Our Trip to Italy Continues by Spiro Liacos. Saturday March 29 2008

Our Trip to Italy Continues by Spiro Liacos. Saturday March 29 2008. The Drive to Meta di
Sorrento (see index page at www.meanttobemusicals.com.au/Greece)
This had been a day I had been dreading. The major feature of Italian life I had been told about was the
appalling driving habits of Italians, and I had to get a hire car and drive it with five passengers and three
full suitcases 200 kilometres south to the small town of Meta di Sorrento on the Sorrento Peninsula near
Naples. My fear was well founded. Every body had warned me about the way that Italians drivers drive.
Their reputation is well deserved. But there were problems before I even got the car. I had rung the carhire place (Alamo) and they had confirmed that the car was ready. They told me that their office was near
the Post Office at Rome’s main train station Termini. Couldn’t find it anywhere! Asked an information
officer. “It’s about a hundred metres down there”. No it wasn’t. Asked at another car-hire office. “Avis
handles the Alamo rent-a-cars”. No they didn’t. I rang the number from my mobile. “Near the Post
Office”. “Is there a sign?” I asked. “Yes, there is”. No there isn’t. Luckily, I had Nicholas with me, who
noticed that the woman I had spoken to was at the office next to the one we were standing near. He had
noticed her hang up just as I hung up. I enquired and she said that she did handle Alamo cars. Above her
was a large sign that said “Maggiore Rent-A-Car”.
Anyway, got the car and drove to our hotel on the wrong (sorry, the right) side of the road. I gave
Nicholas instructions to keep telling me to keep to the right. We drove past the Colosseum; amazing.
Luckily, we were given a car bigger than the one we booked.
Everything fitted nicely and we got onto the freeway heading south
fairly easily. About 2 hours later, having passed some very lovelylooking snow-capped mountains, and other hills, orchards and
vineyards, we drove past Naples, and that’s where the trouble started.
The road onto the Peninsula is narrow and winding, but it can easily
accommodate two-way traffic. Unfortunately, cars were overtaking
other cars and coming into my lane, motorcycles were weaving in and
out, and people were beeping each other all over the place. The views
as we descended from the mountain onto the Peninsula were stunning, but the drive was freaky! We rang
the accommodation, and the man said we would see him on the side of the road. We did, and we had to
manoeuvre our Alfa through this tiny gate with traffic whizzing by. Luigi, our host, had to stop the traffic.
We drove in. We had made it. And we were alive!
We went for a walk to the supermarket to stock up, but every shop in
town was shut. We walked and walked along the main street whose
windiness made it very difficult to determine what was up ahead. We
finally found a tiny pasta shop that was open and the shop attendant
told us that there was a supermarket that was open further along the
road. We walked on for about 20 minutes, often on the busy road
because there were no footpaths in certain sections, and finally found
it. As we returned, we noticed that all the shops were open. And so
we discovered first-hand the next major feature of Italian life: the
siesta. I asked about the opening hours of two shops that we passed
and they both had two opening sessions: 8 till 2 and then 4:30 till 8. We had arrived at about 4pm,
towards the end of the siesta. We came home and had our first hot home-cooked meal in seven days:
Spaghetti Bolognaise. Can you get more Italian than that! Delicious.
After dinner, we went for a walk. Meta di Sorrento is brilliant. It is flanked
to the west and to the south by towering
limestone cliffs and is just a maze of
narrow cobblestone streets and stone
buildings (and the occasional motorcycle
and car speeding by). We passed dozens of
(open) shops selling food or other stuff,
most of which were nestled among or
within residential stone or stuccoed houses. We walked down to the
pebbly beach through staircases cut into the cliff and made our first
contact with water from the Mediterranean (actually the Bay of Naples). There didn’t seem to be any sand
at all. Our third first-hand experience of European life: non-sandy beaches. It was dark by now, but in the
limited light provided by the lights of the hotel that backed onto the beach, it didn’t seem like a beach that
I would want to swim at. Perhaps, as Australians, we are spoilt in this regard.
Sunday March 30 2008. Capri
Isola di Capri, the Island of Capri: playground for Italy’s rich and
famous, and lots of tourists like us. Caught a train from Meta di Sorrento
to Sorrento proper, which has the harbour. Didn’t like Sorrento!
