...which is how we left Capri on Monday morning. We had our fruit, yoghurt, granola and honey combo which has become our standard breakfast in Italy, checked out of our room and went to a little gelateria we had visited a few times already to get our last coffee on Capri. We then headed to the funicolare and down the hill, away from the quiet relaxing ambience of 'our' part of town...
...to the crowded buzz of the port below.
Boat tickets bought, we headed sadly for our ferry and left the perfumed streets of Capri for the unknown shores of Napoli. We had read a few different things about Napoli, things like 'dirty', 'run by the Mafia' and 'untouristy.'
I shall now give you my first impressions of Napoli.
1. Lots of graffiti. Everywhere. And I mean everywhere.
2. Lots of washing on lines hanging off people's balconies.
3. Lots of concrete apartment blocks. In fact, I don't think I've seen any houses. Everything is an apartment block. Painted yellow or pink.
4. Lots of people running. Not to get places. For exercise. But not even doing it properly, like putting any effort in, just kind of plodding, like they're running lazily for a bus or something. And not even wearing sporty clothes. Strange.
The reports about it not being touristy were right. On the waterfront, it is a little. But most other places, people are just going about their lives and there has been no nod to tourism, no sugar coating, no gelaterias sprinkled inbetween every shop. It's gritty and, yes, a little dirty and lively. It's a completely different kettle of fish to Capri.
But the waterfront, where we are staying, is beautiful. The water is blue, the sky is blue, our beloved island is just across the bay, tantalisingly close, as we debate throwing in the towel and just going back and staying forever.
By the time we got to Napoli, it was afternoon and we had read about a place called Pozzuoli, with an amphitheatre better preserved than that at Capua. We were excited. We jumped on a train and headed over there.
We went first to the top of the highest hill in the town, to see the Solfatara volcano, which is semi extinct and is described as having a 'rotten egg ambience' in our guidebook. We didn't need much more persuading!
And yes, it really, really does smell like rotten eggs when you get up close to the sulfurous gases.
As the wind changed and the steam was swept into my face, my nostrils were filled with it. The warmth of the eggrot smell travelled into my nostrils and down into my throat and the steam heated up my face. Mmmm.... Happy birthday.... Egg-face. For indeed, it was my birthday on this day. And what better in the absence of candles to blow out, than some egg-steam in my face?
After being egged out for a while, we headed back down the hill to this amphitheatre. Danda was so excited. He loves a Roman ruin. And he loves an amphitheatre. Since seeing the Colossuem in Rome last year, I had been wanting to see one where I could walk all around, unrestricted, and see the area below the stage.
We found it near the train station and looked in through the side gates...
It looked fab. We found the main gate and.... Come on, put your hand up if you got it? I'll give you a clue, it happened twice in yesterday's post... Yes, you at the back in the red, would you like to guess what happened when we got to the gate? Yes, well done! You got it! It was closed. Closed.
So we got on the train, came back to Napoli and dealt with our disappointment by eating bruscetta and pizza.
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