Sunday 16 June

So, I'm wide awake on Tuesday at 3am, tummy a bit squirmy, decided to see if I could upload the blog as the internet wasn’t working well yesterday, and………. the power went off so I’m sitting in the dark with a lit-up screen and Pete is sleeping soundly through noises of crashing and bashing in the square outside our hotel.   But I will get on with some typing and take advantage of being awake.

Back to Sunday in Naples - Sunday’s breakfast was similar to Saturday’s other than the coffee was just barely warm milk plus a separate shot of black coffee (yesterdays was a latte), and the fresh OJ wasn’t fresh squeezed.  But it was all ok and set us up for the day.   We didn’t see Angela when we checked out and the young woman on duty wasn’t near as efficient or nice as lovely Nuncia who had made breakfast yesterday and let us peep into the vacated rooms when we were on the way to the museum (five or six rooms I think, one triple, one family, and some twin/double).  She had told Angela that I was ‘Bella’ apparently so a little conversation in broken English and sign language, with lots of smiles, goes a long way.

Pete the packhorse dragged both wheeled bags to the station, our backpacks seemed heavy in the heat, my back was saturated.   He left the buying of tickets to me:

Line up again, only five in front of me, get to the front, ask for the tickets then a big tall man appeared at my right elbow and started talking to the ticket man

So I pushed back through the crowd of people lining up and the others trying to get through the crowd to the platform gate and we sat and people-watched for half an hour which was a chance to cool down.  It seems that the Campania Express is a private railway company and all the people (four carriages-full) had to mill around the booking area until 11.20, then we were drafted through one platform gate (our turn to push through the (still full) lines at the ticket windows – what a stupid, stupid set-up!! – down stairs with bags (no lift in sight, no escalator), then waited and waited on the Campania Express platform.    All tickets (mostly, like ours, A4 print-outs) were checked and people were told where to stand according to their carriage numbers.  Finally the train arrived but only ONE door opened, at the centre of the train, so we all had to wait in line from two directions to get to that door, were directed left or right according to our carriage number, then had to walk through dragging bags.   We were in the back carriage (carriage 2, not 1?) and you couldn’t see the seat numbers because they were not above the seats, but were on the wall by the seats at hip level so if someone was sitting down you couldn’t tell where you were.  

In the end we found our seats and sat nicely as directed on our tickets ‘Please respect the seat numbers and sit where allocated’, all seemed quite random despite obviously being purchased together so we were two rows apart, as were other couples so we all did a swap around, then random standing people all seemed to find somewhere to park in vacant spots and off we went, about 15 minutes late.    That broke the ice and we talked to an Aussie family who had delays getting to Italy (we swapped stories), and young American couple getting ready to visit Pompeii.

We also found the solution to yesterday’s Herculaneum train problem – there are two ‘Ercolano’ stops shown on the route map on the train wall, we were waiting for the second one which didn’t exist.

It was an easy trip to Sorrento.  Couldn’t see much on the sea side other than glimpses of misty blue due to all the condensation in the air.   It seemed to be built up almost all the way between the two towns, other than close to Sorrento when we were seeing steep hillsides and nearby roads winding around hairpin bends.    There were patches of market gardens, oleanders in flower, early jacaranda and agapanthus, and glimpses of my favourite purple convolvulus in many neglected-looking gardens.  Mind you, everything looks a bit neglected with peeling and faded paint, tumbledown sheds and fences.  

We got a cab from Sorrento station to the port (our first taste of driving round the hairpins on the way through town), had a nice lunch with a great lookout and chatted to two Aussie women (more travel talk), then caught the ferry at 3pm.   The timetable indicated it went to Portofino then Amalfi but we had a nice surprise to find it went to Capri first, so we got to see more of the famous views from the sea than we’d anticipated and it certainly is beautiful.  It’s amazing to see the towns clinging to the cliffs, and the beaches were small and very crowded so not what I’d expected, definitely not big stretches of white sand at each place.  

We sat upstairs and outside, just under the edge of the canopy so had shade and views back to land.  No sooner had we left each port than a crewmember came round with trays of icy cold beer, prosecco and soft drinks, he was doing a good trade too.    When we got off at Amalfi I was amazed at how many people were on board, and we walked straight into the tourist crowds.  We are staying at Hotel Fontana which faces the sea on one side and overlooks the town square on the other so it’s in a good spot, surrounded by tourist shops and places to eat so no-one would go hungry.   Our room is comfortable enough, good aircon, and overlooks a wide alleyway with the sea at one end and the square at the other.   It was lovely to hear the bells from the Duomo (cathedral) ringing out as we got settled in.

We met Jacopo, our Intrepid tour leader, at 5.30 – maybe mid to late 20’s, very efficient and pleasant.   We’re a group of ten travelling with Jill and John from Auckland, French/American Pat (70+), American Jenny (50-ish), Aussie Isabella (20’s), all of whom had been on a tour from Rome south, finishing in Amalfi.  We joined today with Aussies Luana and two late teen/early 20’s sons who are getting to know their Italian roots, her parents having been born in Italy.      Jacopo checked all our details and then gave us more information about what’s coming up and told us about the add-ons in most places which I think most of us will end up doing.   They’re not expensive and will give us a chance to see more places with a guide rather than having to figure out how to get to wherever and then work out what it is we’re seeing.    Puglia is only just becoming a tourist destination, and they apparently welcome the new industry.

The whole group went for dinner at 7pm, a good way to get to know each other and everyone seems friendly.  We walked up and back along the main shopping street, so many souvenir shops all lemon and blue colours, several gelato places as well as restaurants and cafes and a few clothes shops.  Very much tourist oriented.       At 9pm we went to a free show, the first Sunday night of a series of three shows (Fri/Sat/Sun) with different themes and they’ll be on right through the summer season.  Cost would be 15 Euro but our hotel guests got in free, then you just bought your drinks at 8 Euro each.   It was a musical based around mainly Neapolitan songs, two guardian angels were trying to get two young people together but they didn’t like each other when they met.   The path of true love didn’t run smoothly, one angel conquered her fear of flying, the other had a magnificent voice especially when he sang (in Italian) ‘Time to say goodbye’, and we could all sing along to songs including That’s Amore, Quando quando, Funiculi Funicula – I’m sure you get the picture.   It was good for a laugh, their voices were excellent and we had a good time.   It was all in Italian but they projected an English translation on an overhead screen which was fine, but whoever was doing it didn’t keep up and one screen would stay for ages then suddenly race through with no time to read it.  Just added to the excitement.

Then home to check emails and we were ready for bed.  It was a good start to the tour.