Getting from Naples airport to our hotel was easier said than done. There were 6 of us with 6 suitcases and more than 6 assorted back-packs and other bags, most of which contained about 2 weeks of dirty washing. At least 2 cabs would be needed but then Enzo showed up with his tardis. How we all got in there with our bags reminded me of when I was 10 and our football coach got a whole 4 stone 7 pound (child footballers were weight limited back then) rugby league team, that’s 13 kids, into a VW Bug for the admittedly short trip to the ground where we were playing. Herbie would have been proud.
I got Enzo’s number and a few days later he excelled on our behalf again. We got him to take three of us round the Amalfi coast. Nothing funny happened but we were gobsmacked by the spectacular beauty everywhere and the English accents everywhere. The town of Amalfi was packed and the tourist season was winding down. I can’t imagine how many people are hit by cars in the high season, looking right instead of left.
Speaking of driving, you haven’t been tail-gated until you’ve been tail-gated by an Italian. You’ll be cruising along at 120km/hr in a 100km/hr zone when out of nowhere someone doing 150km/hr+ has pulled up a metre or so from your back bumper. And they’ll stay there until you get the f… out of the way.
Back to Naples and looking out of our first floor hotel room window you would have to conclude that Naples is a grubby, massively graffitied, crime ridden shithole. That’s a little unfair as parts of it aren’t entirely like that if the street sweeper has just gone through. There are parts that look unfinished, like a big part of Rome, but I think in this case it’s because they just couldn’t be bothered. When you have Pompei (167 acres and counting) and it’s little brother Herculaneum (20 acres) plus wine tasting on the slopes of Mt Versuvious, the Isle of Capri and the Amalfi Coast nearby, Naples itself doesn’t have to try too hard.
When the CB and I were in Rome some years back we heard that all attempts to dig a subway system failed because they kept digging up antiques. Similarly, Herculaneum’s 20 acres is only a fraction of its pre 79AD area but most of it is under the modern town 60 feet above. If you want to put a subway anywhere in Italy, you’d have to do it where noone lives or has lived which kind of defeats the purpose.