Saturday morning started out with rain again, but it soon cleared up and we headed out for Castel Sant’Elmo, a huge fort-like edifice that overlooks our area of Naples. The trick of the day was to figure out exactly how to get there. We knew that there was a funicular but we couldn’t figure out how to get to that station. So, we climbed back on the metro train and went a few stops further where it said that there were Escalators. We walked out of the station an started following the signs for the Castel and, lo and behold, there were escalators!!
Then we saw the sign for the funicular and both sighed with relief that we had found what we were looking for. We bought our round trip tickets and happily climbed aboard the train but became disoriented when we realized that the train was pointing DOWN rather than up. But then the doors closed and there was nothing more that we could do, except enjoy the ride down. Now most funicular rides are short and sweet, but this one went on for about 15 minutes and even had a station stop in the middle.
When we arrived at the BOTTOM of the ride, we got out, found a sign that said Castel Sant’Elmo was UP….got back on and took the ride back up again!!!
When we arrived back where we had started, we followed the signs up a couple of flights of stairs, and we were there…..
Castel Sant’Elmo is a fortress located on a hill overlooking the city of Naples. The structure is dated to 1275, but was enlarged in the 1300’s.
One of the things that I loved about this castel were all of the windows, doors and other unknown openings that it contained…..
There was a church inside the fort boundaries, built in 1547…..
It was a small chapel and, of course, my eye was drawn to the candelabra design…..
Even though the structure was amazing, the real point for the climb is to see the views of Naples…..
And of course, Vesuvius hovered ominously nearby!!!
I loved the colors in these buildings……
….and when I saw this church down below…..
….I immediately had to zoom in to see the tile floor in the entrance……
We enjoyed looking at this piece of artwork….a mix between a Dalek and Darth Vader….
My favorite shot of the outing was this one…..
Back in our train station, we spent a few minutes looking at the tile designs on the wall. I never figured out what the overall design was (maybe you can see it and let us know)….
….but it was interesting to look at the individual tile sections, especially this first one where they had used organic materials between the tiles…..
We returned to the flat, happy with our excursion and determined next time to check and see WHICH direction the funicular was going BEFORE we got on!!!!
It didn’t start out to be a shopping day, but that is just how it evolved!!
We first walked to our local-ish metro station (Municipio) and successfully bought a ticket and ALMOST made it into the station unaided!! When you walk up to the turnstile, you insert your ticket in one slot, it prints on it and pops it back up for you to retrieve. Then the turnstile is opened and you can enter the station. Well this time everything worked great except that the turnstile wouldn’t let me thru. While we were trying to figure out what had gone wrong, a kind Napelese man quietly said “It’s on the other side”!! I was using the turnstile on the left side of the barrier instead of the one on the right side!!! Oh how much we depend on the kindnesses of strangers!!!!
We boarded the train for Garibalidi and then walked 7 minutes to Porta Nolana. We could have taken another metro but decided that it would probably be faster to just walk.
We were headed to the fish market area and knew that we were getting close when we started to smell the distinctive aromas and see the men in rubber boots. This was a fairly small market, but was doing a thriving business…..
We watched as the shopkeepers rinsed and prepared the catch…..
And marveled at how fresh this fish was. These fish were still in rigor…..
We loved seeing these Stingrays and were reminded of the night that we ate Civeched Stingray in China…..
The fresh Eel was going quickly, especially with some of the Asian shoppers…..
Michel and I had long discussion about these little fish…..
…wondering if we could figure out how to flour and fry these little guys. We remembered that we had really enjoyed eating them when we were here before.
After you bought your purchases, you could go to these guys to get the fish gutted and cleaned…..
As with many fresh air markets, this one was filled with the vendors calling back and forth to each other, probably yelling that their prices were better!!! There was one guy that was louder than all of the others and we were not surprised to see his stall a bit away from the others…..
We left the market and started the 30 minute walk (stroll) to Christmas Alley, but got distracted along the way by shoes…..men’s shoes to be exact. Michael was having trouble getting one of the shoes unlaced and the shopkeeper motioned for him to put his foot up. This photo ensued……
He didn’t speak much English but did get the word “Facebook” out!!!
With that purchase safely tucked away in the backpack, we resumed our trek to Via San Gregorio Armeno, aka Christmas Alley. When we were here in 2010, this area was filled with artisans creating wonderful decorations but today it was mostly just shops that carried the same basic products. Having said that, I did find a few pieces that I wanted to add to my Christmas collection.
Many of the pieces were designed to be part of Nativity Scenes, ranging in size from table top to room!! There are also a number of pieces that are designed to be part of a Christmas village….think Studio 56. But these are far more fun……
I did see this man working on his creation…..
