Italy: Naples

Italy:  Rome to Naples

An early morning walk for the energetic ones where they walked to the Pantheon and back to Trevi Fountain (where they saw it being cleaned and our coins from yesterday along with everyone else's being taken out of the water). They picked up some yummy fresh fruit for our journey. 

During the morning walk they discovered the Pantheon, one of the only historical buildings still in tact as originally built.

  

 

I ran the communications network once again and did the blog update....someone has to do the hard yards! Also busy setting up Dropbox on all the travel buddy devices so we can share photos......although we all freely admit Trish is the expert photographer for the group.

We packed up and prepared to leave our apartment and head via train to Naples for our next adventure. As you can see with Trish standing with all our bags we are not exactly travelling light!

 

 

Upon arriving at the Termini (I had been corrected by the taxi driver about my pronunciation of this word) we made our way to a ticket counter - no electronic booths for us this morning. We quickly sorted tickets for the super fast train from Rome to Naples......decided we were special enough to deserve booking Premium class.  Only 70mins to travel 225kms!

Lovely train staff made us very welcome on the journey!

     

 

 

Wow, chaos when we got off the train in Naples. Getting safely into a taxi and away was a challenge. Our taxi driver got into an argument with other drivers. Luggage squashed in with us all - interesting drive through the streets of Naples to our B&B.  We are sure he overcharged us. The metre said 8euros, the he added 5 Euros for flag fee + luggage fee - insisted on 30 Euros. 

 We were dropped off across the road, pointed in the direction of an arch across and down the road. We were greeted by an old Italian man with limited vision and limited English, but many gestures. The gist was we could only put 2 people at a time in the coin operated lift and each lift ride would cost 0.2 Euro. We misunderstood his three fingers being held up to indicate we had to go to the 3rd floor.  We had to exchange coins as we did not have the right change. 

 

Annie & Trish risked life and limb and braved the old lift first. They got out at the first floor but could not find our B&B. We called out to each other over the balcony and tried to work out who had the booking sheet with details and a contact number. Eventually we discovered Squizz had this in her bag. In the meantime Annie took a hit for the team and climbed  up the stairs and luckily found our B &B hotel on the 3rd floor.. 

Eventually we all made it to our loft apartment - was quite comfy!

  

 

We were set now and ready to go exploring- it was siesta time so the big front doors of our archway were closed. We had to climb through the small mini door to get out into the Piazza..

 

After pizzas for lunch across the road we caught a taxi to Piazza Municipio to get on the Hop on Hop off bus and tour the picturesque coastline.  While waiting for the bus we also had a look at Castel  Nuovo. Squizz & I bought hats to look the part and to protect our precious complexion. Annie & Trish had thought ahead and already had theirs. 

 Many more pigeons came to greet me!

 

 

  

On board the bus we plugged in our audio devices and listened to the dramatic history of the city. Napoli as it is known was the base for the Royal Family and privileged families who built mansions along the coast line.

 

It was founded by the Greeks, the Romans took it over and it became the resort for the Emperors. Today Naples is famous for its historical place in the history of the area, it's well known historical features to visit, it's beautiful coastline and its gregarious people. With a population of around 3.5 million it is not that much smaller then Rome, it's capital.

We arrived back at Piazza Dante ( right at the front of our B&B) and went exploring the old area of town. With its cobblestone roadways, it's narrow lanes and numerous bookstalls, music stalls and a colourful pasta section, it beckoned our attention as we wandered at will exploring its colourful culture.

 

A few rest stops at various local establishments along the way and a lovely dinner where we were looked after by Orlando and Manuello. To complete our meal, Orlando invited us to partake of the local liqueur, limoncello. Yumo!

Planning for an early night BUT all re connecting with the outside world and I was very frustrated with the technology. Having issues transferring photos and ended up losing all updates on the Blog post from the previous day. Not happy! Annie & Trish went to sleep. Squizz took a hit for the team by staying awake while I tried to solve the problems. 

Challenges of the day:

1. Trying to get to the train station.....

.......we emailed our apartment host to arrange a drive......no luck.

......we tried to book a taxi online....no luck.

.......we tried calling the taxi companies...got put on hold with Italian voice messages.

We tried calling the host of our apartment, their office, Annie & Squizz went next door to see if they could get someone to call for us etc - all with no luck.

Squizz & Annie walked to the top of our road ( Squizz says risking life and limb) to flag a taxi van down while Trish & I stayed looking after all the luggage - lucky we all travel so lightly!

2. Annie purchased a couple of local tops and we had not realised she had put her own top back on inside out. Squizz helpfully pointed this out later in the evening. 

Celebrations of the day:

1. Squizz was super excited when she was able to advise Sandy how to do the + on the iPhone to make a call.....trying to solve our dilemma of getting a taxi to the train station. Trish thought Squizz had won the lottery upon hearing her excited squeal.