Ok, so where I just left off, I was traveling to Milan after saying goodbye to my friend Samuel and his family in South Tyrol. The train to Milan was not particularly eventful. I had a classic “I have no idea what I’m doing” moment in the train station in Verona, where I quickly discovered that English wasn’t widely adopted in Italy (after embarrassingly messing up the payment into the bathroom). After that quick and, thankfully, short stop in Verona, I was off to Milan. My arrival in Milan was at the epic Milano Centrale Station. Built by the fascists during the early 30s, Milano Centrale has to be one of the most spectacular train stations in the world. Despite some of its semi-fascist symbolism, it pulls off a level of awe and beauty that few railway stations can match. I was blown away by it and couldn’t stop staring at the massive sculptures staring down at the travelers from a hundred feet above the concourse.
I stayed in a hostel the first night in Milan because my friend’s entire family was staying at her Grandma’s place, and there wasn’t any room left (I understood this later). Chiara is a friend of mine from Champaign, who sadly just recently graduated (she’s an over-achiever, so she graduated a year early)! Her mother is from Milan, and her Grandma lives in the same apartment where her mother grew up. Chiara usually spends a few weeks every year in Milan and then a few weeks in India during the winter (her father is Indian).
With that quick explainer out of the way, on to our trip. Practically the minute after I got accepted into the Vienna study abroad program, Chiara and I started thinking about a trip together. We eventually decided on the south of Italy, with the Campania region as our main target. Chiara had never been to the south before, and I also wanted to try to reach the town of Oliveto Citra, where the very (very) distant relatives of the Naponiello family live. Fortunately, Chiara planned out all our accommodations during the trip and how much time we were spending at each place. As you’ll see- she did an unbelievable job, and I can’t think of a more perfect way to spend ten(ish) days in southern Italy.
Our trip started with a bang on the 15th of July. We had booked a high-speed train from Milan down to Naples. The train was a total of about five hours but had a cost of only about 40 euros per person, which I thought was ridiculously good. Unlike my not-so-good experience on German high-speed trains, the Frecciarossa high-speed train was the opposite. The train reached its top speed of 190mph (300km/h) for much of its journey, flying from one side of Italy to the other with incredible speed and comfort.
Chiara and I sat across from this wonderful Sicilian couple who took the time to chat up the whole train about their journey from Paris. They were now in their upper 70s and mid-80s (the wife was 78 and the husband 85) and couldn’t travel by plane due to their age. Instead, they had taken three different trains to reach this far and needed to take one more to get to Sicily (Chiara and I, and the other passengers on the train, weren’t sure why they did this since there are simpler connections to Sicily).
We arrived in Naples almost exactly on time at around 9:30 at night. After exiting the train, we entered the huge Napoli Garibaldi Station. Garibaldi is a massive recently-renovated railway station which acts as the main gateway to Campania. Both Chiara and I were surprised by how nice it was. We had both been warned that Naples was not a safe place to travel and that we especially needed to beware of pick-pocketers and other criminal activities. We had also been told that it was extremely dirty and ugly. Samuel’s mother had even asked why I was traveling there in the first place! Upon arriving at Garibaldi, Chiara and I looked at each other as if to say “well, this is actually pretty nice.” We soon realized that the stories might be partially true. Our hostel was two stops down the metro line near the University, and we needed to take the metro to get there since it was a bit of a far walk, and we had heard the area near the station wasn’t too great. So we walked down into the main metro concourse of Garibaldi (which isn’t directly attached to the station).
Something was off immediately. There was a kitschy stand at the side with the words “Biglietto” (ticket) written in huge flashing neon letters. Both Chiara and I had alarm bells going off for this place. We tried finding a ticket machine, but all the ticket machines were broken. So Chiara had the idea to ask a nearby police officer where to buy tickets. The police officer looked at her and pointed us directly back to the shop with the neon-flashing sign. Begrudgingly we walked over to it and asked for tickets on the metro (it’s a flat-rate price). The guy at the counter responded with a price of three euros. Chiara and I looked at each other since we knew this couldn’t be right, so she asked “For one or two tickets”. The guy at the counter knew that we thought the place was fishy and gave us two tickets for three euros. Looking online, it still seems he gipped us since the price is supposed to be 1.20 per ticket (or is it 1.10?). As usual, there’s never a direct official answer for Naples. The price is the price you get- no questions asked.
Anyway, the metro station at Garibaldi might be the weirdest station I’ve ever seen. To enter the station, you had to insert your ticket into a validator to allow the gates to open. All original validators had broken, so a new one was attached via a screwed-in pole to one of the older validators. A hand-written cardboard sign above the validator indicated that you should insert your ticket below. After putting the ticket into the validator, you enter what is one of the most bizarre subway stations I’ve ever seen. You can tell that it was actually a beautiful station, but it had since fallen into disrepair. It’s an enormous maze of escalators that descend to one of the deepest subway platforms imaginable. The entire thing is tiled in mirrors, creating a bizarre trippy experience and not one that Chiara and I were well prepared for after our long train ride. According to Wikipedia, the metro was built so deep to avoid archaeological sites within the city. I’m not so sure I believe that.