At the end of the street stands the church of San Gregorio Armeno. It was a vast building….
…..filled with lovely arches and cupolas…..
The altar was typically ornate…..
I appreciated this statue…..
…and the design of this altar…..
I giggled that this small area that contains great works of art is simply used to store extra chairs…..
And of course, there was one design on the floor that I had to photograph…..
Since we had a backpack full of stuff, we decided to go back to the flat for a late lunch and to rest for a bit. But we both had the shopping bug so we emptied the backpack and headed out again.
The first stop was to OVS which is one of our favorite stores in Italy. Michael found several shirts and pants…..
….and I found a few items as well. We then split up and, as Michael walked back to the flat, I continued to H&M, a store that I had found when we were in Vienna. I bought a few more items and then returned to the flat.
Neither of us were up for cooking, so we made our way back to Pizzeria Brandi, enjoying a batch of Bruschetta…..
….and then two HUGE pizzas.
But, as there always is….. there was room for Gelato!!!
Before I get on with Wednesday…..I took the tile pattern that I had photographed yesterday……
…..and turned it into a quilt design…..
On Wednesday morning, Michael left to spend the day at the University and I headed out to do a bit of shopping. I hit a few stores but then got distracted as I caught sight of the open water…..
I made my way to the Promenade and enjoyed a stroll along the shoreline…..
When headed one direction, I could see the the tour boats in the background and the crowds coming toward me…..
At this point it was time for me to return to my shopping!!!
Naples is a city built on several levels as evidenced by these two photos……
At the grocery store, I took a few photos that show some of the differences between here and home…..
These funky carts are available for anyone who wants them…..
….and you add a basket (or two if you have a lot of stuff to buy)…..
I bought some wonderful fresh eggs and even got pick out which ones I wanted……
Most of the packs held either 4 or 6 eggs….I didn’t see a dozen anywhere!!!
When you are ready to check out, you join the queue in front of the frozen foods…..
I guess that this makes perfect sense since everyone knows that you always buy your frozen stuff last!!!
As I was walking back to the flat, I encountered the saddest sight of the day……
….a sign saying that the Lift (elevator) that takes you up the 6 flights of stairs to our street level, is out of service!!!!
I spent the rest of the afternoon working on accounting stuff and Michael arrived home about 20 minutes before a HUGE thunderstorm hit. It proceeded to thunder, lightning and rain REALLY hard for the next 4 hours!!! It is supposed to do the same all of tomorrow (Thursday) so we may have another quiet day to look forward to.
When we were in Naples in 2010, we visited Vesuvius and Pompeii and I blogged about it here…..
Since we had already seen Pompeii, we decided that we wanted to visit the ruins of Herculaneum this time. Like it’s sister city of Pompeii, Herculaneum was buried in ash during the Vesuvius eruption in AD 79. It is one of the few ancient cities to be preserved more or less intact, with no later modifications. Although it was smaller than Pompeii, Herculaneum was a wealthier town, apparently possessing many fine, lavish houses.
We headed to the train station with the idea of catching the Circumvesuviana, which connects Naples to Sorrento with stops at the excavations along the way. The “binario” (platform) was super crowded when we arrived and we couldn’t find anything that would tell us that it stopped at Herculaneum. We had also read conflicting accounts of the best way to get there and were pretty confused!! One of the express trains came thru and tons of people got on but we made a decision to wait for the next one. Then a smaller train approached and a woman who worked for the station started shouting that this one did NOT go to Pompeii. I asked her if it went to Ercolano and she said yes and motioned for us to get on board. We were so thankful that she had been there as we would probably still be standing on the platform!!!
The trip was about 20 minutes and we hopped off and walked the 1/2 kilometer to the entrance to the ruins. Our first views were exciting as we looked at the places that we would soon explore…..
I was surprised to see the Bay of Naples that opens into the Mediteranian Sea in the background.
This wall is all hardened ash that was cut out during the excavation. This was actually the shoreline prior to the incident but the volcanic eruption filled it in.
There were quite a few restoration projects going on….
….and we watched while this man used a syringe to fill in some of the stones and then to meticulously add bits of concrete to the outside of the rock…..
I watched this woman as she carefully worked to restore the tile in one area. There were so many steps involved…..
Select the tile that will best fit the area
Place it in the dirt
Tap into place with a rubber hammer
Even it up by tapping on a piece of wood
Apply grouting.
We wondered exactly what criteria they use to restore a particular area. We understand when something needs to be worked on so that it doesn’t fall down……
….but what dictates when a tile area is restored????
Speaking of tiles, there were numerous floors that I had to take photos of. The first was this tiled room that was part of a women’s bath house…..
