shrub or blade of grass growing on the mountain side once you get above the car park. The mountain’s sides are crumbing red gravel which can give the volcano a rather fetching glow in the afternoon sun.

I was ahead of the larger tour groups and upon reaching the crater rim looked down into a dramatic, but by no mean menacing looking, hole. The view into the crater – without steam, gases and lava – is out done by the sweeping panorama when you turn around. The view from the Sorrento Peninsular, with Capri at it tip, right up the Bay of Naples to the city of Naples is breathtaking. The Island of Ischia floats out in the bay and the ferries speed across the blue waters with long white foamy tails trailing behind. I could have gazed at it for hours… but it was rather cold! … and I had an appointment with the Amalfi Coast.

My hike down the mountain was swift and, thankfully, warming. Back on my bus it was back on the bus it was back to Pompei, back to St Agnello for a quick change into something more stylish than the daggy sweater I was wearing, and off to the Amalfi Coast and the rich and famous…

The road is incredible; clinging to the cliff-sides and sweeping around the coastline, it seems far too narrow for traffic to pass safely, let alone at 50 miles and hour. One thing that will not wear out on the buses of the Amalfi Coast are the brakes, they are never used! Although the first bus I was on did have a small malfunction with its gearbox, and a bus load of people were cast out onto the roadside in a small hillside village while we awaited the arrival of a replacement bus. It was a rather nice day to be stuck in the middle of nowhere… especially Italian nowhere.

Eventually the alternate transport arrived and I was on my way again towards Positano. Famed for its beautiful location and as a playground for the rich and famous Positano definitely lives up to the hype. Nestled into a steep hillside, the town seems to tumble down into the azure water below.

The streets of the town are lined with classy shops selling designer clothes, art, ceramics and anything made from lemon you can think of – the most famous product of course being Lemoncelo the local lemon liqueur which makes for a tasty but rather potent after dinner aperitif.

The anchor for the town, beside the beach, at the foot of the hill, is the church of St Maria Assunta. Its dome, covered in green and gold majolica tiles, is visible from high above on the road into the town and can be seen as you twist and turn through the narrow lanes and stairs as you descend through the town.

Passing right through the town, I wandered along the coast path toward the beach of Fornillo. My guidebook had recommended the terrace of Hotel Pupetto as a great place to eat and drink and take in the view. Arriving at 3pm, I was a little past lunch, but the staff very kindly offered to make me a tomato and mozzarella salad and serve me a beer while I looked at the rather splendid view. The beach was nothing to write home about – mostly pebbles and dark sand – but the view along the spectacularly rocky coast with the bluest of water foaming at cliff bases was incredible. I confess I probably spent more time lounging over my late lunch than I should have, to the detriment of my exploration of Positano. But in reality its not a big town and my walk up and down from the bus stop took me though a main part of it, and so I climbed the path back to the main road and joined the hordes waiting for the bus back to Sorrento.

Southern Italy Part II

Since my run of good weather seemed to be continuing I braved the hordes of overly primped and credit carded American youngsters on ‘Spring Break’ and crammed onto a ferry heading for Capri.

The ferry is rather fast and delivers you into Marina Grande on Capri about 25 minutes after leaving Sorrento. Happy to escape the diesel fumes of the ferries and chattering college students I took the Funicular up to the town of Capri, high above the harbour. My plan of action for the day was to get to Villa Jovis and the Blue Grotto and have a wander around the towns of Capri and Anacapri in between.

Villa Jovis (the House of Jupiter) was the party place of Emperor Tiberius during his years of self imposed exile on the Island. Stories of debauchery surround the site as do rumours that he used to cast those who displeased him from the cliff tops into the blue waters far below. It certainly seems a good place for a party. I was happy just to celebrate the achievement of actually making the walk up the hill! The Villa sits on the very top of the north-eastern point of the island and commands a panoramic view. The ruins are quite well preserved, but unfortunately lacked some decent information. There was the odd signboard telling you where you were, but unfortunately very little about what you were looking at… the view was very nice though…

The walk up and back to the Villa from Capri is delightful. It takes you along walled lanes between, what must be ridiculously expensive, white washed villas, lined with flowering trees framing views to the sea. As you descend back into Capri shops start to appear along side the lane with things or sale that were far beyond the means of my wallet… until eventually you end up in the piazza surrounded by people, watching people, watching people watch themselves. As all those people were in spectacular abundance I boarded a bus and headed for Anacapri.