The Camorra
The Camorra is the Mafia in the region of Campania. They run a massive ring of drug and human trafficking smuggling from Africa to Europe. They are one of the largest mafia organizations in Italy, along with Ndrangheta in Calabria and La Cosa Nostra in Sicily. Going to Naples, I didn’t think I would ever run into the Mafia, but right upon arrival, I knew I was in mafia territory.
There might be no better example than the Naples metro. Remember the metro station at Garibaldi? Yeah, it’s only about ten years old. There hasn’t been a single (and I mean a single) Euro of maintenance put into it in the last ten years. Oh, and did I mention that it took over 50 years to build Line 1's 19 stations (about half of the planned total)? It’s beyond clear that the whole thing is just a massive embezzlement scheme. The Camorra runs all the labor in the area and pushes for the most expensive metro imaginable (the deeper, the more expensive, thus the extreme depth of the metro). They get buckets of money from the national and EU governments, which are pushing to improve “equity” in the south. They siphon money to themselves and drive up costs by taking absolutely ages to finish anything. Once complete, they leave it to rot with zero maintenance. The stations will fall apart, and the Campania regional government will again beg Brussels and Rome for more money to rehab its work.
Now, some of you might be asking, “Don’t we have that in the US? Corruption is a problem here too!” No. We don’t. In the US we do plenty of deferred maintenance, but at least we do some maintenance. Seriously, would the L still be standing if it had ZERO work done? I mean it's 130 years old and still doing ok. In Naples, the stations reach ten years old and are falling apart. I’ve never seen more obvious examples of corruption than in Naples, and I’d place the majority of the city’s problems at the feet of the Camorra, who have taken advantage of the wonderful people of Naples for far too long.
Naples
After exiting the metro at our stop in front of the University, we walked a few hundred meters to our hostel. Even on that short walk, you could feel the city's amazing energy. I’ve never been in a place that felt like a constant party. Bands on every corner, people drinking everywhere, and Vespas scooting up the narrow lanes (Naples doesn’t know what a pedestrian area is). People eating pizza on the side of the street. Young couples simply walking through the old town (Centro Storico). People dancing in the plazas and streets. It was a hustle and bustle that never stopped. Our hostel was across from the Chiesa di Santa Maria (Church of Saint Mary) on the edge of the Centro Storico. It was a fantastic hostel and super safe (for any of those wondering).
The following day was blisteringly hot. The temperature reached about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with heat indices well into the 100s. Basically, the minute you stepped outside, you immediately started sweating. Chiara and I departed our hostel to walk around the city (while drinking plenty of water) and taking tons of breaks in the shade. Despite the heat, the city was still shockingly busy with people on Vespas, motorcycles, and cars. Although, there were noticeably fewer people out on the streets. There are a bunch of pictures from that day below. We walked along the Lungomare (basically the seaside boardwalk) and towards Villa Communale Park. We stopped in the park for an hour to get more water and chill around for a bit before walking up the nearby hill to the neighborhood of Vomero.
Vomero is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Naples, and it shows. It's clean and beautiful and has stunning views of Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples. For me, this neighborhood represented the opposite of what most people talk about when they discuss Naples. It had none of the squalor and in-your-face density of the Centro Storico. I think that part of the reason for some misrepresentations of Naples is that most people don’t spend much time there. Chiara and I spent around four days in and around the city, and I feel like we probably got a better grasp on it than most tourists. I wasn’t expecting a beautiful neighborhood like Vomero, but I’m still so happy that Chiara and I stumbled across it. From Vomero, we walked up to Saint Elmo’s Castle (Castel Sant’Elmo)- funny name, right? The castle only had a three Euro entrance fee and was perched above the Vomero neighborhood with commanding views over the whole city.
After a long day of walking, we set out to find some of the best pizza in the city. We attempted to go to the world-famous L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele but were forced to find another location after we saw the massive line. Instead, we went to the nearby Pizzeria Imperiale, where I arguably had the best pizza in my life (although Pizzeria Da Michele might be equal). There’s something about the quality of the ingredients in Naples that makes their pizza so much better than anything you’ve ever tasted. It truly is remarkable.
