Monday, September 1, 2014

When in Italy....

After living in California for almost 40 years I have almost forgotten what humidity is like but the last week in Salerno and Sorrento has been a harsh reminder. The temperatures have been mild, low 80's, but the humidity has been upwards to 85%. If we were meant to live in this sort of condition we would have kept our gills I say. But luckily we have aircon in our hotel and many of the restaurants use fans or are air conditioned. Still we have not been very adventuresome but we did go to Paestum, Amalfi, Il Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoliand Pompeii. Sometimes we went by ferry and other times by train. The train back from Paestum to Salerno was so crowded we had to stand/sit in the doorway and realized that there was only one exit door working in our coach and we hoped the functioning one would be on the exiting platform side. We were not alone in our concern as many of the italiani were also concerned. Luckily it was. 

Travelling by train in Italy can be an adventure for all the senses. Summer travel on the older trains can be a bit smelly when you pull into a station as the sewage is dumped directly on the tracks from the train restrooms. So lime is spread along the platform tracks. The lime helps to disinfect and to keep the odor down (good effort but not very effective). They do ask that you not use the restrooms while at the station but that rule is not often followed. 

In Italy there are several different types of trains some are state owned, some are regional, and some are private. Booking on the national train website,Trenitalia, is better than it was in the past but still is a frustrating process whether done in English or Italian. Now electronic tickets are issued which are pre-validated. That is a good thing as it can be difficult to find the little yellow stamping machine on the platform before you board. Not validating your ticket can cause a fine to be levied though you can use a pen and poke a hole in the ticket and initial and date it before the conductor comes by should you forget. This is Italy and rules are a bit uneven at times. The worst of all are the lack of elevators or ramps to get your luggage up and down to the platforms much less trying to get them on and off the coach before the train leaves the station.

Speaking of rules, drivers in Italy follow rules convenient for them and horn honking is required not only as a warning but just to say "Hi" when you see a friend passing in the other direction. They really are not trying to hit pedestrians even if it appears that way. Like walking in NYC or Boston, don't make eye contact and just walk across the street. If you don't you will never get to the other side.  

We try to use our elementary Italian when possible and sometimes it works but often the Italians will reply back in English. The use of Italian has allowed us to have some interesting conversations with the Italians (italiani) on many subjects. We have also had some conversation (English of course) with people from Australia (who condemned us for travelling) and so far only one other American couple. In fact we have not seen many Americans but instead lots of British and French tourist.  

We are now at the end of our Sorrento stay and will be heading for Istanbul (via Napoli airport) then catching our tall ship cruise back to Italy. For those who are curious where we will be sailing to there is an earlier post for the Star Clipper ports we will visit on this leg and later when we sail again from Malaga, Spain.

So here are a few photos of our trip so far:

Amalfi Cathedral

Along the Amalfi coast


Ferry to Salerno to Amalfi

War memorial outside of Salerno train station
Temple of Athena at Paestum

Ancient swimming pool

Temple of Hera and Temple of Neptune


Monastery high on a hill in Amalfi 

windsurfer in the Golfo di Salerno

Bowling?

Yes, there is a bowling alley in Sorrento

Uphill to Sant'Agata

Sant'Agata Chapel





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