Days 33 and 34 - Matera to Naples and Herculanium

The day started fine though looked a bit over caste.  Got a taxi to the place where I was meeting the bus and the heavens have opened.  Had to wait an hour huddled under a block of flats as it wasn’t really a bus terminus, just a car park.  Bus comes along and it raining really hard by now.  The route of the bus takes us back to Bari (opposite direct to Naples) to pick up others before heading in the right direction.  Well what started out being a 41/2 hour journey ended up being 6 1/2 hours due to the fact that we couldn’t get out of Bari because of the flooding.

Eventually got to Naples, lovely scenic route from the east coast to the west.  Bus terminus in Naples is right next to the train station, which in turn is really close to where I’m staying.  Get off the bus and think OMG where have landed - loads of immigrants and refugees milling around and obviously sleeping rough near the station.  Now Naples cannot by any stretch of the imagination be described as beautiful - its anything but;  loads of refuse in the streets, graffiti on the walls and lots of men hanging around aimlessly.  My initial thought was I’ve not done very well here with picking this B&B right near the station but after having spent a couple of days here, its no different than  any other neighbourhood.  Everywhere you go it looks the same, but oddly enough it also has a certain charm about it.  My B&B is in a tenement building with iron gates and a court yard off a main road, during the day a little man sits by the gates (I think he’s a sort of doorman but doesnt do much!).

First night pretty much like all first nights - found a place to eat, recommended by Luca who owns the B&B.  Walks in and it was like going into a set straight off The Godfather complete with Marion Brando sounding owner.  Waiter recommended a speciality crab with pasta - ok says I (love crab).  The crab was served cut in half and put onto of some spaghetti.  I looked at the waiter and he at me and I said I can’t eat that it’s still got all its inedible bits in!  He said no you can eat it - they had not even given me nutcrackers to break the shell or anything.  Now, not wanting to make too big a deal of it, you know why (horses heads etc), I politely looked mystified until another waiter came along and decided to help me out.  He took the crab away and bashed it for me.  It still came back with all the innards but I pushed them aside and fiddled around for a while getting out what I could.   Rather odd start and will knock that off my list of places to eat!.

Did a little bit of supermarket shopping on the way back for essentials (wine and crisps) then got back into the B&B before it got dark - not familiar enough with the place to feel comfortable in the dark.

The next day my intention was to do Herculaneum and Versuvius.  Must admit getting trains and underground is quite simple once you know where to go here.  Got on the Circumversuviania and it’s about 30 minutes to Ercolano (Herculaneum).  It was then a walk down a long street to the historical site.  As you know this place was wrecked by Versuvius erupting in 79AD.  Originally a small week-to-do coastal town it was buried under up to 25 mtrs of rocks and larvae flow which also added to land mass between the town and the sea.  What was once a beach is now a grass marshy area.  This is important as it was discovered that some of the people of Herculaneum tried to shelter in the boat houses which were on the beach and you can still see the remains of these people.  Some of Herculaneum is still buried under the modern town and excavation is ongoing.  Here’s the history for the archeologists amongs you - Herculaneum and some pictures.

On the walk back up the. Hill I thought I’d stop.  Off and grab a bit of lunch before getting back on the train.   Sat down at an outside table and ordered a pizza (just plain) and a lemonade. - food bill came to 11 euros - a bit steep for here but it was near a tourist attraction so thought nothing of it; when I got the bill there was another 8 euros added.  Questioning what this was I was told it was for sitting at the table and using their knife and fork - I complained loudly and pulled a few faces but was to no avail (Catherine Tate came out again - What a f@@king liberty!).  I posted an appropriate review on Trip Adviser when I was on the train.

Back in Naples, it was mid afternoon, so whizzed onto the Metro system to the National Archeological Museum to see the Herculaneum and Pompeii exhibits.  I had heard that a visit to this museum before you see Pompeii was a good idea and I understand why.  A lot of the artefacts from both sites are exhibited there but they also do a very good video of the destruction of Pompeii and have a scaled model on display.  Check out the black marble women statue - she has white beady eyes but they didn’t do this for the men statutes!

The Romans were very proper about what they had on display in their house but the garden was a different matter.  The inference was that if you stole from them then you were going to get stuck by the owners ‘member’ (big willy) - lol.

Fancied a little treat tonight for dinner after the crab incident the previous evening so did a bit of research and found this well reviewed restaurant not too far away called Mimi Alla Ferrovia.  TA said mid-range pricing.  Food was really good and I had the full 3 courses, 2 glasses of wine and they threw in a free lemoncello with the coffee - ok so I know I said I was treating myself but this really was the most expensive meal of the whole trip (I’ll add ‘so far’ but think it may be it finally as well!).  Anyway it was very enjoyable and the surroundings were excellent - lots of pictures of celebs on the walls and apparently Marradona had had a party in there recently!.