Regarding Safety
I’d be lying if I said I felt entirely safe in Naples. Maybe it was because of all the warnings I had gotten, I’m not entirely sure, but I definitely didn’t feel totally safe all the time. I’d say that the biggest reason is because you can’t get much whiter than I am. I don’t look like I’m from Naples at all. For Chiara, it was fine because her Mom is Italian and her Dad is Indian. For me, though, the minute I stepped onto the street, I knew that somebody was probably watching me since it was so obvious I was a foreigner. That said, I never felt in danger at any moment while in Naples. I just wouldn’t say I felt comfortable.
There aren’t a ton of photos of Centro Storico on here because of this reason. Centro Storico is an incredible area, with hundreds of thousands of people crammed into its medieval streets. Unlike nearly every other downtown worldwide, Naples Centro Storico is still incredibly poor. There is no gentrification. The best way I could describe it is to imagine a medieval old town without renovation. No big avenues, no refurbished buildings, just ancient decay. For comparison, the GDP per capita of the Campania region is around 18,500, just above that of Sicily and Calabria. That’s less than half of the northern region of Lombardy (where Milan is), about 1/3 that of Austria, and ¼ of the US. Campania and Naples are still incredibly poor, and it shows.
Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that crime needs to be high, especially in poor areas like Centro Storico. Yet at the same time, it makes sense why Centro Storico is still a haven for some criminal activity (none of which I saw). The streets are a narrow tangled mess based on the Ancient Greek plan of the city. Some streets are so narrow not even a Vespa can fit inside. It’s the perfect slum-like atmosphere where police activity struggles and organized crime thrives. For that reason, I didn’t take my phone out much or take too many photos in Centro Storico. Whether I was being overly cautious or not, I’m not sure, but to the credit of Naples, I never saw anything that would suggest theft or other crime while I was there. If there was one thing, though, that got me frustrated about Naples, it was the scams.
Pompeii
Chiara and I were a bit anxious to go to Pompeii because we were worried about the risk of massive crowds ruining the ability to enjoy the city. We considered going to the nearby Herculaneum but decided to try our luck with Pompeii. To try to beat the crowds, we decided to go as early as possible and buy the tickets ahead of time (which is what someone who worked there recommended to us). Long story short, we had met a Harvard Master's student in Classics (Antiquities and the like) in a park in Vomero the day before. He was working on archaeology in the city and was taking a break in Naples before heading to Rome in a few days. He made sure to tell us to buy our tickets ahead of time from a certified retailer. That’s easier than it sounds. Naples is the king of all scams. Every touristy thing in the area is full of scams, most of which are easy to pick out, but some that are not. Pompeii was just the start of us having to navigate through a minefield of scams that threatened to drive me and Chiara utterly insane.
To get the official tickets to Pompeii, make sure to go to the Pompeii.org website- and not any other website you find. The price should be 19 euros and nothing more. The process was pretty easy once we found the official website, and buying our tickets ahead of time turned into a massive win once we saw the lines to get in at 9 am. The line to get into the park stretched around the corner and probably would’ve taken an hour to get in the already sweltering 90-degree sun.
With our pre-paid tickets, we walked right past the line and into the park with no questions asked and found ourselves in Pompeii with no tourists in sight (at least for the first hour or so). Even after the tourists started to stream in, Chiara and I found that our previous worries about overcrowding were overblown. Pompeii was a large Roman town/city with over 11,000 inhabitants. It’s not a cluster of buildings but an entire city-style layout with different neighborhoods, parks, gardens, amphitheaters, a stadium, an enormous gymnasium (like huge), public halls, market squares, etc. We found ourselves almost getting lost amongst the ancient ruins and gardens. I expected only a few intact Roman villas in the city but instead found that nearly every street had a Roman villa with spectacular frescoes. Graffiti covered some buildings, and advertisements still lay painted on the sides of businesses. It was a remarkable experience and totally worth the hassle of getting there. There are a ton of photos of Pompeii below.
Ah yes, how could I forget the trip to Pompeii and back. The easiest way to get to Pompeii is via what’s called the Circumvesuviana. It’s a local train line running from Napoli Garibaldi to Sorrento, on the other side of the Amalfi Coast. Remember that I used the word local here. That means it's run by the local Campania Region, not the federal government in Rome (which runs things better). Who runs the Campania Region again? Oh yeah- the Mafia. The Circumvesuviana is nightmare fuel for travelers looking for a relaxing ride to an ancient city. Buying tickets is a nightmare (and a potential scam too- since they hugely hike prices to Pompeii). The train is also notorious for pick-pockets and scammers. The tracks probably have never been updated since they were created over a hundred years ago, and you feel practically every bump on the train that has to be at least 60 years old.
