Day 5
It is with bittersweet emotions that I said goodbye this morning to Scala VIII #3.
Top 10 things I'll miss:
1) the streetlight shining in on me all night
2) the party on the sidewalk every night
3) the guy with 2 trunks of clothes trying to make a deal at 10:22p
4) the recycling truck emptying the glass bottle bin at 3:00a
5) generally, having to wear earplugs to sleep
6) the magical water heater that sometimes doesn't heat water (even when we have its switch on)
7) that $&@? front-loading washer that holds your clothes hostage
8) smoking on the cheap involuntarily at night by inhaling secondhand smoke drifting in our windows from the sidewalk
9) the marvelously comfortable sofa bed
10) the 4-thunk 6" thick Fort Knox door. Zombies will rejoice, and Fort Knox will be glad to have it back.
All sarcasm aside, though, it was a pretty nice place. It had its own little kitchen, a decent bathroom with a washer--if you can extract your clothes from it--and an extremely nice doorman. It was also close to the bus stop to the Termini, a wonderful (and cheap!) gelateria, and a neat (and cheap!) pizza place... and, as we found on the last day, a great little snack bar with a tasty cappuccino. The Italians really have it made. Name a place in America where you have a full bar, an excellent coffee shop, and a small restaurant all rolled into one., and cheap to boot. For breakfast, I had a pastry for €1.20 and a cappuccino for €0.90. Yes, the pictures are on Flickr. :-)
We are traveling through the Italian country on Trenitalia, the Italian national rail line, with our Eurail passes which we validated at the Roma Termini last night after standing in line for close to an hour because we read that reservations for the Roma-Napoli train were compulsory. Turns out that they only are required if you are taking the "special" train (whatever that means) and pay €22 more.
I have sent in three pictures from our train trip of the countryside as we gently rock along the rails to Napoli. The vineyards and rolling hills with distant mountains are beautifully picturesque. The bezier-looking curves in two are actually poles that the iPhone camera's shutter wasn't fast enough to catch. My favorite one has the mountains in the background and the two poles in the middle with the building on the right. The farther we go up clouds skirt the tops of some of the mountains.
Napoli/Naples is [in]famous for its street and petty crime. Hopefully we won't get too much of a "cultural experience."
My original iPhone that I unlocked and toted along seems to be working well. It drifts between all three Italian GSM networks with no problems: vodafone, WIND, and TIM. It's pretty interesting seeing something other than AT&T up there by the signal strength indicator.
Today is clothes-washing day. It's a bother, but it is nicer than toting a whole lot of luggage. That's all the mention that's getting from me.
Naples is a neat place. We got in around 10:30 and stopped by out hotel, but check-in was at noon. They let us store our luggage in a back room until we got back. We then proceeded to run around the city on the bus a bit, stopping by to look at the Mediterranean Sea.
On the train, we met a guy named Rafael (sp?) who is currently in college studying economics and in the Italian Air Force. We talked to him at length and overall had a fulfilling cultural exchange. He told us that we had to try pizza in Naples, the birthplace of said food.
And try we did. We couldn't get away from the tourist area, because it kind of spans the coast. So, we resorted to the Polizia Test, and found a little pizzaria (picture on Flickr) with 2 polizia inside. I had a huge wedge of pie with big tomato chunks, dried herbs, and big pieces of fresh mozarella on top for €2. It was excellent.
We dined in a park overlooking the Mediterranean and Mount Vesuvius. The cool sea breeze blew gently as we devoured our midday repast. An Italian guy played his guitar and sang both loudly and off key in the distance, apparently setting the mood (see LL #3).
We looked around for Saldis and did a bit of shopping. I didn't find anything that I liked enough to justify the € outlay. A newly-married couple and a wedding photographer were passing through taking pictures.
We are back in our room at the Hotel Ideal. The air conditioner is dead, but oh well. We didn't have one in our apartment, so another day won't hurt. The main desk claims the air conditioner in our room is "slow," but I'm claiming it doesn't work at all.
We stepped out to go to the train station to get information on train times and get some food to eat. We stumbled on the Intermart, which carries primarily Russian foodstuffs.
I am trying a Russian beer translated as Piwo Lwowskie PREMIUM. It's very good... but I don't dare try to read the label. There is a picture up.
Quite interesting. Heading up to Vesuvius and Herculaneum tomorrow--volcano and volcanic ruins!
Life Lessons:
1) Remember when I was talking about finding a local brew? I have submitted 5 or 6 pictures from the streets of Naples as we were walking around today. They clearly point to one beer--the one that I hypothesized was the local choice!
2) Italy has a variety of police forces (Carabineri, Polizia Municipale, Guardia di Finanza). If all else fails when trying to find a restaurant, look for the one with at least one polizia in it.
3) For instant love, take your date to a park overlooking the Mediterranean. It worked for the 7 couples we saw there publicly displaying their affection, and comes with free, badly-sung Italian serenades. Stay tuned for a sample when I get home and can upload from a computer.
4) Mount Vesuvius is long overdue for a cataclysmic eruption.
5) Don't use Pasqual for your transport needs. His "very special deals"... aren't.