Naples...My Day in 2013

I got up at the regular time and caught the bus to the train station for the speed train to Naples, or as they call it, Napoli. It traveled the 200 miles in 70 minutes so we arrived on schedule into the big Central Terminal. I got outside and started to get my bearings, as I was planning on taking the Hop On-Off Tour around Naples. There was a great deal of overall confusion in the area outside as there is major construction of the new Metro going on…so barricades and traffic and cars and buses and people. It took a while for me to figure out what was what so decided to go into one of the hotels and see if they could tell me where I could get the tour, as the gal in Rome told me it did not stop at the train station. I finally found a hotel clerk that knew about it and told me I had to get a ticket on the bus to the Port…and told me where to get the bus and the bus #, etc..which I did. I got to the stop and waited for R4 along with about 100 others and finally it came and was completely crowded and did not stop. About 40 minutes had gone by so decided that with the crowd, etc…I would be better to go back to where it loaded at the station….as this is the procedure…and I walked about 20 minutes back to the terminal. I then found the bus and got on it to the Port and then ended up getting off at the wrong stop, but looked down the street and here came Hop On…so I got on and they took me to their terminal. The rest of the day was very quiet and enjoyable in that I got to see the old and very busy downtown city…and then had two of the scenic rides out of town and along the water. This is a gorgeous area……

Naples was very surprising to me, although I did not really know what to expect. The old area is very old and looks it, but very busy with huge crowds everywhere…and this is not just a tourist crowd. It is a large metro area with millions living and working there. It gives a different impression than Rome in that it does not have the big open piazza’s…nor the gigantic buildings, but the history goes back to the Greeks, who were the first to settle this area. The real value of Naples, to me, is the coast line and the hills and mountains, including Mt. Vesuvius, that is visible from all over the area. The hills go up from the water, so almost as far as you can see are apartments and homes that look down on the water. Reminded me a lot of northern Italy and the Monaco area…but just considerably larger. The Villas along the coast are magnificent and the bus tour took us out through this area. The interesting part of this is that with the Villa being on the water side of the highway…on the other side of the street are the high rise apartments for both the working class and the wealthy….they all kind of live together. My photos will illustrate more of the area, etc…but it is definetly worth coming back to…probably spending three days you could see everything, or more time for a week` of enjoying the natural beauty of the area.

This was the first time, though, where I have seen the Cruise ships come into Port. Two of the Norwegian lines ships were here…and the tourists were all over the Port area….which does add a large number of folks to the tourist trade…but also attests to the natural beauty of the area and the appeal to the Cruise lines.

I caught the bus back to the train…had about an extra hour…then the speed train back to Rome, arriving about 7 PM….and back to the hotel. A fun day…..recommended for all.

To reflect back over the two weeks…..Lisbon was well worth it…not only for the Rotary Convention, but to see and experience Lisbon and Portugal. This is a place that I would like to come back to…and for someone that wanted to consider living in Europe, Lisbon would be a great place to consider. Great weather; a laid back lifestyle; very friendly and warm natured people; and very much interested in keeping the environment old and still employing the new technology.

Rome, on the other hand, has to be one of the busiest cities in the World. Reminded me of Bangkok…just much larger and easier to get around…and much more “user friendly”. What has happened in Rome over the past 10-20 years is that they leadership decided that the city must offer something to everyone that comes…so that they stay. Thus, people will live 50 miles from the center of Rome and train and bus and drive in for they can get a job. I saw little evidence of any kind of an economic downturn. Virtually no “for least” signs on buildings either in town or in out of town areas. Little evidence of homeless or out of work unemployment kinds of things…and across the board, little evidence of people not working, not being busy, etc. Rome seemed to be very safe…many policemen around and present, and I saw the one demonstration of the “homeless”, supposedly, of which most of them looked like the typical hippie crowd that you can see in SF or Atlanta….the police had it well controlled….and obviously they want these kinds of things to be controlled as it could hurt the tourism.

The negatives of Rome is that it is one great big busy, busy city, and when you have a million(s) people working and living together in a city with all going in different directions on a different time schedule, it will seem confusing.The traffic is uique to this city…in that it seems as if there is no order, but yet I saw only 1 accident and then a couple of other ambulance calls. To offset the crowds and the busy environment, my staying in a regular neighborhood away from the downtown, was perfect. Although the streets had people walking and eating until 10 PM…and the trains and buses ran later, it was very quiet. Nect to the hotel was a school, so I did hear children coming in the morning when I was leaving.

The negatives are also the positives…for in a big area with all that it has to offer, and especially the churches and the strong Catholic presence, there is a lot going on. I think the one big factor between Rome and Naples is the church factor. Rome, and the church, and the Vatican….makes up the lifeline of the City…which is another huge unique feature of Rome.
A couple of specific highlights…the day at the Vatican…..a walking tour of the Colosseum and the ruins to really understand what Rome was like back then….and a walking and visit the churches….The Grand Organ program….