Naples

We were very much confused what to do in this port. Do we catch a ferry to the lovely Isle of Capri or to Sorrento or even Positano, each one of them a delight on that magical Amalfi Coastline.  Or do we go to Herculaneum, that other poor town that got buried in 79AD along with Pompeii from the eruption of Mt Vesuvius. It’s not as big as Pompeii but not as touristy either and has more finer details.  Or we could even climb to the top of the said mountain, should we be feeling fine & fit or we could simply see Naples. The biggest irony of Naples is although it is visited by thousands of people each year from cruise ships (there were 4 big ones in port that day carrying I would say in total 10,000 people at a guess) as well as other tourists, very few people actually see Naples.  They usually choose to see the other attractions like I have listed.

Well it turned out we did none of the above.  We hoped off the ship around 8am and wandered over to the ferries to see where they went and what time.  We saw a ferry was going to the island of Ischia so went to the ticket office to inquire how much, when & where.  The ticket bloke didn’t have much English but said the next ferry to leave was at 8.40am and as it was 8.39am he was urging us to hurry.  In a panic & confusion we paid for two tickets and found ourselves running to the ferry, having no idea where we were off to & why but then that’s part of the adventure. 

The ferry turned out to be a hydrofoil so once it rose up on it’s foils we were off, whizzing across the sea at high speed. An hour later we were disembarking at a charming little port town called, oddly enough, Ischia Porto.  Close by was an info centre, manned by Italian speaking attendants but he did manage to give us a free map and pointed across the road for the bus.  I did want to visit a particular beach as I must admit we weren’t entirely ignorant of the island.  The night before I read a hundred year old guide book that mentioned this island and said it was volcanic with thermal spas & beaches.  This particular beach, Maronti, was suppose to have steam raising out of the sand & I wanted to see that. We got as far as knowing we needed to catch a #5 bus and the stop wasn’t across the road but down the road, at least a 5 minute walk.  We identified the bus station because it was, in true Italian style, absolutely chaotic. There were buses trying to squeeze up to other buses while some were backing up, people trying to get on, police trying to sort the mess out, lots of loud Italian being spoken, frenetic hand wringing going on, horns basting out and just general normal situation that you can only get in Italy.  We found the #5 but he wouldn’t let us get on (along with 10 others trying to do the same).  He kept his doors shut and gestured out to the road.  We finally figured that there must be another bus and sure enough, just pulling in to add to the already chaotic situation was another #5 that everyone was running for so we followed suit.  We leaped on board and fought to find a seat, which we did and was very lucky as there weren’t many, I think it was designed for mostly standing.  We were very pleased we did find one because quite a few climbed on then as we stopped at each stop 3 people would get off and 10 people would get on so it was nose to armpit before very long.  I sat there by myself as by this time Jon had disappeared in the mass of people & pondered on where the hell we were going and how were we to know when we got there. The buses went clockwise & anticlockwise around the island which made a big difference as to how long it would take and still the question remained of how would we know when to get off.  Lots of people looked like they were going to the beach for the day as they had big bags that looked like beach bags so I figured when they got off, so would we.  Turns out that was the correct assumption and out we all piled at the bottom of a steep twisting road that had spectacular views from the top.

This island is like the Riviera to the Italians I think.  It seemed it’s where the local families go on holiday to the beach.  Much to my bitter disappointment, there was no steam coming up from the sand, in fact there was no sand! Nor was there any hot water.  Still it was a nice beach even tho it wasn’t sandy as such, instead it had a coarse tiny stony/shelly beach with a steep descent into the calm and warm clear blue sea.  It was quite tranquil & relaxing so once again we headed for our  favourite past time of drinking & eating in a local restaurant overlooking the beach.

Typical Italian relaxing at the beach

It was very pleasant until it came time to leave.  We had our eye on the clock which we always have to do & decided we should catch the 1pm boat back to Naples so we caught the bus back up the hill and arrived in plenty of time for the 1pm boat.  When we tried to buy the ticket the guy just kept shaking his head and said “ferry kaput!” What that meant we had no idea.  Was it kaput because it was full or was it kaput kaput but whatever it was, we weren’t going back on it.  The next ferry was 2pm so we booked for that and went for a walk around town.  We thought we would do a circuit but the circuit was a big bigger than we anticipated which meant we were literally running back down the road, passing all these lovely shops we really wanted to see but couldn’t, and thinking there was no way we would get back to the ferry in time.  We made it with literally 2 minutes to spare and as it was  over 35 degrees that day we nearly died of heat stroke by the time we collapsed on the boat.

We did have a little walk around Naples as we had some time to spare but were so tired we really couldn’t be bothered.  We did attend somebody’s wedding tho. We walked into this enormous, magnificent church & there was the bride & groom up the aisle so we sat and watched them then I videoed them walking back up the aisle.  She was very pretty but didn’t look very happy (don’t think it was because of us) so some poor guy has just married a sour cow.

It was also amusing to watch the mobile markets.  These very black guys, maybe from Nigeria, have all the lovely Gucci, Guess & Versace handbags spread out on these big cloths for sale.  As we passed one lot they suddenly picked up the 4 corners of the cloths, all the handbags bundled inside (there were about 5 guys, each with a large collection) and were gone within 30 seconds flat.  I was surprised at the speed of these guys and could guess why they did this.  Sure enough, a minute later 2 police walked by. I had heard of these illegal sellers and know that even the buyer could get arrested but to witness the speed of decamping was like watching office workers at a minute to 5, they were gone. Later we saw heaps of them further down the road.  They must be fit if nothing else.

Before we got to Naples, the evening before, we passed by the island of Stomboli.  We had never heard of it before but it is an active volcano that constantly is spewing smoke & lava out the top.  Apparently it is spectacular at night as you can see the glowing lava as it makes it way down to the sea.  We were sitting out on the top deck watching the big movie screen, blanky over our knees & a bag of popcorn by our side when suddenly we happened to look up and there was a volcano right beside us.  It was incredibe, we were so close and as we passed by a big puff of black smoke came billowing out as if on queue.  The cynics around thought someone was up there & just waiting for the ship to pass before hitting a button to make the smoke billow.  On one side of the island was just a black lava flow that went straight down to the sea but just around a bit was a town with little white houses clinging to the side of the hill and another town down by the water.  Don’t think I would feel safe living there.  You can climb to the top if you want and even camp on the rim overnight but for safety reasons you have to have a guide, as if that would help.