Concrete low-rise apartments everywhere. Not that it was all
unattractive, but as an international jet-setting tourist, I want to see more
quaint stuff. We walked down to the harbour and caught the ferry to the
island, which is just off the coast of the Sorrento Peninsula. Awesome. A
bus took us from the Marina Grande, the big marina, to the town of
Anacapri 300m above sea level. The roads were not built for two-way
traffic, but somehow, when an on-coming car or bus approached, the
drivers would pull over and scrape past each other. The road snakes its
way up the mountain along cliff faces. At one point, the bus was so close
to the edge of the road (which was at the edge of the cliff) that I couldn’t
see any road or the guard rail and I felt that the bus
was flying. The town provided splendid views over
the eastern section of the island. Photo
opportunities galore (I had left my tripod back at
the villa). We then went up to the highest point on
the island, a mountain 600m above sea level. The
views were even more gorgeous. There was this
group of rocks that lay just off the southern coast
of the island which looked a little like the rocks at
the end of Cape Woolamai on Phillip Island. I’ve
never seen these rocks from a height of 600m
though! We had our picnic lunch overlooking the
island and the Sorrento Peninsula (on the
mainland) in the background. Returning to
Anacapri, we then went to Capri town, visited Emperor Augustine’s gardens, took
shots at more breath-taking views, saw Sophia Loren’s house, the Grimaldi villa and
other houses belonging to Gucci and other famous Italian people. A boat trip around
the island next. Cliff faces, grottoes, natural arches, one of which the boat went
through! Absolutely bellisimo. Nick was pretty impressed. He was saying that he
wants to buy a boat! “Maybe you could buy a boat and do tours around Phillip Island”,
I suggested. “That’s a good idea! How much do you think I should charge?” After the
boat trip, we had more than an hour to kill before our return ferry was due to depart
the port, but we were too tired to do anything. We went for a walk along
the beach, which was entirely pebbly, and the kids played a little on the
rocky breakwater. Thank goodness the kids are fit. It’s been go, go, go
the whole time. When will it let up? Not tomorrow, because tomorrow
we’re going to one of Italy’s greatest ancient sights: Pompeii.
Monday March 31 2008. Pompeii.
Today is the last day of Italy’s Settimana Della Cultura, so we thought
we’d go to the ruins of Pompeii. We walked down to the train station
where we thought we would catch a train directly to the Pompeii Scavi
(Ruins of Pompeii) station. Think again! Snap train strike. No trains
until 1 o’clock! Only one option: drive there. Back along the same
windy road that we’d driven in on. Back amongst the dodgem cars!
Well, the drive out of Meta di Sorrento was pretty uneventful, except
for the all-too-frequent cars straying into my lane. But when we got to
the Pompeii turn off, all hell broke loose. Cars were pulling out of side
streets in front of us, we were being tailgated, we didn’t know which
roads to take. It was horrific. We also saw a side of Italy that the tourist
brochures never show you. Dirty run-down buildings, piles of rubbish
piled high on street corners, roads full of pot holes, and cracked
pavements everywhere. Linda Palermo at work had told me that we
would see huge differences in affluence levels between the south of
Italy and the north. We haven’t seen the north, but this area, despite the
Meta di Sorrento
huge tourism industry, appears quite poor.
We finally found Pompeii, parked the car, and walked to the ruins.
Before we entered, we decided to get ourselves an audio guide to the
ruins. Unlike in Australia, where every historic building or museum
has little plaques describing what you are looking at, none of the
ancient sights that we have visited have any information within them at
all. At the Forum, the Colosseum, and now at Pompeii, tourists and
others can only find out about the various buildings by either joining a
tour group with a guide or by hiring a little audio guide. It looks a little
like a household phone. On every building, there is a small plaque
saying something along the
lines of “No. 37”. You key in
37 and press “play” and the
audio guide gives you a
description of the building,
its former function, and other
interesting bits of
information. For example, at
Pompeii’s stadium, the guide
described when it was built
but then also told of a big brawl that had broken out between the
residents of Pompeii and visitors from another town. Spectators
(or people who were supposed to be spectators) even died, and
the Emperor banned Pompeii from hosting any more games for
ten years! Modern Italians still get very excited about their sport
I’m told, so we probably won’t go to any soccer games! So
what’s to stop you from “joining” a group and not paying. The
tour guides give each person a little receiver (kind of like an
iPod) and they speak into their microphone and the tourists can hear what the guide is saying, even if it is
very noisy or if the tour guide is standing out of ear shot. I walked right next to a tour guide in the Vatican
for a few minutes. He spoke very quietly but it was quite interesting. The tour guides and the audio guides
provide extra tourist income for the country. You pay your entrance fee, but you will only receive a
history lesson if you pay extra money for the guide, (or you could read up on it on the internet before you
arrive but this doesn’t really give you the same immediacy).
But I digress. Pompeii was awesome. In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted and wiped the town off the map
by burying it under tons of ash and rock. It was rediscovered some 1500 years later, and now stands
beautifully preserved, apart from the rooves of the buildings
which collapsed under the weight of the ash and other debris.
The stone streets, complete with footpaths, the residential
buildings with rooms surrounding a central open-to-the-sky
courtyard, the fruit markets, gladiator residences, fuliaries
(where the fabrics were washed), the temples and garden
areas, are all laid out exactly where they were 2000 years ago.
Many paintings and murals survived too. The plaster casts of
the dead bodies were on display too, and these helped remind
you that many people died horrible, painful deaths in the two
days of the volcano’s eruption. Mt Vesuvius was visible from
just about everywhere. At one elevated point, all the modern
The gladiators' training ground
apartment buildings that now surround the ancient site were
stretched out in front of us. The mountain is continuously monitored, but it seems there are still many
thousands of people living in harm’s way. We spent about four hours at this remarkable site. It was just
great, another highlight of this holiday which already had so many
highlights.