The bus trip was an experience in itself… if you happen to take a bus on Capri; a tip from me… when travelling along the cliff top roads, don’t look down!

I clambered out in the middle of a piazza in Anacapri with 2 goals; to find lunch and to get to the Blue Grotto. Lunch I found in a local trattoria. I have a rather good Caprese Pizza (when on Rome so to speak…) and a beer and then made my way to the bus stop. From here things went a tiny bit pear shaped - Italian transport being what it is. The bus arrived on time, however the driver then got out, locked the bus and disappeared for what I can only guess was a lunch break. My fellow commuters and I looked around bemused as the timetable clearly said the bus was due to leave there and then. 25 minutes later the driver ambled back, unlocked the bus, we climbed aboard and we were off (Again… don’t look down!). So I was now running a tad late - I was booked on the 4:30 boat back to Sorrento and only had an hour. Alas it left me with too little time to join the queue to enter the Grotto.

A quick change of strategy and a look at the boats going in and out of the Grotto, I was on the bus back to Anacapri. My idea was to walk from Anacapri down to Marina Grande via the Pheonician Steps (better down than up I figured). I was right, it was better to go down the stairs, and yet… it still hurt!

I have no idea what the height of the stairs is and don’t really want to think about it…. but by the time I hit bottom my knees were a wreck. (If you look carefully at the picture you can see them zig zagging up the mountainside and the road structure cuts around about half way up). It was a pleasure to collapse into a seat on the ferry (again immersed in the inane babble of college students - this time with sun burn, which amused me no end) and dose until I was dumped back on the wharf in Sorrento.

The following morning lady at the station was very kind… she told me the last train from Naples to Sorrento was at 12:38pm - a little earlier than I had anticipated, but as it was Easter Sunday and a festival day there was not a lot I could do. I had a full day planned… a morning walk up Vesuvius and then the afternoon at Herculaneum. Well, the volcano would have to wait. Thankfully I had started early so the morning would be enough time to see my next lot of ruins.

The modern town of Ercolano is not place to loiter. It’s a working class town (to be polite about it) and I walked swiftly between the train station and the entrance to the excavations. The morning air was punctuated with explosions and fireworks, all part of the remarkable Italian Easter celebrations, and they gave the town a distinctly unsettled feel. I don’t think this is somewhere I would venture at night.

The ruins are worthy of the challenge though. Herculaneum is located in a large hole in the ground with the modern (and modern is a relative thing in Italy of course) town of Ercolano sitting precipitously around the rim. It’s a long way down - some 16 metres from the current street level to the lowest of the ancient streets below. Only a small portion of the site has been excavated. The proximity of the current town and the cost of digging has kept this site much more discreet than Pompei.

Herculaneum is a different prospect to Pompei which was buried by ash and pumice. Herculaneum was buried by pyroclastic flow which preserved the upper levels of many of the buildings.

I had a couple of hours to cover the site, and looking at the map… it should be about right. So, off I set with map and audio-guide. The audio-guides for Pompei and Herculaneum were great. I would recommend them. Both sites had proper walking, talking guides available for hire, but I wanted to see everything, not just a highlights tour and, listening in on some of the guides, I definitely got the better deal.

Architecturally, Herculaneum is probably the more interesting site. A lot more of the original detail is still in tact. Timber doors, walls and floors are present in many buildings and help bring the town to life and, as it is also much smaller than Pompei, it is a bit easier to digest and understand.

