Wednesday 6 November 2024

Two nights left in Naples. Luckily, today we are going to Isola d’Lschia which will leave the city shit hole behind for the day and on Thursday we have a full day tour of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

A tram ride to the Port and a fast, clean ferry to Ischia, sees us arrive at 12.00. The island is a beautiful, mountainous and clearly wealthy summer holiday spot. Most businesses closed last weekend (31 October).

Our ferry was mostly empty but the one before us, going to Isloa Capri, was packed with cruise boat tourists. More than 300 of them on the 9.15 am boat and more lined up for the next one. So glad we chose Ischia.

Despite a lot of closed shops and restaurants, there were a few tourists about. We found a bar/tabachi and managed a cappuccino and a cornetto, before getting the bus to the other end of the island. This gave us the chance to see the green lawns and clean houses and experience some hair raising bends and cliffs.

Here we found a bar open and had a refreshing beverage, walked around the beautiful houses and Lady P dipped her toes in the Tyrhenian Sea / Gulf of Naples. Then up the bloody hill again to the bus stop back to town, where we found a pub and an English/Italian woman from north London, who produced a wonderful black pig burger and chips, a Heineken and a very strong Negroni.

Then back on the super quick ferry and the tram back to African gangland and our apartment.

Ischia’s lawns are green and the streets are clean; the city fathers take no muck.  The Naples mob don’t give a .. toss. Yo bro’ been in da hood too long.

Beautiful coastal coves
Ceramic art is all the go here.
Clean beach and crystal  clear water.
Limoncello Spritz is the new drink.
Some money in this town.
That's some delicious burger, hu?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  Sunday 24 and Monday 25 November 2024 A big couple of travel days on the train from Nice to Paris which was a comfortable six hours on the TGV. Our Paris station, Gare de Lyon was a taxi ride to our overnight two star hotel within walking distance of Gare de Nord, because we are departing there on the Eurostar to London tomorrow.  This was another good train trip at just under 300 kph and 2.5 hours. Alyssa was waiting for us at St Pancras and we had a long and lovely lunch in Searcys Brasserie and Champagne Bar, a very nice and well presented restaurant within the station. Very reasonable bill at the end – until you realise it’s in pounds! The train to London Bridge, then to Marden in Kent was seamless and Johnny collected us for the 20 minute drive to Kilndown, where we will be house sitting with Truffle the naughty dog for a couple of weeks. It has been interesting to reflect on the various train journeys we have taken throughout Italy and France. One of the great advant...
Read more
Image
  Thursday 14 November 2024 We found a wonderful little café today for breakfast with the locals. The cruise ship Americans with the little bloke with the flag on the stick – he gets around, eh? They went elsewhere. Excellent cappuccino, cannolo and ham and cheese roll.  Then a painful hobble around the outside walls of San Gimignano ended with a coffee and the purchase of a shirt in the local market. By this time, it was almost lunch and our mate Kevin, from La Chaine des Rotisseurs in Cairns, now living half the year in Florence, arrived to collect us.  We are now back in three layers and puffer jackets because despite the clear blue sky, the temperature is in single figures and the wind and shadows are, how shall I put this?   Very bloody cold! Lunch was at Bottega Torciano, a 10 minute drive down the road. It specialises in Florentine steak. That is a 1.5 kg T-bone, cooked rare. We shared this and had some healthy grilled vegetables and potatoes – about three...
Read more
Image
  Thursday 7 November 2024 365 days since we departed Cairns today. It seems like a fast year over four seasons. Today was also another warm, sunny day. I’m not sure what this will mean for the coming European summer, with the floods and such. Plus, what will the Trump win mean? Today we caught the train to Pompeii to do a guided tour of Pompeii and Herculaneum with an archaeologist guide. Very scientific of us. Not just a guide, but a real archaeologist! There were 20 in the group, mostly Americans. And the cruise ship mob were there as well – mostly Americans too. Our guide was, according to Lady P, a bit of a hunk. He also spoke heavily accented English ten to the dozen, which meant you got brain strain trying to pay attention to the excellent content he was delivering. Nonetheless, the Pompeii tour was excellent – again without the summer crowds. A break for lunch before the bus to Herculaneum. Both cities were covered in 15 metres of volcanic ash and mud, killing all l...
Read more