Dinner last night was very good, at a
little osteria on Piazza Monteoliveto. My pasta had a
surprising ingredient that gave an intense but brief taste sensation. After the
third such morsel I finally realised it was garlic. I ate the fourth piece
anyway, amounting probably to a whole clove. Afterward, the taste of garlic
would not go away, lasting until this morning. All is well now and Joan assures
me that there are no offensive garlic odours emanating from me.
So far we have been reasonably fortunate
with the weather here in Naples, only experiencing rain on the first full day.
It has rained heavily on the following three nights with clear days, but has
just resumed as I write this at 9am. Good thing we have ordered a taxi to take
us to the train station.
...
The taxi arrived early and conveyed us without
fuss (although it is fun being a passenger) directly to the Circumvesuviano
main station. This is not the central rail station – that is the first stop. As
a result we got seats and were able to watch our luggage. About a third of the
way into the journey, at one of the stations, we had to abandon that train. At
first we thought it was another strike, but fortunately just some mechanical
problem. The next train came very quickly, but it was full of people. As a
consequence we had to stand all the way to Pompeii.
For the first part of the journey we got to
talking to an American chap from Santiago Chile. He was a classicist touring
the highlights of Italy. On arrival in Sorrento we taxied to the hotel and did
a brief lavanderia (laundry)
reconnoitre. We found two so dashed back to get our large bag of dirties. While
there we were soon talking to a middle-aged couple. They were from Melbourne,
originally Sydney. Later on women from Byron Bay, NZ and Calgary also came in –
a real Commonwealth get-together. It certainly helped to pass the time waiting
for the machines to do their thing. The Byron woman was hiking the Amalfi coast
and later doing a study tour of the occupied territories in Israel.
After dumping the laundry we did a quick
tour of the town. It is quite pretty and very touristy, but all in a nice way.
The view from the heights by the sea were spectacular. Atmospheric conditions
were kind if not ideal, so we were able to see Vesuvious reasonably clearly.
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| Sorrento harbour |
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| Vesuvius |
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| Lovely clouds |
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| Pigeons in a restaurant |
Wood inlay seems to be a local specialty
and there is even a museum dedicated to which we must check out. We entered a
shop selling such wares and were amazed at the selection.
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