Pían Di Sco

 

Pían Di Sco

14 July

14 July

Today I leave Naples.  According to the proverb I can now die.  Although I can not help but think the proverb has been slightly misinterpreted: see Naples and die to me is more likely to refer to the fact that you might get mugged and killed in the back streets rather than a view that life is not complete until you have seen the city...

I had decided that today was the day I would do the tourist bus trip and learn a little more of the city.  But first I would see the cathedral.  Yesterday evening, while walking back to the hotel from the train station, I was accosted by two old ladies who asked me in good but accented Italian, where the cathedral was.  I took them to be German and in my not so good and accented Italian said I did not know but I had a 'thing' that would help.  I pulled out my ipad and while loading the map of Naples explained I had studied Italian in Sicily for two weeks.  After a few more words it dawned on the three of us that we were in fact all English...

The cathedral was as most cathedrals: large and lavish.  Afterwards I cut through the back streets towards the streets where I thought I might catch the tourist bus.   I have to say that despite the dark and dingy, narrow streets, the graffiti and all the political posters these streets do have a buzz to them from the market stalls and the people and, of course, the Vespas coming the wrong way up the one way streets....  As I walked through these streets I saw a sign for ‘Underground Naples’ which was something my host family had mentioned to me as a site worth seeing.  So I went up the narrow alley that led to the door and checked put the opening times.  Although it was shut, according to the sign I had about half an hour to wait until an English guided tour so I thought I would just sit in the sun and relax. 

The English tour was to start at 10.00 so I had assumed that the place would open in good time before that but at five past the hour somebody wandered up nonchalantly with a small dog and unlocked the place.  There then followed another twenty minutes or so of sorting out tickets and cash registers and whatever else had to be done before any tours could be started so it was nearly 10.30 by the time the assembled masses had been let in, bought their tickets and the tour started.  But, I am of course in  

Herculaneum

13 July

I woke early and had already decided that today was the day I would go to Herculaneum.  I had been told that it was better and more interesting than Pompeii and less crowded.  So I skipped out of the hotel before breakfast with a view to get down to the train station, to get to Herculaneum early and to beat any crowds.  

Having got my ticket to Ercolano, the local station for Herculaneum, I then could not find the platform for the train service.  The reason? It turned out, once I had found somebody to ask, that there were no trains and I was on a bus.  So off to the bus terminal to face the next challenge; with one massive long bus shelter, no bays at all and no boards giving information, how to know which bus to get on?  By chance the first person I asked happened to be the driver for the bus I needed so I hopped on board and awaited the departure.

Herculano, the nearby town where the ruins of Herculaneum were first discovered in the mid 1700s before Pompeii but once Pompeii was discovered attention was diverted there as it was far easier to excavate.  It is only a twenty minute bus ride from Naples. I was dropped off at the local station, but as it turned out a different station from the one I expected and had read about.  So courtesy of Google maps (I am so pleased I bought that 3G card...) I set about trying to find the ruins.  

Now you might think that something as famous and fundamental to the tourist trade of the local town (which was like Naples in its run down appearance and general scruffiness) would be well signposted. Well, you would be wrong.  I headed off along the street that headed up the hill that is the side of Vesuvius and the state of the town only seemed to get worse.  Roads dug up, people sitting around on the streets and lots of small market traders set up and plying their rather tatty goods to, well, nobody.  I popped into a shop to buy some water and ask the way and ended up having a chat with the shopkeeper about why I was in Italy and the best places to go to in Naples and around and also to be told that I had passed the back entrance to the archaeological site a few hundred yards back (no signs though and it turned out to have been locked anyway).  But I was also advised that I should visit the Herculaneum virtual museum just around the corner before visiting the site. This fairly lengthy chat was not only informative but it impressed upon me just how much Italian I must have learned in the previous couple of weeks as I found it straightforward.  I took the shopkeeper’s advice on the virtual museum and it turned out to be a great little place (although I had to ask the way a couple of times and the only signpost I saw for this was right by the entrance...).  An interesting computer generated virtual tour of some of the buildings in the geological site.  

Next stop Herculaneum which was interesting and kept me occupied for two or three hours.  The trouble with being able to see everything on the internet or on the television nowadays is that the impact of something truly impressive is diminished.  As I walked around the streets of Herculaneum, looking at the remnants of painting on the walls and the remains of personal items left behind, I kept having to remind myself that the whole place had been uncovered from under 40 feet of volcanic 'tuft' and to recall some of the more impressive paintings that had been found here but were now in the Naples Archaeological museum.  It was otherwise too easy to simply wander round the remains of the streets and houses and think...'yeh, and?'

I left Herculaneum and walked back down to the town centre where I had been dropped off.  My next problem was to find out how and where to get a bus ticket but, upon asking in a bar, I found that they could not only sell me a ticket but - while I was waiting for the bus - a couple of beers and a Panini too.

I got home in the late afternoon and determined that I would tonight go and see Naples in the evening.  But again, after a shower and finishing off the cheese and bread I had because I was a bit peckish I ended up once again lazing the night away with the strains of British radio over the Internet.....

