Living in the Now

Since our first two nights of Napoli we have become quite the proficient travelers. Despite a few scares we have gotten the hang of crossing streets that are 4 lanes of two way traffic of cars, buses, off road scooters and crazies running around. You kind of just have to walk with confidence and don't run, they will drive around you! It definitely brings a whole new meaning to 'J walking'. We also walk confidently down the Corso Umberto road with all the people selling the fake maybe real and off the truck purses, jewelry and Knicks nacks. They are selling Gucci, Prada, YSL, Coach, etc wallets and bags galore! Like I said before, they are cleverly laid out on sheets or attached to foldable boards so within seconds of seeing the Polizia they are out of there. it's not like the police will really do anything. A local kid whose father worked for the Italy Consolate in Montreal had great English and explained that nothing really ever happens to unruly behavior. They may give the kid 20 bucks to be quiet and move on. He said tha he loves Naples and thinks it is beautiful, it's just that the government (ie mafia?) are very corrupt.

Yesterday we took a train to Ercolano scavi, the main train experience itself was quite an adventure before we even left the platform. We were told one platform, then it moved to a different one, we got on that train, met some friendly tourists, heard that the train was broken, waited 20 min, got on another train.... Then all of a sudden a group of shady kids were patrolling the platform - up and down, on and off train cars. Next thing you know a woman is running down the platform shouting "Polizia! Polizia!" and some other Italian sentences that translated into something about a kid stealing from someone. People are running, kids are shuffling off the train, that hasn't even left yet, and the police are walking a kid down the platform with a rip in his shirt and one arm pinned back. I guess he was "caught".

We made it successfully to Ercolano, or the town of Herculaneum and immediately went to the shuttle bus that took us on a bumpy and windy trek up to Quota 1000 which was pretty much as high a you can go by vehicle to Mt. Vesuvias. The trek up the mountain took us about 15 minutes compared to the suggested 30 minute hike. I was laughing at the footwear some people had from high heels, to flip flops and slip ons. The trail was steep and full of gravel so it was like walking up hill through sand. The downhill trek was almost more tricky with sliding rocks and such. We had 90 min up at the top to check out the crater which was massive, but just filled with dirt and rocks. We saw one side of it with a bit of steam coming out. Other than that, the view of Amalfi, the islands and the bay of Naples was stunning. we really lucked out with weather. It was warm but not scorching like you usually here it is. We had a perfect overcast. The drive up by shuttle was 10€ and to "walk to the top" was another 8€. what a money grab. We crammed 11 people into 8 passenger vans and every van brings in so much cash but there is no other way up there really, so I guess you just gotta do it, so we did.

We returned down to Herculaneum, which after visiting Pompeii today, seems oddly disorganized. We bought a ticket that discounted us there and for Pompeii and headed into the site. It was amazing how much was preserved from 12 foot walls to actual two story buildings. Also, it was so low into the ground you really got an idea of how much ash covered this city and how much of Ercolano is buried under the modern city. We spent a couple of hours there and again, were not bogged down by ultimate heat, which was nice. I had a great book to guide us around and we had a good visit of the old city.

Returning home we had planned to stop at Da Michele for more amazing pizza but it was closed for Sunday. Our hotel advised us to wait until 8pm for a restaurant down the road as most places are closed between 5-8pm.... So we waited 3 hrs to trek out down the road for dinner. We couldn't find it. And after one block away from out hotel we felt so sketched by all the crazies looming we settled for a restaurant right by our hotel that was indoors. I finally got my spaghetti alle vongole (with clams) and settled the nerves with a Coke. We headed strait back to our hotel for a 3 min walk that almost feels like 30 min when dodging the trash and crazies.

Today was another overcast but hot day. We trained, with more confidence, to Pompeii scavi and the station was a lot more touristy than Ercolano scavi. We followed the floods of tour groups and school groups. It was insane. I even got a audio guide and we saw some of the main sites but it started to get really, really hot and we were getting tired. We saw the amphitheater, main theatre and my favorite the house of the Faun and house of the poet. Amazing, I could come back and spend 3 more days hearing all about this city but time was limiting today.

We continued our train ride towards Sorrento and walked around to see the small town that has a gorgeous view of the amalfi coast line. We had more gelato in a brioche (calorie count off the charts) and also bought some limoncello. It was a short visit because we were planning on spending all of tomorrow on the Amalfi coast and sewers tired from our day at Pompeii.

We DID go straight to Da Michele's today after taking the hydrofoil back from Sorrento. Amazing pizza and I got my photo taken beside the Julia Roberts photo hanging in the restaurant. Cheesy, I know. We returned to the hotel way before the sun went down so we could do some laundry, plan our day tomorrow and read up all on Rome. We booked a new hotel near Campe de Fiori so I am excited to be right in the middle of the Roma chaos!