29th July: Roma- Napoli
The fifth day of our trip we had to travel from Rome to Naples.
I was looking forward to getting in that train, because it was a new high speed one. It leaves at 10:25 and it is scheduled to arrive at 11:52 at Naples, the 300 kilometres per hour lets the train to arrive even before!
The luxury of the train was not corresponding with the poverty of the city where we were arriving.
Getting out of the station we realised everything was a mess. It is true that the surroundings of the central rail station are not often the best place of a city, but in this case I was shocked!
Some Naples Buildings
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Arriving to our hotel and in particular discovering our room was more shock for us! It was “a bit” disgusting; in this case I will not go into details. To make things worse they have pre-payment policy, that is, you pay in arriving to the reception the whole stay, and then they lead you to the room… At least we had a big balcony in a corner of the noisiest street of Naples, Corso Garibaldi.
Some other typical thing of Naples is the traffic; in some occasion I have commented that the Italian traffic it is quite crazy and chaotic, I would say even dangerous. Well, Naples is different, it is the jungle, I am not joking. The only traffic rule is that the stronger goes first! That is valid also for pedestrians, as traffic lights are useless, you just put your legs in the middle and pray for the cars to stop on time not to crash with your legs. Drivers are used so they stop in the middle of the avenue, let you pass and then go on their way as it was the most normal thing in the world. In fact there is just a few of traffic lights, mostly useless!
After trying unsuccessfully to rest in the room, we went out to discover Naples, leaving behind the Central Station surroundings we went into the “Mercato” quartier. There you can find literally everything in the street. All the possible items are sold in the street, it is amazing!
Again, we were not choosing the best part of the city to see… but we found a restaurant and Naples Italian food is really good! Then we reached the port Beverello and we check some ships to run away to Capri or Ischia islands but it was not easy.
“Mercato” area
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Tired of the hot, and disappointed we went back to the hotel. Already in the night we were walking forward what is called the Historical Center. I would like to recommend the street “Via dei Tribunali”, it is very scary…
We ended up in Piazza Gesú Nuovo drinking some wodka, and we had later to go back home under a hard rain.
Summing up, desolating landscape, a lot of poverty, homeless people, dirty streets, and a different standard of life… I am afraid that for the moment I am not describing Naples as a nice city, but by the first day we had just discovered a few parts. The city itself is very big and it is beautiful, it is a place to be visited because if you want to know Italy, the country is not what I am used to experience in the Nord. Naples is totally different, but it is very Italian too! In the end it was a great experience to go there, and the city has its charm.
Corso Garibaldi
