Naples, Italy
As I’m sure you can see from the photos, southern Italy is stunning. Although we were stationed in Naples during our stay, we spent nearly all our time there outside the city.
After our day in Pompeii, Dave and I headed to the island of Capri and the town of Sorrento for the day. You get to both places by ferry from Naples, so the drive over is very pretty.
Once we arrived in Capri, we took the bus up to the highest town on the island, Anacapri. From there, we took a chair lift to the top of the island, where a small park is set up. It’s a beautiful ride up on the chair lift, and the views from the top are breathtaking. We wish we would have had more time to spend at the top, but unfortunately, we had to hurry back down in order to catch the ferry to Sorrento.
Sorrento is south of Naples, at the beginning of the famed Amalfi Coast. We had heard about the beauty of the town from several people before arriving in Italy, and indeed it felt like a fairytale town in many ways. You hike up to the town (or take a bus), and from there you can wander along shop-lined streets.
The coolest thing we saw in Sorrento was an old mill. The mill stood in a deep cavern below the city, and you could peer over a railing at it. It had moss grown all over it, and it looked surreal.
We headed back to Sorrento after visiting Naples, and the next day we spent the afternoon at the island of Ischia. We didn’t have much time in Ischia, however, we did get to see Castello Aragonese, a castle dating back to 474 B.C.
Our adventures in Naples began after we got back to from Ischia. Our flight on Alitalia was supposed to depart at 8:50 pm. At least that’s what I had written down. I was wrong. Our flight actually left at 8:50 am. Big mistake.
Hurriedly, Dave and I rushed to the train station to see if we could catch the overnight train to Venice, our next stop. After paying a cab driver way more than we should have, we got to the ticket stand at the train station ten minutes too late to catch the train. There was another train to Bologna where we could transfer to a Venice train leaving in three hours so we decided to buy tickets.
What we didn’t know was that the Naples train station is notoriously full of criminals. Naples, in general, is a rough town, much of it run by the Italian mafia. We didn’t feel unsafe in Naples, but our view of the Italians was rapidly deteriorating during our time there. No one was kind to us, and we felt we constantly had to be on our toes to avoid being taken advantage of. Two incidents occurred at the train station.
1. After spending three hours in a rundown McDonalds, we took our (heavy) bags and headed to find where our train was leaving from. On the way over, a man asked Dave where we were headed, and Dave responded, “Balogna.” The man began to follow us to our train, and he kept insisting we were going the wrong way. When we got to the track, we stopped, and he pulled out a book showing us we were in the wrong station. He kept telling us we needed to go to another station fifteen minutes away where our train would depart from. At this point, our train was set to leave in twenty minutes. Another man came up and continued to insist we were in the wrong place. We didn’t buy it, but another woman overheard and went with them.
I don’t know what happened to that woman. She obviously missed the train, but we later found out that this is a common trick for criminals to get tourists out of the train station. Sometimes they will just drive them to some other random location and charge them lots of money for it, but other times they will steal all your things, pull knives on you, etc.
2. Once we began boarding the train, a man behind us boarding started to help us with our luggage. After helping us into the train, he was extremely insistent about sitting in the same small car as us (each seats six people). I believe it was a real Godsend when an English-speaking journalist named Luigi also sat in our same car and began conversing with Dave.
After about twenty minutes of their conversation with no end in sight, the man (who incidentally had no luggage with him) left the train car. Luigi told us the Naples trains are dangerous to ride in. Men will try to catch women alone in bathrooms to hurt them and they also have sprays that put the women to sleep. In addition, they will try to steal the belongings of people while the people are sleeping, although usually just to women who are alone or elderly people. We believe Luigi’s presence may have saved us from some incident with the curious man sitting originally in our train car.
We arrived safely in Venice, an incredibly beautiful city. We are looking forward to the beautiful sights we will see while we are here.
After our day in Pompeii, Dave and I headed to the island of Capri and the town of Sorrento for the day. You get to both places by ferry from Naples, so the drive over is very pretty.
Once we arrived in Capri, we took the bus up to the highest town on the island, Anacapri. From there, we took a chair lift to the top of the island, where a small park is set up. It’s a beautiful ride up on the chair lift, and the views from the top are breathtaking. We wish we would have had more time to spend at the top, but unfortunately, we had to hurry back down in order to catch the ferry to Sorrento.
Sorrento is south of Naples, at the beginning of the famed Amalfi Coast. We had heard about the beauty of the town from several people before arriving in Italy, and indeed it felt like a fairytale town in many ways. You hike up to the town (or take a bus), and from there you can wander along shop-lined streets.
The coolest thing we saw in Sorrento was an old mill. The mill stood in a deep cavern below the city, and you could peer over a railing at it. It had moss grown all over it, and it looked surreal.
We headed back to Sorrento after visiting Naples, and the next day we spent the afternoon at the island of Ischia. We didn’t have much time in Ischia, however, we did get to see Castello Aragonese, a castle dating back to 474 B.C.
Our adventures in Naples began after we got back to from Ischia. Our flight on Alitalia was supposed to depart at 8:50 pm. At least that’s what I had written down. I was wrong. Our flight actually left at 8:50 am. Big mistake.
Hurriedly, Dave and I rushed to the train station to see if we could catch the overnight train to Venice, our next stop. After paying a cab driver way more than we should have, we got to the ticket stand at the train station ten minutes too late to catch the train. There was another train to Bologna where we could transfer to a Venice train leaving in three hours so we decided to buy tickets.
What we didn’t know was that the Naples train station is notoriously full of criminals. Naples, in general, is a rough town, much of it run by the Italian mafia. We didn’t feel unsafe in Naples, but our view of the Italians was rapidly deteriorating during our time there. No one was kind to us, and we felt we constantly had to be on our toes to avoid being taken advantage of. Two incidents occurred at the train station.
1. After spending three hours in a rundown McDonalds, we took our (heavy) bags and headed to find where our train was leaving from. On the way over, a man asked Dave where we were headed, and Dave responded, “Balogna.” The man began to follow us to our train, and he kept insisting we were going the wrong way. When we got to the track, we stopped, and he pulled out a book showing us we were in the wrong station. He kept telling us we needed to go to another station fifteen minutes away where our train would depart from. At this point, our train was set to leave in twenty minutes. Another man came up and continued to insist we were in the wrong place. We didn’t buy it, but another woman overheard and went with them.
I don’t know what happened to that woman. She obviously missed the train, but we later found out that this is a common trick for criminals to get tourists out of the train station. Sometimes they will just drive them to some other random location and charge them lots of money for it, but other times they will steal all your things, pull knives on you, etc.
2. Once we began boarding the train, a man behind us boarding started to help us with our luggage. After helping us into the train, he was extremely insistent about sitting in the same small car as us (each seats six people). I believe it was a real Godsend when an English-speaking journalist named Luigi also sat in our same car and began conversing with Dave.
After about twenty minutes of their conversation with no end in sight, the man (who incidentally had no luggage with him) left the train car. Luigi told us the Naples trains are dangerous to ride in. Men will try to catch women alone in bathrooms to hurt them and they also have sprays that put the women to sleep. In addition, they will try to steal the belongings of people while the people are sleeping, although usually just to women who are alone or elderly people. We believe Luigi’s presence may have saved us from some incident with the curious man sitting originally in our train car.
We arrived safely in Venice, an incredibly beautiful city. We are looking forward to the beautiful sights we will see while we are here.
posted by Lindsay | 12:37 PM
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