NAPLES (PORTICI & CAPRI) -
Only slightly scarred by our odd encounters Wednesday night, we were glad to head south to Naples on Thursday morning. Thank goodness Cam did her homework on HostelWorld.com and booked us a room at the Fabric Hostel & Club, just outside of the dirty and busy Napoli, in a fishing town called Portici. We arrived to the little local train station overlooking the main port, and were greeted by salt air. Ahh, how delightful to be back on the coast! The town of Portici does not seem to be a tourist attraction, and after walking some 20 minutes, I was wondering just where Cam had booked us... Unfortunately, the directions given by the hostel were not so accurate, so we had a bit of a roundabout walk from the station, causing only a slight traffic jam when locals gathered around us and tried to steer us in the right direction. Thanks to the kindness of strangers, we found it up a side alley, and it was not at all what the rest of Portici looked like! It was hip and trendy, with a wild nightclub attached to it. After freshening up, we set out to find some botanical gardens and archeological ruins, supposedly nearby. We walked up a very steep hill for about 2 miles, only to run into the major highway and something resembling an on-ramp, leading up to a hospital. A little frustrated but mostly amused, we turned around and walked back down to the water where we had arrived. We took in the fresh air and watched local fishing boats unloading their catch of the day. When we got back to the hostel, 2 guys from the Mona Lisa and our friend Rosanna (who we'd met in Florence) all arrived, and we were thrilled to see some familiar faces.
Since Napoli is where the Margherita pizza originated, we set out to find a few for dinner, and stumbled upon bottles of vino rosso for only 1 euro each! After dinner at the hostel, our new friends Mark and Derrick from CA taught a few of us a cork game in which we had to recite a rhyme: "I'm number __ spot, I've got __ spots, how many spots does number __ spot got?" It is a little confusing at first and hard to describe, but we had lots of laughs and will attach a picture if possible.
Friday brought summer weather and a trip to the island of Capri. Oh it was lovely! (My favorite place so far...) We took a train to Sorrento, then a ferry to the island, and were immediately entranced by the sunshine and beautiful vistas everywhere. The houses were whitewashed and stacked up on the cliffs of Capri, overlooking the Mediterranean, with colorful flowers and lush palm trees scattered in between. We decided to splurge on lunch and sit in a nice restaurant with the BEST view in Capri town. We did not, however, realize just HOW much we would be splurging... Poor Cammy was thrilled when the waitor told her the special of the day was a lobster pasta for a mere 13 euros, only to find out when we got our bill that it was THIRTY instead! Oops! I must say, however, it was worth all 30 to see the look on Cammy's face when her meal arrived -- wonderful. (Again, will try to attach that picture!) I had Caprese salad and bruschetta, which really hit the spot. After our extravagent lunch, we decided we could not afford anything else on the island, except for a little gelato sampling for those of us with a sweet tooth. We explored most of Capri on foot, going up and down some very steep hills and thoroughly enjoying the views almost everywhere. The main piazza is scattered with glitzy stores like Gucci, Fendi, Ferragamo, Tods, and dozens of jewelry stores that made us drool. We decided to return to Capri once we could stay on a yacht and actually afford to shop!
The ride back to Portici was a little sad after such a nice day (I didn't want to leave), but we tried another pizzeria and finished our wine before heading to bed relatively early.
Today we walked around the real botanical gardens in Portici, but realized that the alleged "ruins" within walking distance were actually Ercolano, or Herculaneum (sp??), and we did not feel up to joining the swarms of other tourists and paying the 12 € to get in, so we hit the road back to Roma. At the train station in Napoli, we were reminded what a small world it is, as we ran into Page Vinyl (sp?) from Duxbury, who had been on the Amalfi coast all week! We are now back in Roma, limping around on a major budget until we get to Prague on Monday...