I managed to make it back up the road through Ercolano to the train station and onto the last train back…

Southern Italy Part I

A 6:50am flight from Heathrow means a very early start. London’s public transport network doesn’t really crank up until about 5am and the prospect of an hour on the Tube or a selection of Night Buses before dawn didn’t really appeal anyway. So I splashed out and took a cab.

Terminal 2 was a mess. Crowds of people were trying to check-in to Alitalia’s feeble 3 counters and I was stuck with them. On-line check-in was not working for my flights so I couldn’t bypass the queue despite only having carry on luggage. My crawl through T2 pretty much set the tone for my day’s travel. My flight was late leaving London and late arriving in Milan. My onward boarding pass to Naples could not be printed at Heathrow due to some computer glitch, so, I found myself in Milan airport, having to get to a check-in counter to get my boarding pass, face an unusually long queue of people waiting to get through security, and then high-tail it to what I am sure was the farthest departure gate in the airport, only to find my connection was delayed by 45 minutes – something which no monitor in the airport revealed except the one at the gate; and so my love affair with Italian transport began!

Thankfully my day (and whole trip) improved. Landing in Naples I exited the most archaic airport I have ever seen (it reminded me of watching my father arrive at Brisbane airport in the early 80s – planes parked on the tarmac, no aerobridges and a baggage reclaim hall straight out of 1975) into the bright sun of Southern Italy.

A 75 minute bus ride saw me standing on the side of the street in Sant. Agnello about a mile from Sorrento. A 5 minute walk later and I was at my hotel and, shortly after, opening the curtains in my room to reveal the looming bulk of Vesuvius across the Bay. It seems a bit of a cliché but it truly dominates the landscape wherever you are on, or around, the Bay of Naples.

I arrived having already decided what to see, but not when. The weather forecast had been average, with showers predicted for most of the weekend, so I was pleasantly surprised with the sunshine. I decided to take advantage and strike for Pompei the in the morning.

Pompei has its own train station on the Circumvesuviana Line to Sorrento - the line itself is another story, boring its way through the hills of the Sorrento peninsular - but I think a bit about Pompei…

Surprisingly, you enter the city from below. I always imagined a rather large hole in the ground full of crumbling ruins (which Herculaneum delivers quite nicely by the way) instead you find a city rising above you on a hilltop, which still holds a commanding position over the surrounding county-side. There is far too much to describe here. With only about 60% of the buildings shown on my guide map actually open to the public, it still took me a good 6 hours to work my way around the site …and those buildings open to the public are a miniscule percentage of the exposed city, some 60 or 70 buildings out of thousands (and that, of course, does not include the 50% of the city still under the ground patiently awaiting an archaeologist’s trowel).

The Villa of Mysteries is impressive. Located outside the old city it has been extensively restored and conserved. Its roof has been rebuilt and its famous frescos are still in place (in may parts of the city they were removed). It allows you to feel how a Roman Villa actually is to be in; the bright courtyards with their shady colonnades, the dark, cool inner rooms and the symmetry of an important Roman house. However I find it a little disturbing to walk over mosaic floors that are starting to crumble and break under the thousands of visiting feet every year, and very little apparent effort to halt the decay. It is an issue noticeable across the site. Contemporary graffiti is mixed with that of the ancient variety, carved into frescoed walls and soft stone. Clearly the task of protecting and conserving the site in enormous, but it still a pity to see.

The rest of the houses are inside the city walls and are packed in. The city is remarkably dense. The streets have no parks or gardens, the houses crowd right up to the roadway, which much have made for sweltering streets (and probably still does if you were to dare to visit in the heat of August!). It’s only once you get inside a house that you get greenery and some respite from the hard stone of the pavements.

The city has everything a self respecting Roman could want; an agreeable climate, close proximity to the Bay of Naples, a couple of theatres, a stadium, numerous temples, market places, baths and the odd brothel thrown in. Who could want anything more? Although maybe the imposing view of the nearby volcano was something they could have done without…