Since we had to catch the 8:53 am Eurostar to Naples we got up a bit earlier than usual on an overcast Monday morning. After an easy 15-minute walk to the train station and a short wait for the train to arrive we soon boarded and found our seats. In our recent short trips to Bologna we rode 2nd class on whatever train type was available. For this trip, however, we opted to pay a little more not just for reserved seating (thus assured of a place to sit down) but also to spend a bit more for the Eurostar: it is faster and provides somewhat more room both in 2nd as well as 1st class than the other types of long-distance trains in Italy. In fact the trip south only took about 3.5 hours with just one stop in Rome (where most of the people in our carriage got off).
I have said elsewhere but want to reiterate our impression of Trenitalia. Their website, which is in English, is very easy to use and makes ordering tickets a breeze. Using their website not only gives you access to their timetables and train types as well as ticket purchase but also allows you to bypass waiting in queues to pick up your tickets. With the Eurostar you also have the option not only of using the ticket machines to pick up your ticket at the station but, and this is really cool, you can opt for their email ticket. You just print out the email confirmation and hand it to the conductor on board the train. He then issues you a ticket then and there! Is that the 21st century or what?
Anyway at half past noon we arrived on schedule at the main strain station in Naples and were looking forward to a brand-new experience of the city famous for pizza and Sophia Loren. We had passed through the city in April of 2002, just to change trains for Pompeii so we counted this as our first trip to Italy’s 3rd largest city.
OK let’s get the bad stuff out of the way right now: it is dirty, noisy, people are indeed packed into some of the most overcrowded living conditions imaginable in the west, with streams of humanity moving in every direction imaginable, gargantuan construction projects adding to the general anarchy of the place, and lots of people just itching to take advantage of the person next to them, tourist or local it doesn’t matter which.
(This last point is particularly true of the taxi drivers. We were overcharged by one and still count ourselves lucky. After that we relied on public transportation. Even our hotel gently tried to pull the “Oh and you need to pay for. . . “ “But we have already paid for that and have the receipt right here.” “Oh, OK.”. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!)
With that out of the way we thoroughly enjoyed the short time we spent in the city. The food was great, the wine delicious, people are very friendly and certainly more animated than northern Italians (or so it seemed to me) and the history unbelievable. From the Palazzo Reale to Pompeii every historical era in western civilization imaginable is represented in the very stone used to build the city. Incredible.
After a short (and expensive) taxi ride we found ourselves very close to the Palazza Reale, just a few blocks up from the water on the Piazza Trieste e Trento, at Via Chiaia (KEE-eye-yah), a pedestrian-only street full of shops and bars and restaurants and, not surprisingly, the Hotel Chiaia, where we would spend the next three nights. The hotel is located on the first floor – there is no lift. (We found this hotel through both online research as well as a note in the rough guide to Italy; we reserved it through www.venere.com. Via Chiaia 216, ph: 081.415.555. www.hotelchiaia.it.)
In our search for hotels in Naples I discovered that the Rick Steves’ guide to Italy 2005 recommended staying in Sorrento rather than Naples although they did suggest several accommodations near the strain station. However, we thought this area was certainly one of the least attractive and, as the Rough Guide notes, not conducive for going out at night. We tend to agree with the Rough Guide that the centro storico is both lively and great for passegiata in the evening down Via Toledo or down Via Chiaia for example, making for a wonderful evening stroll.
After we checked in and dropped our things off in our small but comfortable room – which overlooked Via Chiaia -- we returned to the front desk to see if they had any of the Campania Arte cards on hand. These city-wide cards are by far and away one of the best deals we have yet to find anywhere in Italy. There are several different variations of the card; we opted for the 3-day, “tutti I siti” (“all the sites”) card. For 25 euros you get (1) free access to the first two sites and 50% off all the other sites visited during that period, and includes all the sites in the Naples area as well as Paestum; (2) unlimited travel on the entire Naples transportation network, which includes the local buses as well as the Circumvesuviana train to Pompeii and Sorrento. The entrance fees to Pompeii and Herculaneum alone are almost as much as the cost of the card! The cards are widely available throughout the city and, as we discovered, most hotels have them for sale as well. There is also a 7-day version of the card for and additional three euros but it does not include transportation. (Odd we thought.)
So with our new Artecards in hand we walked out of the hotel, turned left onto Via Chiaia and then left on the Piazza Trieste e Trento up Via Toledo heading to the Archeological Museum. It was drizzling off and on during our stroll uptown. After about 15 minutes we found the museum but decided that before we became entangled in spending who knows how much time inside we would need to recharge our batteries so we went across the street to a ristorante, the Voce e Notte, to have lunch. After relaxing for an hour or so over a tasty lunch of pizza (this is Naples after all) we headed in to the museum where we swiped our Artecard in the machine and passed right through inside. Cool.
While Naples is not really much of a city for museums, the Archeological Museum (“Museo Archeologico Nazionale”) is certainly one of the reasons to come to this city. (Open daily except Tuesday, 9:00 am-7:30 pm.) It houses some of the best pieces of mosaics and statuary found at Pompeii and Herculaneum. You should definitely opt for the audio-guide (price not included in the Artecard though). Oh and if you’re interested in the erotic artwork found at Pompeii you have to make a reservation for the “secret room” at the information kiosk right as you enter the building on the right and before you come up to the ticket booth (where you rent up the audio-guides). It’s actually a rather small collection of art, most of it not terribly graphic and some quite interesting. The mosiacs were absolutely stunning, the exhibition on coins was fascinating and of course the statuary compelling. When we visited there was also an enormous exhibition of Chinese art from the Tang dynasty.
After we left the museum we took a leisurely stroll back down Via Toledo, passing by a couple of fantastic galleries, in particular the Galleria Umberto, as we headed toward our hotel. Upon reaching the Piazza Trieste e Trento we decided to keep going straight, down to the water. We passed through the Piazza Plebiscito, and on our right was the church of San Francesco di Paola (photo below), which is flooded at night and a great place to stroll. We continued to walk another 300m or so down to just short of the bay. We couldn’t see the volcano since the sky was darkening and of course it was still overcast. So we turned around and headed back to the hotel, stopping at the Café Gambrinus, at the edge of Piazza Plebiscito and just around the corner form our hotel; a wonderful place for an aperitivo and one would be a regular spot for our brief stay in the city.
On the way into the hotel we stopped at the desk and asked for a recommendation for dinner, someplace nearby which served local fresh fish. A few minutes later we had reservations for 8:30 at Lucillo, a ristorante in the Santa Lucia area (that’s the place where the song came from), just a 10-minute walk from our hotel.
We arrived at the trattoria on time – although it was quiet and we probably didn’t need the reservations -- and had a thoroughly enjoyable meal, the two of us sharing a whole grilled fish and drinking some wonderful Falanghina white wine from Campania. We also enjoyed the conversation with our waiter and host, over old photos of the Santa Lucia area showing how until the last century the area where the ristorante was located had been in fact in the water, and also showing pictures of his great-grandfather and grandfather (as a young boy), indeed his family had lived in same area for several generations and who had operated the ristorante for many years.
We strolled back to the hotel and went straight to bed. Tomorrow the weather is predicted to be sunny and warm and we are planning our big trip to Pompeii and, we hope, to Herculaneum (“Ercolano”) if time permits.
No comments:
Post a Comment