I loved the overall image, but really liked seeing the details in the inner tiles…..
Look….a 9 patch
and here is a 110 patch charm quilt!!
The funny thing about these tiles is that no one wanted to walk on them. We were all skirting around the edges of the tile “carpet”!!
This large tile piece is a great quilt pattern…..
The other interesting thing were the frescoes that were visible in the various houses. A fresco was created when pigment was applied to wet plaster, fixing the pigment to the wall. The designs were often architectural, with large areas of paint and small, intricate details…..
You almost had to stand and look at the frescoes for a few minutes before you would start to see the details…. like the woman in the upper middle of the above photo. There were some areas that were almost perfectly preserved and were covered with glass to further protect them…..
These two walls were in very good shape as well……
I really liked the blue colors that were in these two!!
This table is made of marble and perfectly preserved on the second floor of one of the houses…..
….and these earthenware jugs were some that were excavated as well……
I have always been enamored with the shapes of these vessels!!
In 1980, several hundred bodies were unearthed in caverns that would have been very close to the sea. Apparently many people tried to escape on boats but were killed anyway and I am thinking that these poor souls never even made it to the boat before the heat and ash overtook them……
This room would have been the kitchen for a tavern…..
…and this street would have been crowded with people……
It was fun to walk down the cobblestone streets and wonder who had walked there before you and a bit macabre to wonder where they were going when the ominous cloud of ash started to fall!!
It was also a bit eerie to see Vesuvius in the near background….
….especially with the modern houses of the city of Ercolano even closer to the volcano!!
We spent a good bit of time taking photos of the things that caught our eye. For me that included a lot of windows and “skylines”…….
We had downloaded one of Rick Steve’s guides on our phone and spent a fair bit of time reading from it as we walked along…..
This final shot is basically just an “art” shot, but I really liked the pattern that the collected stones made…..
All in all, we made a great decision to visit Herculaneum rather than Pompeii. Although it is a much smaller archaeological site, there are wonderful opportunities to see the ruins and to imagine the ways in which these people lived. And the biggest plus…..there weren’t many people around so you could really spend time and look to your heart’s content!!
As we left the site, we wanted to have a quick lunch but didn’t really want to go to the first sandwich shop that was just outside the gate, figuring that it was probably really touristy. We realized that three of the restorers were walking in front of us so decided to follow them to the best spot and, of course, they went to that sandwich shop!!! We had a nice lunch, found our train back home, and collapsed on the couch for the rest of the day!!!
On Sunday morning, we woke to the thought that we were moving again….back to Naples this time. After packing, we did a bit of cleaning on the flat, part of which was to take the bottles to the recycling center. I was amazed to find that the streets were almost empty while I was walking the few blocks to the recycling center.
I had visited one time before but couldn’t quite remember exactly where it was. In the end, I saw a recycling pickup truck and followed it to the center!!!
I decided that I need to start a photo study of “Shoes on the Street”. This is the NOT the first pair that we have seen…..
As I came back to the flat, I texted Michael and got him to stand in the window and wave…..
It was the perfect place for us to spend the week in Basel!!
We caught a taxi to the airport and then had an easy flight into Naples. We caught another taxi to our AirBNB…..
…..were met by Laura, and ushered into our wonderful flat for the next two weeks…..
Laura had filled the refrigerator with drinks and had an amazing assortment of goodies on the table….
….including OREOs. I love her!!!!
She had also left us a bottle of homemade Limoncello…..
A quick toast was the perfect way to christen our new living space…..
We asked about a place to eat on a Sunday evening and she immediately sent an email with three different possibilities. We decided to go for Pizza (after all, we are in Napoli….the birthplace of pizza). The place that was suggested was Brandi Pizza. We put it into Google maps and off we went.
We ran into a slight problem when the map told us to turn right and there was no street to the right. We were heading back to the previous street when we saw a set of stairs (that were chained closed) and we could see down the hill to the street below,…..
Apparently THAT is where we are supposed to be. A very nice lady saw our confusion and pointed to another street that went down the hill so we took it instead.
We made it to Brandi Pizza and enjoyed looking thru the menu and especially at the appetizer page (labeled as “Waiting for Pizza”).
We couldn’t resist ordering a “Caprese Salad” which is Bufala cheese and tomatoes, smothered in olive oil and basil…..
Can you say YUM!!!!
We both ordered pizzas and were amazed at the size of the portions…..
As we ate, we talked to a young man at the table next to us and had a beautiful meal, complete with Limoncello for dessert.
When we left the restaurant we fortunately turned in the wrong direction which took us right past a Gelateria. And when you pass a Gelateria, you have to stop….it is a law!!!
This was the PERFECT end to a fun day of travel…..
