Photos and the City

Category: Italia

Salerno

I managed to arrive safe and sound in Napoli, saying goodbye to the car and make myself comfy in the same Airbnb as the year before, looking all over the city. But it was a short first night, early morning the next day I hopped on the train to Salerno for a little photo shoot.

After a lovely trainride, I was back at the Amalfi coast, less stressed than a few days before with the car and it only takes one hour by train. I also had thought about going by boat (traghetto) but the departure times didn´t quite fit my schedule.

Carola picked me up at the train station and we drove in direction of Paestum to the stunning Lido delle Sirene. The beach was completely deserted and we had every corner just for ourselves.

Afterwards, Carola drove me back to Salerno and there was enough time for a little stroll around the city.

I didn´t see that much but got a little taste for next time. I just strolled around the Old Town and the Trieste Lungomare, a wonderful promenade to the port.

Human settlement at Salerno has a rich and vibrant past, dating back to pre-historic times. The site has been one of the most important and strategic ports on the Mediterranean sea, yielding a rich Greco-Roman heritage. It was an independent Lombard principality, Principality of Salerno, in the early Middle Ages. During this time, the Schola Medica Salernitana, the first medical school in the world, was founded. In the 16th century, under the Sanseverino family, among the most powerful feudal lords in southern Italy, the city became a great centre of learning, culture and the arts,[…] (Wikipedia)

For a very brief time, February to August 1944, Salerno was the Italian capital, during the liberation after the landing of the allied armies until the liberation of Rome.

03/05/2019
Pompeii

The year before I had already visited Herculaneum so it was about time to visit Pompeii, the ancient Roman city.

The city has re-emerged from the darkness of centuries precisely as it would have been when it was unexpectedly buried in the thick layer of ash and lava which poured down from the devastating eruption of Vesuvius. It was the year 79 A.D. (Pompeii Online)

Buried in 79 A.D. and rediscovered in 1748, when a group of explorers discovered Pompeii almost intact under the layers of dust and debris.

Situated about eight kilometres from Vesuvio Pompeii was a flourishing resort for Rome’s most distinguished citizens and attracted many wealthy visitors.

Elegant houses and elaborate villas lined the paved streets. Tourists, townspeople and slaves bustled in and out of small factories and artisans’ shops, taverns and cafes, and brothels and bathhouses. People gathered in the 20,000-seat arena and lounged in the open-air squares and marketplaces. (history.com)

Pompeii remained mostly untouched until 1748, when a group of explorers looking for ancient artifacts arrived in Campania and began to dig. They found that the ashes had acted as a marvelous preservative: Underneath all that dust, Pompeii was almost exactly as it had been 2,000 years before. Its buildings were intact. Skeletons were frozen right where they’d fallen. Everyday objects and household goods littered the streets. Later archaeologists even uncovered jars of preserved fruit and loaves of bread! (history.com)

Pompeii (like Herculaneum) offers a snapshot of Roman life, frozen at the moment and shows the everyday life of its citizens.

The walls of the houses are covered with electoral propaganda messages or risque jokes aimed at particular citizens. The signs on the shop doorways indicate the activity carried out there or the name of the owner. Alongside the elegant villas belonging to the nobility and the luxurious residences of the middle class, stand modest houses where several families lived.
The peasant dwellings on the other hand are situated around vegetable gardens or small plots of land. (Pomeii Online)

The House of the Venus in a Shell.

I think I spend almost the whole day walking around Pompeii and still haven´t seen all of it, there is so much to explore and to visit. And it´s a kind of strange feeling walking around an area where so many people have died but also very interesting – very mixed feelings about this.

Even I visited Pompeii in October there were still many people around and the parking place was very full, I would recommend using public transport to visit. There are trains and buses going there. And bring sunscreen, water and comfortable shoes!

30/04/2019
Travelling in Southern Italy

My road trip through Northern England and Scotland aka My British Summer is finished but there is still another road trip with a few stops left. Let´s go two years back to Southern Italy and “my big fat Italian road trip” from Puglia to Basilicata, Calabria and Campania.

I remember starting writing this post the evening before driving to Napoli and being a little nervous about driving in Napoli, even when it was just to return the car. Little did I know back then how driving in Southern Italy would prepare me to drive those single-track roads in Scotland often just a path.

Ok, you´re ready? Let´s hop back two years…..