To Naples

12 July

I will have to stop forming my life views from what I have seen in old films....overnight travel is not quite as exotic as those old dramas would have us believe: no wooden lined cabins with individual bathroom; no smooth and silent trip; and certainly no manic, world-dominating criminal mastermind breaking in to kill you.  Last night the train arrived late (as Enrico had advised me it would!) and I got in and found my nominated cabin; three snoring guys were already occupying the other three beds in the small room and I climbed into my bed and settled in for the night.  It was a somewhat disturbed evening; the steady clunking of the rail tracks, the swaying of the train and the occasional screeching of the brakes all prevented you sleeping too long or too deeply.

We arrived at Naples at about 7.30am and I decided to walk to the hotel to get a feel for the city; it was less than a mile away and looked a quite straightforward route.  My first impressions of Naples were that it is still under construction: a large area directly in front of the station was surrounded by construction boards and traffic diversions and the main road towards the hotel seemed to be one long road works.  In fact, during the course of the day it appeared that most of the main routes I walked down had work going on along their length.

I arrived in the old town and at the small hotel (it's quite funky) too early to check in so, after a coffee there, I left my bags and took my rather reesty body off to explore the city until the afternoon when I would be able to get into my room and freshen up.  I managed to cover a few of the sites including the castle, the plebescito square, the archaeological museum (very good with artefacts rescued from Pompeii and Herculaneum and Rome), galleria umberto and my personal favourite, Sanservo Chapel to see the amazing 'veiled Christ' carving.  

I also checked out the theatre but decided that an Italian opera I had never heard of was possibly just a tad too heavy for the evening.  After that it was time to wander back to the hotel to check in and to freshen up with the intention to go and catch the tourist bus around town in the late afternoon.  

Walking around leaves you with an interesting impression of the city. There certainly wasn't the traffic that I expected from the reports I'd previously heard although the main streets more than made up for the lack of traffic with the amount of  roadworks.  The back routes are brooding and tatty and covered in graffiti or political posters or both.  There's the reek of piss and poverty in those narrow and dirty streets and yet there is a certain character there too if you can see past those things.  Nevertheless, it's not a place I would choose to come to for a romantic break.....

Once I got back to the hotel I made for the room and the shower; I definitely needed to refresh myself.  But after that I lay on the bed, relaxed and clean, and fell asleep; last night's trip on the train was not too bad but I had not slept that well.  The trouble with being clean and relaxed is that you find it difficult to motivate yourself to other things and so it was that when I awoke in the late afternoon I realised it was too late to go and get the tourist bus and I was quite happy to lie on the bed catching up on Radio 4 dramas and eating the fruit and cheese I had in my bag rather than go out for dinner.

Last Day at School!

11 July

It is my last day! It is hard to believe I have been here two weeks already and I know I will miss this place.  The school is really friendly and small, and the town - sat between the two sides of the peninsula - is surrounded by sea on two sides and has an easy feel about it without being too quiet or having too much bustle.  It has a buzz at night with a few bars and restaurants that do good trade but it is not manic.

After school it was back to the house to finish packing prior to my midnight train to Naples. I spent the afternoon quite leisurely, listening to English radio over the Internet and then went back into the centre for a very quick beer with Anastasia and Joel before rushing back to a farewell dinner at Enrico's and Melissa's.  Now I am replete with pasta and Sicilian sausage, red wine and beer and, after heartfelt farewells, sitting at the railway station awaiting the (delayed) train to Naples....

More Milazzo

10 July

Well last night's dinner was very nice: swordfish and aubergine with pasta.  This is apparently a Sicilian classic and is what I will now be cooking when I am in Tuscany with Hazel and Neil.  We polished off a bottle of wine and shared a rambling conversation in Italian with a bit of English and Spanish thrown in for good measure.  I'm not always convinced that Enrico and Melisa understand everything I say but we seem to make progress...

School was the usual three hours or so of nothing but Italian and grammar, but not in a bad way.  Since we seem to be able to spend nearly all that time speaking in Italian we must have learned something.  The mid-morning break is always a pleasure as we go to the cafe up the road for our coffee or ice cream or grenita (or sometimes all three...) and that is a time to speak English and let the brain wind down a bit.  Today though Elvira joined us and as she speaks little English we remained speaking Italian.  

I decided that as I am approaching the end of my time here it was about time I tried to visit one of the small museums.  The trouble, as ever, is the siesta that limits the time you can get to see such things.  Elvira, the teacher, volunteered to have a word with the people that run them about opening times and accompany me on the trip as she is into archaeology and local history.  So after class I did some work at school, sorted some emails and other such things, and then went back to the house before coming back to meet Elvira at the school.  As it turned out we visited both museums, the first an archaeological museum with finds from Milazzo's past that ranged from Neolithic through to Greek and then Roman.  I was given an hour's tour in Italian explaining these things and to my amazement I understood most of it.  The second museum was even smaller and was an old jail that now stored things from the industrial past of Milazzo.  It was a like an organised version of my dad's garage with small displays covering the ship building, tuna fishing, wine making and jasmine growing that have all been part of Milazzo's local industry.  Again, I understood the majority of what I was told but I was also aware of the concentration it required from me.

Afterwards we wandered down to the beach for a prearranged meet with Joel and one of the new guys (a German policeman) who has joined the school this week.  The plan was to go for a swim prior to eating but I got there late and the wind was really up with massive waves of over 12 feet rolling in.  It looked great fun but the guys were just getting out so I didn't get to have my dip and we all ended up in a small pasta restaurant a couple of blocks from the sea.  After a nice meal, some rough old wine and a limoncello I wandered back to the house and to bed in readiness for the forthcoming hangover.....