{"id":11987,"date":"2025-04-15T23:01:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T06:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/?p=11987"},"modified":"2025-04-17T08:41:57","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T15:41:57","slug":"naples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/2025\/04\/15\/naples\/","title":{"rendered":"Naples"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Tuesday.\u00a0 Apartment was an interesting place, outside it \"\"<\/a>looked like it was falling down but the inside was brand new.\u00a0 And we were 4 floors above ground, but thankfully there was a rickety old elevator that looked like it was added 100 years ago to straddle the circular staircase.\u00a0\u00a0 It took a while to check in as there as there was a booking.com snafu.\u00a0\u00a0 So that had us miss the train to Paestum to see the Greek temples.\u00a0\u00a0 Once I realized we had missed it I found the next train and it was leaving in 20 minutes, I got a hold of Scott to see if he still wanted to go.\u00a0 He did, we walked very fast back to Napoli Centrale to catch it before it left us as the next train was leaving over an hour later and would have not been ideal as it was pretty late getting there.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We got to the train with 2 minutes to spare but we didn’t have seat reservations and I asked a young conductor lady if we could buy them on the train.\u00a0 She was aghast saying it would cost so much more.\u00a0 She even tried to use my phone to buy them but was unsuccessful.\u00a0\u00a0 I said we would pay the fine (15 Euro) and headed for the train,\u00a0 she told us to get in Car #2.\u00a0\u00a0 We did.\u00a0 This was a IC train, much faster than the regional s, but no where near the Frecca speeds.<\/p>\n

She came by and again tried to help us buy the seat reservations but we could not due to some 30 minute rule, she even suggested buying them from a town further down the line for this same train but that 30 minute rule kicked in again.\u00a0\u00a0 After she tried to help us for probably 10 minutes she took off to see the tickets for others.\u00a0 She did help us by not coming back to collect the fines.\u00a0\u00a0 After a while another conductor came by to see our tickets and then realized we had tix but no seat reservations and just walked away, never to\u00a0 come back either.\u00a0\u00a0 The Italian folks are really very helpful!\u00a0\u00a0 The temples there were all I hoped for and a bit more!\u00a0\u00a0 Its well worth the time it takes to get there.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Wednesday: Amalfi Private Tour.\u00a0 Wow\u00a0\u00a0 Lunch at an elegant place with a stunning view of the coast.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We arrived at the Circumvesuviana train depot,\u00a0 below Napoli Centrale Station.\u00a0 Its a commuter line, that runs down to Sorrento where our driver was to pick us up for our 8 hour tour of the coast.\u00a0\u00a0 It was similar to the NYC subway.\u00a0 And almost as crowded.\u00a0\u00a0 We booked Francesco for the tour but he sent Attillo to drive us.\u00a0 We were a bit disappointed but we were very happy as we went along the road.\u00a0\u00a0 We were very glad we did NOT try to drive this winding narrow road that was almost two lanes wide.\u00a0 It was interesting as cars and buses came toward us.\u00a0\u00a0 We made a few roadside stops to take pictures and then hit the town of Positano.\u00a0\u00a0 Its quite a steep cliff-side village.\u00a0\u00a0 With one path\/road down to the beaches way below.\u00a0 Zillions of shops along the walks and stairs as we headed down toward the beach.\u00a0 Close to the bottom I overheard a young girl tell her mom that they will have to drag their luggage all the way back up when they left..\u00a0 Wise beyond her years for such a young person.\u00a0\u00a0 And of course after getting coffee and cookies and pastries we were going to have to do that same thing.\u00a0 We were glad we didn’t have our luggage!!<\/p>\n

Next we headed toward Almafi and walked around that town, I walked up the main road\/walkway and Kathy, Scott and Tami walked up the steps to a big church.\u00a0 I saw all those steps and decided I wasn’t interested in seeing the insides of another church enough to climb all those.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then back to the Mercedes Mini van with Attillo and off to Ravenna for lunch and a look around.\u00a0 We arrived and climbed another 50 stairs up to the piazza.\u00a0\u00a0 Then we were off to find an amazing restaurant with an incredible view of the coast.\u00a0 Ristorante Sigligaida in the Hotel Rofolo.\u00a0 It was one of the best lunches I’ve ever had.\u00a0 The view was totally amazing with floor to ceiling glass.\u00a0 Then it was around 3pm and we were off to head back to Napoli.\u00a0 A truly amazing day.\u00a0 We decided to let Atillio drive use back to Naples instead of our planned ride back from Sorrento via the CV train.\u00a0 It was a much nicer ride.\u00a0\u00a0 We used our return tickets to take that train to Pompeii the next morning<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Thursday:\u00a0 Pompeii.\u00a0\u00a0 WOW\u00a0\u00a0 Took that same train down to Scavi Pompeii station and walked over to the Marina Porto entrance.\u00a0\u00a0 Along the way there are a few scammers trying to get you to go inside their shops saying that’s where folks with tickets online must go.\u00a0 We passed them and walked right thru the entrance with our online tickets.\u00a0 The first thing you see in Pompeii is at steep grade with what we are calling Ankle Breaker rocks for a road you have to walk on to get up to the town.\u00a0\u00a0 I was shocked to see most of the town is still standing.\u00a0\u00a0 Unlike the Roman Forum,\u00a0 which was mostly detritus from what it once was. \u00a0 A lot of the homes till had fresco’s painted on their walls, which was quite amazing considering it was buried over 2000 years ago in 79AD.\u00a0 We walked around for over 3 hours and saw maybe 1\/2 of what was there.\u00a0\u00a0 Kathy wasn’t feeling well so we bailed out close to the farthest place from where we needed to go back to.\u00a0\u00a0 We got outside the gates and looked for a bus, but pompei is small, next bus was in over an hour.\u00a0\u00a0 We opted for the only cab around.<\/p>\n

We told the drive we wanted to go to the Train Station and he told me the trains were all broken and he’d have to drive us back to Naples.\u00a0 Wow,\u00a0 Anyway I told him we were meeting folks at the train station and to take us there anyway.\u00a0 He wasn’t happy I called his bluff.\u00a0 He begrudgingly took us there.\u00a0 And then of course wouldn’t take a credit card and then shorted me $5 euro’s saying he didn’t have change.\u00a0 Everything we were warned about.<\/p>\n

The trains were running and we got there just in time for the next train north.\u00a0 This time the train had padded seats!\u00a0 And fewer stops too.\u00a0\u00a0 But it had a Jamaican bongo guy entertaining us right behind Kathy’s head, not helping her headache.<\/p>\n

Went out for dinner after the Pompeii visit but it was 6pm and the restaurants didn’t open till 7pm.\u00a0 Some nice young lady stopped and asked if we needed help.\u00a0 She told us to go over to the old town for a nicer experience as we were in a sketchy part of Naples.\u00a0\u00a0 I ordered an Uber and we took it to Piazza Santa Maria La Nova for tapas<\/p>\n

Walk back to our Apartment (a very long way)\u00a0 Had 17,250 steps that day…<\/p>\n

The next morning we boarded another Freccarossa for a ride to Florence\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday.\u00a0 Apartment was an interesting place, outside it looked like it was falling down but the inside was brand new.\u00a0 And we were 4 floors above ground, but thankfully there was a rickety old elevator that looked like it was added 100 years ago to straddle the circular staircase.\u00a0\u00a0 It took a while to check … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Naples”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-traveling-the-hiways-and-byways"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11987"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12701,"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11987\/revisions\/12701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}