Tomorrow I will be back in Napoli and say goodbye to my little travel-companion, Adam. Last year I did all my travels around Italy by train – it´s (way) cheaper than renting a car and easily planned on the Trenitalia website. But especially in the south, there are a lot of places without any trains and just some buses and when you really want to be flexible, renting a car is another option.

Renting a Car

I rented my little Opel Adam via ÖAMTC (ADAC) and choose the more expensive option of having insurance without any retention. Take a small car, Italian roads can be very narrow and it also needs less gas. Gas is the second big expense after the rent, but I actually had budgeted more, Adam seemed to be quite frugal in his needs.

Tolls

Then there are tolls when you use the highway (autostrada) – I didn´t do that very often as I had time and enjoy driving through the countryside. And here´s the thing: Italians do seem to have all the time in the world except when they are behind a wheel! That´s the time when all of them turn into racecar-drivers. If you respect the speed limit you´ll gonna be overtaken all the time. But still driving here was way more relaxed than I had imagined. There wasn´t much traffic and they just pass by.

Parking

You almost always have to pay for parking. Funny enough bigger and guarded parking places were less expensive and often offered dayrates.

Roundabouts – they are EVERYWHERE – even when it makes no sense at all – AT ALL! I think there were even more roundabouts than in Ireland and they already seemed obsessed with them. (Edit: The Brits also LOVE their roundabouts!)

Opening Times & Information

Some parts of Puglia and Basilicata are only just on the verge to get a lot of tourism and how to handle it, there are some exceptions like Lecce or Alberobello but quite a lot of the places haven´t come out of hibernation just yet. Which I like and find very charming, but sometimes it´s really hard to get any information. (This might have changed a little bit by now, Matera is the current European Cultural Capital.)

And the season is over at this time of the year, many places have already or are in the middle of closing up. Then there is still the “lunch break” from one to five – I forgot about that on a daily basis. At least it was always possible to get some caffé somewhere.

The Amalfi Coast

Meanwhile, some days have passed and as I was without internet when I had planned to finish this post, I decided to add a little bit more…

Agropoli gave me the first idea of a little bit more traffic, but then there was the first really big town: Salerno – hello “stop & go” and hello Amalfi coast.

The start was kind of easy, I was used to narrowing winding streets, traffic was ok and the first towns were small and cosy. But then I got the “Oh my gosh where are all these people coming from?”-shock. After two weeks of barely any tourists, I was overwhelmed – by the people, the traffic and it´s no fun at all to be sandwiched between a bus and the rocks. I tried to visit Positano but kind of had to flee after 20 minutes. Parking on that day probably cost me more than the two weeks combined, the prices for everything are way higher at the Amalfi coast!

After that exhausting first day I decided to save up and explore the coast by boat next time (just renting a boat for two or three days and explore all the beautiful beaches one even don´t see from above) and just drive all the way through to by hotel near Pompei and visit Pompei instead. There were a lot of other people too, but it was easy to find some calm streets and areas.

Getting around Napoli

And the area around my hotel and Pompei gave me the first idea about driving in and around Naples – it´s kind of crazy! When I got my car I felt a little bit anxious about driving there, but back then there were only three or four turns and I was on the highway to Caserta in minutes. No problem there!

Now it was kind of a different story and I got to understand all the roundabouts. If you reach a crossing more or less everyone is driving in at the same time, no rules about right before left – just drive in confidently (like when crossing a street here) – and believe that it will kind of work out. And don´t mind all the scooters coming from every angle. I was happy to return my little Adam with no new scratches on it the next day and a little proud I´ve found the garage almost at once (ok the navy did – but I wasn´t that certain about it).

Finally to the hardest of them all: public transport in Naples!

I fear it will take me many more trips and visits her to just get a glimpse of understanding it! My apartment is quite in the middle of the city and a lot of places are luckily just a little walk away. So far I only had to use the Metro 1 from the Central Station to Via Toledo and the Funicular when I was too lazy to walk up the steps – and the one nearby isn´t even working at the moment.

I wanted to go to Baia for a glass boat-tour at the “Parco Archeologico Sommerso di Baia” – the sunken city of Sommersa. I found some tips about how to get there online but then I got on the wrong train because there are no signs anywhere, at one time we all had to leave the train and change into another one, I went all the way back and tried it again only to hear that the tour won´t be happening because the sea was too turbulent. Then I wanted to take a bus to the Campi Flegrei, found the right spot but there was no bus coming. Nobody knew why – this just happens…

But still, I miss Naples and would love to go back soon! And visit all the stuff from my list. that´s still missing!

25/04/2019