8:30pm: back in the room, soaking the feet in the bidet, and completely exhausted! And annoyed because the random internet connection won't work on the ipod anymore either. :(
Woke up around 7:30 and had breakfast. Mamma asked if I wanted something different but I told her it was fine. Realized the milk snafu yesterday was my mistake – the two pots on the table were coffee and hot milk, not coffee and tea. Whoops ;) Then I set out and since I couldn't figure out the damn bus system here, I tried looking at signs in Piazza Dante – and if I may digress for a moment, I saw a TRASH TRUCK in this square!!!?!? Anyway, buses were full and nothing convinced me that if I got on I wouldn't end up somewhere I didn't want to be (In Rome and Florence I've had no problem experimenting, but not here.), so I just walked. Down Via Toledo again, but this time all the way to the water. Beautiful views of Vesuvius and the boats bouncing up and down in the sparkling blue water.
Walked all the way around the lungomare (the road that goes along the sea), where a lot of people were running or walking their dogs, and made it to long skinny Villa Communale – a city park with nice shady benches – my best friend ;) Sat for a while and decided to go in the aquarium, not because I was so enthralled by that prospect but because it is right in the park in a big old building and only costs 1.50 euros. It's basically one room lined with various tanks. Not worth more than 1.50 but luckily they had a toilet!
This park borders the upscale Chiaia district, and as you will see in the pictures it looks a lot more like say Rome than the rest of Naples. This is where you go to find the Ferragamos and Luis Vuittons of the world. The streets are wider and cleaner and much quieter – and no laundry hangs from balconies. Wandered a while longer and found the metro station – took it to the central station where I was planning to leave for Caserta after lunch.
Near the station I had noted a pizzeria that Anthony Bourdain tweeted some pictures of a while back when he was here. It was not as good as Gino Sorbillo's and a good deal more expensive (5 euros compared to 3.30). shockingly, if you get it with buffalo mozzarella, the price literally doubles. And based on what I saw coming to other people, Bourdain definitely had the buffalo version ;) Anyway it was good but I learned my lesson the first night that if I finish the pizza, I don't feel well after, so I left some of it and wandered the few short blocks back to the station through a fun little street market selling everything from fruits and veggies to clothes and knick-knacks. By the way, these gorgeous little red tomatoes are about 1 euro a KILO everywhere. That's about 70 cents a pound or something absurd. Just saying.
Caught the 12:46 bus to Caserta, home of Reggia di Caserta, a huge Versailles-esque palace. The train ride's about 45 minutes and the castle is thankfully right near the station. Used my Artecard for the 12(!!) euro entrance, bought a mini-guide and set off. There's a chapel in the castle that's closed to the public but a wedding had just taken place. That'd be a neat place to get married! Ha! Anyway, WOW. What a palace. Reminds me of Schonbrunn in Vienna, and apparently it is even bigger than Versailles, size-wise. You basically get to walk through a big square, which is an entire floor of the palace. Each room has paintings and sculptures and wildly frescoed ceilings.
The library alone took up 3 rooms! Then the “fun” begins. Behind the palace there is a long skinny garden full of fountains and sculptures and then at the back there is a waterfall and off to the side a huge english garden. It's so long they have horse carriages, bike rentals, AND A BUS right at the back of the palace! Hooray! So of course I took the bus out, which took 10 minutes (it's a slow little put-put bus but you get the idea for how freaking long this is – like way way over a mile). I wandered for just a few minutes in the English garden, partly because it looked largely uphill and I didn't have the energy for that (it was warm and bright), and partly because it looked confusing and I really did not want to get lost. Snapped some pictures and wedged onto the next bus that was full of school kids.
Managed to catch the 3:45 bus back to Napoli and switched to the metro line 2 then line 1 to get to Piazza Dante. That's where I'm staying but no I did not come up and take a rest (as I should have), I became determined to see Santa Chiara and Gesu Nuovo. I made it to Santa Chiara right at 5, which is when they stop selling tickets. Hurrah!!! So the cloisters really are beautiful. As you see in the pictures the whole thing is basically covered with maijolica tiles. There's also a huge nativity scene that naples is so famous for, and a museum full of fragments of old things with only italian descriptions that I didn't feel like attempting to decipher.
Walked across the street to the completely different Gesu Nuovo where a wedding was just finishing. Luckily it was actually done so I waited a minute and then could go in. it's kind of an explosion of marble and sculpture. Went to Scaturchio's pastry shop on the next block (supposedly among the best in town) and bought a little mini torta caprese for dessert.
Wandered back up to my favorite Via Tribunali and hung around for food. I sat on a bench and played Angry Birds on my laptop for a while and then around 7 decided what I should do. I heard a whole big american tour group say they were going to Di Matteo, the one pizzeria on my list still to try, so forget that. Another little place closeby was recommended in my knopf mapguide and looked cute but it's the type of place where the menu of the day is scribbled onto a blackboard and it wasn't out yet. I wandered up and down for a while and then realized I was actually not that hungry at all and definitely wasn't in the mood for pizza. So I went down to Di Matteo and got 2 crocches for a euro and ate them on my walk back to the B&B. They truly are delicious. And I dont know how they make a big fried mashed potato ball filled with cheese and sell it at a profit for 50 cents. I just don't.
Since I've kind of plowed through my sight-seeing here I think I will take a bus up to the Capodimonte museum tomorrow morning. It sounds nice and will be half off with my artecard. I was planning to go to Paestum – it's ruined greek temples about 1.5 hours by train away, but on saturday I will be on a long train ride and frankly, ruined stuff is all starting to look the same. So I will have to find something to do tomorrow afternoon but it shouldn't be tooo hard ;)
Random rant for the day: I really think EVERY person in this town smokes. It's hilarious to get off a train and as you're walking on the platform back to the station everyone's lighting up b/c the 45 minutes was so difficult for them. And I mean smoking is gross enough, but people smoking around babies makes me feel violent. Also, I feel like everyone here has a dog, and they just let them shit everywhere and don't clean it up. Yuck.
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