Naples and Roma

After Florence we scheduled ourselves to go to Naples for the day. It was only a three hour train ride and we arrived at our hostel there by early afternoon. We were both very hungry after walking 45 minutes from the train station so we ate lunch at the Solo Pizza restaurant down the road. Our hostel receptionist recommended it to us as one of the "ok" pizzerias, so we did not have any huge expectations. The building was nothing special and the seating was pretty standard. However, the prices were dirt cheap and they had a very large menu. 

They brought out our pizzas - not personal pan pizzas but the large variety - and it was by far the best pizza I have ever tasted. I ordered Capricese, which was a mozzarella pizza with sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil leaves. The crust was a perfect mix of doughy and crispy, but the cheese is what I liked the most. It was melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Oh, and did i mention that the pizzas cost 5€ a piece? For me, that lunch alone was worth going to Naples.

The town was not the nicest place, however, as it had mounds of garbage piled on the sides of the streets and there were not many touristic sights. Ashley asked our hostel receptionist about good places to go to the beach and was told that Sorrento was nice. We bordered a short regional train and got there in a little over an hour. We passed Mount Vesuvius and the town of Pompeii, and I think that if we had more time that would have been good place to visit.

Sorrento itself was quite a nice little town. It was larger than any of the Cinque Terre villages that I travelled to, but not by much. There were three main beaches/swimming areas along the coastline, and while there was not as much sand as one would have liked, we still found a free spot among the numerous umbrellas and fellow beach-goers. It was a very peaceful place, and we wound up reading and people-watching for a good while as we watched the sun go down. Afterwards, we headed back to the train station and were surprised to see that the town had been transformed. What was formerly a normal little fishing town had changed into a brightly lit scene with lots of street vendors, shoppers and a live outdoor opera. We didn't have time to stay long but it was still neat.

Oh, I guess you might find the following story pretty entertaining. I sure did. On our return journey back to Naples, we were not sure which station was ours. In the slight confusion, I got off and Ashley wasn't able to (I tried to stick my hand in between the doors but they would not open). I decided that this was no big problem, though, since the next station was only about 10 minutes away. I set off running towards it, but in the darkness took the wrong street. Naples has a seedy side, and I found it on that road. 

There were piles of streetside garbage everywhere, for Naples does not have any trash pick-up to speak of, and I had to avoid both stray dogs and a close call with a moped. I realized I was not on the correct street after about ten minutes, and stopped to ask a woman at a bustop for directions. Well, I was going to ask, but I soon realized that she was almost certainly a prostitute, and decided it would be prudent to continue. The next group of folks I encountered spoke no English at all, but I was able to communicate with them in Italian that I needed to get to the Termini train station. Before I could say anything further one of the young men told me to hop on the back of his souped-up moped and he could take me there. I didn't have much of a choice and so I accepted. After several adrenaline-filled minutes of weaving among traffic at 80kph along narrow roads, we arrived. Unfortunately, he mistook which station I was referring to and took me to the station where I began. 

This time I made sure to choose the correct street, and after an additional ten minutes of alternate jogging and running (I had a backpack with me after all) I finally reached the Termini Station. I looked up to see Ashley running towards me, and thankfully the crazy story had a happy ending. That was all the adventure I needed for one night.

We woke up early the next morning and took a train to Rome, the birthplace of the modern world. I was able to catch up on journaling in the train and just knew that it was going to be a good day. Our hostel was less than ten minutes away from the train station and we had all afternoon to walk around. We grabbed a quick yet filling lunch at a pizza shop on our street (notice a trend here?) and then headed to the Spanish Steps, passing through the Piazza Della Republica and the Piazza del Populo on the way. It was a very sunny day and fairly hot; even so, I enjoyed walking and thought it was a good way to get a feel for the town. On our return to the hostel we stopped at the Trevi Fountain, which definitely lived up to it's reputation as one of the prettier places in Rome. 

It was designed to look like it was coming out the building it jutted against and appeared almost natural. There were three main statues and a great many little  fountains among the various sculptures and terraces in it. We concluded our night with a trip to the Spanish steps again, where we joined several others for an impromptu guitar session. The Italian man who was playing knew more American songs than I did, and we had a great time listening and singing along. It was a fun end to a good day.