Saturday 23rd: Walking around Naples

[ pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/110144623598348247797/20110423?authkey=Gv1sRgCKmiyaPc3PzCJA  ]

 I felt a bit tired on this morning. Probably because I walked up Mt Vesuvius yesterday. In the morning I got some clothes washed. This is good because it will probably mean my last clothes washing of the trip.

I was feeling quite tired, so I wasn't sure if I wanted to do anything, but I had to at least get some pizza. So I did.

This pizza was really good.

Big door. I headed toward a castle called Castel del'Ovo that is free to get into.

Got Gelato. I walked down the street with gelato in one hand and camera in the other. At one time, a young guy and his girlfriend found something humorous about my appearance. I don't really know what it could be except maybe that I'm filling many tourist cliches with this appearance, or that my hair is a little longer than most male person's hair, whereas in Italy most guys seem to have fairly short hair. In Italy I've noticed that people stare at you quite a lot. They seem to think this is normal. It is something I'm not used to.

This is Castel Nuovo. It's on the way to the castle I am going to. I had a little look inside, but I had to pay to get in. It looks like they just had some kind of museum anyway, and I wasn't that interested.

I stopped by some water and saw some boats. I spent some time dreaming of one day owning a boat like this. I think the mediterranean would be a good place to sail a boat.

I got to the castle and went inside.

I left the castle and went walking roughly toward Castle st Elmo.

I found this great building. I like the roof.

I thought this would be great. But I didn't realise it is filled with strange tasting cream. I couldn't eat much of it. Handfulls of cream doesn't really appeal to me that much.

I think that the people holding the banners are asking for money for the funral for a local lady who has died.

I finally found the way up. I was just wandering through streets trying to find the way. The castle is at the top of a hill.

Actually I couldn't see that much of the castle. You have to pay to get in, which I knew before I headed toward it. But I thought maybe I could see a little of the outside. The view from the top is still really good though.

I headed back down and I was really enjoying seeing the places where these people live. Often, they had their window open and their kitchen or living room was right there.

I made it back down and I was in a shopping area.

I walked along this long street trying to find some pizza. I didn't find any, but it was an interesting street to walk down. A police car drove down the street and all the people selling their black market handbags and other stuff had to quickly pack it up in their sack, run to the back streets out of view, and then come back to set up again after the police car had passed.

I got back to the hostel and then went out again to get some pizza from the place which is just across the street. It's not great pizza but it is okay.

I had a really nice day. I didn't do as much as some other days, but walking through the small streets where people live felt really nice.

Friday 22nd: walking up Vesuvio

I saw a documentary a while ago with the presenter from Grand Designs where he went to Naples and did a bunch of stuff including walking up Mt Vesuvius. I'd never before considered that you could do that, and it seemed like a cool thing to do, so I was keen to give it a try. There are busses that take you up most of the way, but I thought it would be more satisfying to walk it.

I started going a little bit late because I slept for a while.

Then I walked to the pizza area to buy pizza for breakfast. They are really cheap here. They are about 3-4 euros. I went to the place called 'el Presidente' or something like that. Bill Clinton had a pizza from here once, so they named it after him. It's supposed to be a good one.

Unfortunately the pizza wasn't that great. It would have been perfect, except the tomato sauce tasted like it had bacon in it, or was slightly rancid. I forced myself to eat half of it because I needed some food, but then couldn't finish the rest.

I walked the rest of the way to main train station in Napoli. I had to go underground slightly to the 'circumvesuvio' section. It seems to be a section of rail that is more for local train routes rather than the inter-city ones.

I bought a ticket at the window. It's only 2.2 euros for a trip! Pretty good I think. At the window, a guy was waiting, asking each person for some money because I guess he doesn't have enough money.

I wasn't really sure which train to get on. They seem to have about 4-5 lines coming out from here. In the end I figured it out. I had to see which trains were arriving and where they were headed to, then check the 'via' station to see which one would be going on the exact section of track that I needed to go on. I just had to hope that the trains stopped at all stations. Luckily they seem to.

I got off the train at Ercolanum Scavi. I think Scavi means ruins. Ercolanum is also called Hercolanum in English. It's a smaller town that was destroyed by the eruptian at the same time as Pompei.

I wasn't really sure how to start walking to Vesuvius. The lady at the reception in the hostel said that I would just be able to follow signs from the train station. I went into a mobile phone store to ask some italian people if they knew the way. They didn't speak english, but I gesticulated that I wanted to know the direction to 'Vesuvio'. That's one Italian word I know. They told me that I shouldn't walk. They said it's very far and that I should take a taxi or a bus. They seemed fairly sure of this, but I justified that they are just not as into walking as people are when they go on holiday. I think that sometimes when you live somewhere, you become a little more complacent and lazy.

A gum tree close up. Very strange.

I was just walking through streets, roughly heading uphill hoping that would take me there. An old lady gave me some general directions. She seemed to think that I should just keep walking up this street and I would get there. She turned out to be correct.

Lots of lizards. It is hard to see in this picture because if I got any closer, the lizard would run away. It is sunny and warm today so they are very active. These lizards are everywhere and it took me a while to stop thinking that their noises came from snakes as would not be unreasonable to think if you were in Australia.

Starting to get a little higher and I can see the bay of Naples behind.

I'll be up there in an hour, certainly. It's not that far away.

All this way I had been walking on roads. I was really hoping to find a walking trail that would take me to the top. It's a fairly big mountain so I thought they must have one. But this walking trail was locked closed. Even if it wasn't locked, I think that it doesn't lead to the top.

This walking trail is not locked, but it leads back down the mountain and according to the map, it goes nowhere...

Hooray! I'm at the point where the tourists get off their bus and start walking. I wasn't sure if I would make it up because it had taken me about 3 hours at this point and I have read that they close it at some time. I got a discount ticket to go up because I am a student! Fantastic.

Almost there.

I got to a small cafe/souveneir shop. I sat down for a little while because I was a bit exhausted.

A few steps further and I saw the crater. It's quite big.

Nice views over Naples.

Steam coming off the rocks.

Hooray I'm going back down!

It's really cool how a lot of people in Italy seem to grow things.

Pasta shop.

Strange exterior of this church.

Lots of rubbish in Naples. They have a problem with the mafia.

I got back to Naples and found some more pizza. While walking through the streets I saw some people doing some kind of traditional singing and dancing, I guess (although I don't know what this should sound like in Italy, so maybe they were from Peru). It sounded cool. I took video but video upload to blog is not working properly. Then I went to bed. I was fairly tired. On google earth I had a look at the route I walked. I found that it is 13.2km in each direction. So I walked at least 26.4km, and climbed 1100m to get to the summit. I think this might be a record. It's good.

I would probably not recommend to walk up this entire mountain. The bus is probably better. It might be better if there was a walking trail. The entire way except for the last few hundred metres, was on the road. There was no place for people to walk, so I had to be careful of cars. The roads are narrow and twisty in places too. So it can be a bit dangerous when large busses drive past on corners etc. But it feels more satisfying to me that I did the mountain on foot.