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Although originally planned as a quick overnight before Rome, Salerno turned into a two night stay that has turned out to be quite a nice break from the mad crush of tourists jamming the Amalfi coast. While the time we spent in Ravello was nice, even being a 30 minute drive above Amalfi did not spare us the cruiseship flocks who seemed to come by the busload.  Our B & B was, some 900 years earlier a Palace owned by a wealthy family. The B & B was built into the original structure and offered a reasonable degree of comfort if one didn't mind the hike up ancient stone stairways. The town itself is a small maze of streets wandering in all kinds of random directions over the sides of the mountain and offers some amazing views of the coast below. From the town there are several walking trails that lead to neighbouring villages on the mountains, or if one keeps going- all the way back to Amalfi and also Minori. Requiring some 45 minutes to an hour the trails wander off in differe...

The trip from Pompeii was somewhat of a "hurry up and wait" experience, with a rather tricky descent from Sorrento station to the marina. Cobblestones do not make a friendly footing for wheeled luggage.    The ferry ride to Capri was a little rough. One of the crew was walking around with plastic "barf bags" offering them to patrons based on what I am guessing would be skin colour and overall expression. The trip took roughly 30 minutes, ending with a rather chaotic exit from the dock area. Given the option of a 25Euro cab ride or a 7 Euro bus ride we opted for the latter and spent a good half hour in line for the pleasure of being squeezed onto a 8 seater mini bus along with 30 other people and their luggage. The ride to Anacapri was a serpentine route that skirted the cliffs and climbed ever higher above the sea. The bus rolled into the central square around 12:30pm and a policeman pointed us in the direction of our hotel. ( For once, an actual hotel, as opposed t...

Friday morning we caught the northbound train and got off at Ercolano, the modern city surrounding the ancient Roman site of Herculaneum. First on our list was a half hour bus ride up the side of Mt. Vesuvius to a point about 1000 feet from the very top of the mountain, Over the course of the next hour and a half we hoofed it until we reached the edge of the crater. Unlike the volcanoes I have tackled in Nicaragua this one is, essentially plugged so there is no steam or lave escaping from the actual cone. Down below, on the sides of the volcano, steam can be seen billowing out of various cracks. It was very coudy when we arrived at the top but just before we descended the clouds cleared, offering some impressive views of the surrounding  towns some several thousand feet below. Upon returning to the town it was only a short jaunt before we reached Herculaneum. Most of the site is well below the natural ground level of the modern city so one almost gets a bird's eye view before enter...

Compared to the craziness that is Naples, the streets of Pompeii are remarkably calm and the drivers will actually show some courtesy by not attempting to run you down as you cross the road. I found out the hard way that Pompeii has 3 railway stations, two of which face the main square but at opposite ends of the town. I guessed wrong then I picked my station on the map and spent 40 minutes trying to figure out why my map was backwards or if I had suddenly developed dyslexia.Anyway, we ultimately found our B & B  and went thrugh the usual drill- Remove sweat soaked clothing, wash and hang the same then shower. During the afternoon we walked the perimeter of the ruins and traced a route back to the main square before making our way to dinner at Add'u Mimi where we spent 2 hours plus working our way through multiple courses of delicious food and beverages.  A light breakfast at our B & B at 8 then a short hike to the ruins for our grand tour.  Pompeii is not for the...

Do Italians "REALLY" eat Tiramisu and cake for breakfast? Seems so from the buffet this morning- large hunks of chocolate cake and icing- as well as some really healthy stuff, fruit, bruscetta, frittatta and lots of strong coffee, but seriously, chocolate cake? Anyway, we caught the metro to the Archeological museum because we figured it was a bit far to walk, Considering the 4 floors up and down to the underground station and the wait for the train, walking might have been quicker, but the temperature was already beyond 28 and the humidy was climbing, so NO!  The museum is the place to see "the stuff that is no longer at the ruins of Pompeii, several collections of paintings, mozaics, frescoes and various wall decorations. As well several rooms containing sculptures of various mythological and real people from  Roman times, bot BC and AD. Like many of the statues that we had seen on our travels in Greece and Turkey, these were often reproductions of statues from other l...

The above title references a song from the mid-1960's written by a now forgotten artist, Peter Sarstedt. I was reminded of its references to Naples as we returned to the hotel from a late night dinner.  At 10pm, most of the tourists are back in their cruise ship bunks and all that remains on the streets are small groups of locals hanging out in the slowly cooling evening air. Perhaps they want company or are just trying to avoid the heat of upper floor apartments that dont have air conditioning. On the main block, Via Foria, several police cars are lined up, most of their drivers engaged in group conversation, while the remainder stand or lean against open car doors as if waiting for some action to occur.  Several feet away a drunk sits glassy eyed on a small blanket, a 3/4 finished bottle of red wine, open, between his legs.  Continuing our walk along the Via Carbonnara, kids are playing in the streets while older kids smoke quite openly, cigarettes, some cigars, some jo...

A bus ride across town this morning brought us to the Santa Lucia district of Naples where we spent a couple of hours touring the Palazzo Reale ( Royal Palace), built in the 16th century. The museum, which seemed to be the only part of the palace not covered by scaffolding and construction "drapes" consists of a very elaborate staircase and several large rooms. Essentially apartments, they contained various furnishings, tapestries, statues and paintings from, mostly 16th-18th centuries.  Adjacent to the Palace, the Castel Nuevo, a  13th century castle keep looms over much of the harbour area. Mostly displaying "more old stuff!" we decided to save the entry fee and opted for a walk down to the port area and ferry terminal. The presence of 4 rather large cruise ships explained the thousands of tourists being herded through the city by umbrella wielding tour guides. An uphill hike into the Centro Historico brought us to a small square where several hundred local studen...

Sweet Sleep is the name of the small private hotel that will be our home for the next 3 day. As it is on the sixth floor of an old building Sweat Sleep might be a better title, considering that the temperature at 10pm is still hovering around 27 degrees,get  Our balcony actually overlooks the Piazza Garibaldi, one of the city's main Squares and the main transportation hub of the town.    Our flight landed at Naples airport at noon and it took no time at all to grab our luggage and hop a bus to the Square. Armed with a poor map of the city it took almost a half hour to locate our building. Located on the sixth floor and reached by a coin-op elevator ( yes! a dime a trip) All I had were 2 five cent coins which didn't fit the coin box. So our first trip, luggage and all was via the staircase.  After a seriously needed change of clothing we set off to explore the old city and promptly got lost. Naples is an easy city to get lost in, with some rather narrow streets and to...

It is almost 10pm on Saturday Sept 12th. We have just had our last meal of Chinese food in what will be quite a while, in anticipation of a steady diet of pasta, pizza and pesce (fish) for the next 3 weeks.   The flight leaves Toronto for Naples at 6:30pm, getting into our destination around noon Monday, following a brief stopover in Paris.  The agenda is pretty well planned out with three nights in Naples in order to explore the various museums, churches and art galleries.  A train ride to Pompeii on 17th should give us time to drop our bags at the hotel and visit the ancient site of Herculaneum, also buried by the same volcanic eruption, but somehow less well known. The next two days should give us ample time to explore Pompeii and attempt a hike up Mt. Vesuvius.   Then a further train ride to Sorrento where the plan is to board a ferry to the Isle of Capri for two nights. A visit to the Blue Grotto is on the agenda as well as some hikes along the island's many tra...