The train lets you out at the Pompeii Scavi Station, and you are thrown immediately into a frenzy of scammers and stupid tourists. I’ll never forget watching this American couple fall for a scam almost immediately after they left the train. Right outside the station, there’s a very professional-looking ticket booth with “Pompeii-tickets” written on it, which advertises guided tours and up-charged tickets. The members of the scam dress very professionally and look like the real deal. The couple exited the train, saw the scam, and exclaimed, “Wow! I guess the tickets are right here, that’s easy!” No, they weren’t. The actual ticket booth was about 100 meters down the road to the left. It was pretty sad to see the number of people falling for these scams too. Even ones that are so obvious to a traveler that you’d think nobody could be stupid enough to fall for it. The guy screaming “Bus to Vesuvius” in the middle of the street while pointing to his van is probably not the official way to get to Vesuvius, yet, I saw probably about a dozen dumb tourists cram into his van before being whisked away.
After a good morning and early afternoon in Pompeii, Chiara and I were tired from all the standing and decided to try to find an ok beach nearby to sit down for a while. We decided to try out the town of Portici since it was close to Naples and seemed to have an ok beach. As an aside, the beach options around Naples are surprisingly poor, probably because most beaches were demolished to make way for port infrastructure and industry. We originally wanted to go to Torre del Greco, but after a building collapsed the day before, we decided to go instead to the neighboring town of Portici. So we made our way to the other regional rail line on the other side of Pompeii in the actual modern-day city of Pompeii to take the train to Portici. Modern-day Pompeii is a nice city with a beautiful basilica and a pretty public square. There were essentially no tourists there (despite it being a 10-minute walk away from its ancient counterpart).
The train from Pompeii to Portici was easily the sketchiest train I’ve ever been on. Chiara called it “similar to the trains in India”. The tracks were an utter disaster, and the train cars were a horrifically dirty, hot mess. There had been no trimming of basically any branches in probably the last 20 years on the train tracks, so the train just rammed full speed into tree branches as they scrapped the sides with an eerie screeching noise.
Once in Portici, we walked to the nearby beach and chilled there for a few hours. The beaches are all volcanic black sand, another reminder of the mountain looming overhead.
Failed Plans
Our last full day in Naples was an eventful one. It was one of those days of travel where no matter what you try, nothing goes to plan. Our first plan was to hike to the top of Vesuvius since it seemed like such a cool thing to do. We knew that to get there, we had to take the train to the Pompeii Scavi station again and then transfer onto a bus. There was no other way to get to Vesuvius National Park without either driving yourself, taking an expensive scam tour, or getting on the bus at the station outside of Pompeii. This already wasn’t ideal, since that station and the Circumvesuviana is already overflowing with tourists and not the best place to be.
Sadly for us, this train ride to Pompeii was even worst than the one the day before. The train was nearly overflowing. There was essentially no more room for anyone to move. One of the doors broke while in the 2nd station after Naples, and the train conductor had to get out and manually jam the thing shut. That delay left everyone sweltering in the un-airconditioned train for a good 20 minutes (in 95-degree heat, by the way). Once we arrived in Pompeii, we waited at the bus stop. And waited. And waited. Probably over 20 minutes. During that time, we talked to some other people waiting for the real bus (not the scam one) and found out that you needed to reserve a time slot and tickets ahead of time to climb the mountain. The office at its base had closed down the previous year (no research we had done told us that). But attempting to find the official website online was a complete nightmare.
To this day, Chiara and I aren’t entirely sure we found the official website. I’m pretty sure I did, but I’m not 100% sure. Even so, it didn’t matter because every time slot was fully booked for the day. My guess is that tour companies bought the tickets and then resold them for a higher price. There were only a handful of people waiting at the station to take the official route, so there must've been many more tours. Moreover, the time slot offered only half an hour of entrance time. By the time we realized that there was no way we could climb the mountain, the bus was already 20 minutes late. If it was another 10-15 minutes late, everyone waiting would miss their time slot. The whole thing was a complete and utter disaster and extraordinarily frustrating.
Defeated, we walked to the station and took the train back to Naples. I suggested we visit the Royal Palace of Caserta, about 45 minutes from Naples by train. It’s an enormous royal palace that I had seen online, and it seemed like a good place to spend a chill afternoon. We took the train all the way to the palace and found it eerily empty. I wasn’t entirely surprised because it was out of the way and not super touristy. However, upon trying to enter, we found that the palace was closed. Not just the inside, but the gardens too. Turns out, many things in the south close on a Tuesday. That would have been nice to know beforehand. . . All we could see of its spectacular gardens was a glimpse through the palace gates into the green pastures beyond. At last, completely defeated, we took the train back to Naples to chill the rest of the day. And thus ended our last day in Naples.
And so the adventures start with Chiara! Naples certainly is an interesting spot based on your stories and Pompei looked more intact that I would have thought. The mafia back story is fascinating. Glad you all stayed safe and survived the excessive heat!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I never really knew what it meant to feel that the Mafia were everywhere until I got to southern Italy. It really is obvious they control everything
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