22nd April Monday
After our last breakfast at our heavenly hotel and saying goodbye to our cat friends we headed up the coast past Bari to the appropriately named Saline where salt has been naturally extracted from sea water probably for thousands of years. Quite beautiful and the sunlight makes many of the pools appear a pink, but even more amazing is we saw the wild flamingos that nest in and around the salt ponds. Random - we thought the picture on Google was a spoof. A few hundred yards down the road we had a quick, surprise stop at a cheese farm for the freshest mozzarella in the world and picnic in the car.
Heading across country was similar to the drive over but a different more northerly route - the same rolling green countryside and hill top towns together with a random town (Foggia) where the driving was truly atrocious and wins the award for the week (apart from Naples). The general gist seems to be: go, don't make eye contact with the other driver (whose right of way it is) as they will clearly stop. The slightest hesitation shown and you'll be waiting all day for a gap in the traffic!
Late lunch was 30 miles from Naples at a restaurant called 'Old Wild West' - never have we seen a waiter so apathetic to their chosen task. But the food was ok and the country music was quite funny.
After some 'kerfuffle' at the airport / car hire drop off (need to show that you've filled the car up within 5km of the drop off, go back out to get fuel, find the fuel station is out of petrol, end up driving in mad Naples traffic to get 5 Euros of fuel, go to airport to leave a bag at left luggage, find it's closed as it's 'full') we picked up a cab to central Naples and our overnight accommodation somewhere in the middle. A nice scenic trip including a shortcut through the port itself, rules simply don't apply in Naples. (Liz did not find this a nice scenic trip - it was a lot of driving too close to the car/van/truck in front, harsh breaking, honking traffic, kamikaze moped riders...)
Our room is clean, central and apart from the noise of car horns (which isn't really avoidable) quiet, John took a stroll down the road to get metro tickets and some street food (La Frittatina di Pasta - pasta, meat, white sauce in fried breadcrumbs) and a coffee. Then he realised that we had accidentally booked our tour of the catacombs for today, so luckily managed to rebook for tomorrow.
23rd April Tuesday
We'd promised ourselves to give Naples the benefit of the doubt for a day and had planned a few items - all within 3 miles of the apartment we'd booked. Starting with Catacombs of San Gaudioso which was really great - an enthusiastic and knowledgable guide and no one else in our English speaking tour! The catacombs are quite fascinating, although it's a bit gruesome what the process was for preparing bodies for the internment there! They are also located in Sanita, the poorest district in Naples and it's fascinating to walk the streets where football icons like Maradonna are literally worshipped!
After that, our plans were shot to pieces as the metro line we wanted (L1) was now closed so we reverted to buses (which of course were double busy and not necessarily going where we wanted and Google was insistent that the metro was open!). Anyhow we did manage to get traditional pastries on the street, walk through Galleria Umberto and get to Castel Sant'Elmo via the funicular railway and get the view over the bay of Naples, but we were getting pretty tired by now having walked 10,000 steps up hill and down with the bus / metro fiasco! We did spot a few really beautiful little courtyards and interesting stairways on our walk though.
After about 20 minutes of trying to work out an alternative way back to the centre of town at sea level, complicated by metro being shut, and also finding the funicular that we wanted to take was closed as well, we headed back down and managed to pick up a bonus tourist spot - Via Sant Gregorio Armeno, which has lots of shops selling the Italian equivalent of model railways: model nativity scenes that you build using standard items from the shop. Very random but done well (as was the incredible one at the Basilica with the catacombs) - they look amazing.
We picked the bag up from the apartment and then found that the metro had reopened and I (John) desperately wanted to tick the last box on the list: the art station at Toledo. We dragged the case down the steps to the underground, travelled three stops up the line, dragged the case up the escalators to see the very average station, and then dragged it back three stops up the line again to Duomo. From there we walked to the stop for the airport shuttle bus at the port - 2.5 miles, 50 minutes!
Naples is mad, 2 million people in a tiny space. The constant noise, beeping horns, suicidal moped riders, insane traffic, dog mess and litter everywhere, people wandering about, oblivious to anyone else. Good grief, if there is a hell, then Naples is it. A wide berth in the future...
Now waiting for our homeward flight and looking forward to being back and seeing the cats. Expecting to land back in Edinburgh around 12.30am, exhausted but happy.
Liz
For me Italy has been a time of emotional extremes, and there were times when I found it extremely difficult to reconcile the bitter and sweet sides of the experience. There were more than a few tears brought on by the smallest things, whilst I tried to remain in the blissful moment but felt keenly the fragility of our future. For example, we were sat behind an elderly couple on the bus: he dapper in tan fedora and smart jacket, she in carefully applied eye makeup and neat grey curls, and all of a sudden I'm crying on the bus - I thought that would be us one day. Or sitting out on the terrace in the most amazing hotel in the world, surrounded by beauty and curled under John's arm, and just blown away by the complete contentment of that instant and knowing that we may never experience such a perfect moment again. I would happily have stayed there forever if it were possible. We both felt a shift in our lives here - we were at one, and completely contented in each other's company, connect in a different way. We've had time to contemplate our lives away from the busyness of home and medical commitments and found some peace. We are both so grateful to have been able to have this time away. For me, I have had my husband back, my happy, funny, smart, confident, adorable husband. Recent events had made him very quiet and introspective, and I have missed him for the last five months, but also felt sad that he was struggling with his thoughts and his situation. So, to be able to enjoy this holiday as we would have in normal times has been an absolute gift and I'm so grateful for these memories which I can keep with me for the future.
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