The drive back, though! Oh, the drive back! The horror; the horror. It
was worse than last time. Cars and motorbikes were overtaking other
cars around blind curves with no concern at all. I had to slam on the
brakes three times to avoid a head-on collision. I started yelling at
them in the car. When we got to our hotel, we had to press the button
for the gate to open, but I couldn’t turn into the narrow gate. I had to
back up the car, but I couldn’t, because they were driving right by me.
Georgina had to get out of the car and stand on the road with
her hand up like a traffic cop to stop the traffic. My very brave
girl! Many cars were
beeping. Every Italian I
have spoken to seems
friendly enough, but their
road manners are simply
non existent. As we
finally pulled into the car
park, an ambulance drove
by, sirens blaring. Half an
hour later, we saw
another ambulance speed by as we walked to the shops. What is
Italy’s road toll? It’s something I’ll have to look up.
Tuesday April 1, 2008. Positano and the Amalfi Coast.
A word of advice: If you plan to use public transport, make
sure you have a timetable. In Rome, the trains come every
minute or so. On the Sorrento Peninsula, the buses are a little less frequent. We walked to the bus stop
hoping to catch a bus to Positano, on the southern side of the peninsula, but the next bus wasn’t going to
arrive for another hour and a half! I had assumed that the public transport all over Italy would be regular
and frequent. Luckily, the same gentleman who told us (in English) about yesterday’s train strike
happened to walk past and told us that buses for Positano depart more frequently from Sorrento. So we
caught the train to Sorrento and then were lucky enough to have only a 10-minute wait before we were
away. The views, once again, were absolutely stunning. The road passes over the line of mountains that
form the peninsula, first giving us almost a bird’s eye over the towns of Sorrento, Piano and Meta di
Sorrento on the northern side of the peninsula, then giving us a view of both sides of the peninsula, before
dropping down again to the towns on the southern side. And what beautiful towns they are. The mountain
range rises abruptly from the Gulf of Salerno and the towns are all built up on the side of steep cliff faces
or amphitheatre-like gaps within the mountains. Positano, we were told by Luigi our host, is a jewel.
Indeed it was. We got off the bus at Positano’s first bus stop high up on the hill overlooking the town.
The pastel-coloured houses stretched out below us all the way down to the black-sand beach, as if they
were sitting in a theatre about to watch a performance. We made our way down hill, first on the road, and
then along narrow walkways between houses It’s hard to believe that people actually live in these houses.
Some of them have balconies that overlook the ocean and the buildings on the facing hills. They all look
nothing like anything you could ever see in Australia. We finally got to the beach and had our lunch.
After that, it was time to go for a swim. It
wasn’t exactly hot, but we were on holiday,
so we decided to take the plunge. The
sand/pebbles/gravel were very difficult to walk on and the water was freezing! But I swam anyway. What
a view looking up into the town! Picture perfect. Anna also swam, but the boys, after wetting their feet,
just played in the sand/pebbles/gravel. The beach itself was only about 100m long, and there was no other
place to swim in this town. So it must be wall-to-wall people in the summer time. Today there were very
few people here.
We went to the public toilet behind the row of shops that line the beach front and there was a woman
inside who was responsible for collecting money from the users of the toilet. What sort of a job is that?
We got changed and were ready to move on. We climbed all the way back to the bus stop at the top of the
town and caught the bus to the town of Amalfi. Well, the views along this road were, let me think of a
word...stunning! The narrow road winded its way around the cliff faces and provided spectacular views of
the various towns, bays, vegetation, hotels and other buildings that lined the coast. The bus driver kept
beeping his horn every 10 seconds to warn oncoming traffic that he was approaching. This road definitely
did not look like it was designed for two-way traffic, but somehow cars and buses would pass each other,
leaving the narrowest of margin for error. Occasionally, there was no room to pass, so some of the cars
had to actually back up to a wider section of the road. It was an awesome 40-minute ride, and I’m totally
rapt that I wasn’t doing the driving. At one stop, a woman got on and sat down next to Athan. She started
talking to him in Italian and he replied “non capisco”. She started talking louder, thinking that he simply
hadn’t heard her, but she then realized that he doesn’t speak Italian. It turned out that she was an ex-New
Yorker who was teaching English at a local school whose students are all studying English so that they
can become tourist guides. Tourism is probably the main industry here. There are plenty of lemon and
orange orchards but there are even more hotels.
Amalfi was a pretty town. It was once an important city of the Byzantine Empire, and the church that
overlooks the town’s piazza shows a Byzantine
influence. We didn’t stay long in Amalfi, because it
was getting quite late by now, so we hopped back on
the bus and made the 90-minute return journey full of
memorable (and stunning) scenery back to Sorrento.
What a place. Though there were few beaches, this
great ocean road was about as beautiful as an ocean
road could be. Was it better than the Great Ocean
Road? Scenically it was just as good, but give me
Aussie beaches any day!