by Troy Herrick
“Never again!” I said after my day trip to Naples in 2008. And true to my word I returned in 2009 and did it all over again. But this time my visit was a real pleasure. Like me, your first impression of Naples is colored by the imposing maze of streets adjoining the train station. The success of your visit to old Napoli largely depends upon how quickly you can escape from this area of the city without becoming lost. And the secret to a successful escape is to ride the bus from the Piazza Garibaldi in front of the train station to your first tourist destination.
Begin your day trip by riding bus R2 to the Palazzo Reale. Upon arrival, you are sized-up by statues of eight past Neapolitan Kings set into the external façade including Roger the Norman, Charles V and Victor Emmanuel II.
Once inside, climb the stately white marble Grand Staircase to the baroque style royal apartments. Winged nymphs guard the main entrance. Beyond are rooms filled with 17th to 19th century paintings, frescoed ceilings and furnishings. Stroll down the elegant hallway reminiscent of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Visit the throne room which features a well-used royal throne. The red velvet seat and back are badly torn. The Palatine Chapel houses an intricate 210 figure nativity scene on the left side of the room and a scale model of the Palazzo Reale on the right.
The San Carlo Theater, originally built for private performances, is on the ground level. This opera house is second only to La Scala in Milan. An operatic exhibition of props and costumes is spread over 30 rooms.
Leave the theatre and cross the Piazza del Plebicito to the Church of San Francesco di Paola. Its design is based on that of the Pantheon in Rome. At 53 meters in height, the dome is 10 meters higher than its Roman counterpart. While the San Francesco oculus is covered, the Pantheon’s is not. The white marble church interior features thirty two Corinthian columns circling the perimeter and an altar inlaid with lapis lazuli and precious stones.
Fifteen minutes from the Piazza del Plebicito, you find the Castel Dell’Ovo strategically situated atop a jetty. In its time, this 12th century Norman castle served as a Benedictine Monastery, a ducal residence, a state prison and now a showcase for art exhibits. Visitors to the terrace should note that the art works are protected by 6 cannons aimed at the city. This same terrace features a panoramic view of the harbor and Mount Vesuvius in the distance. In the dungeons, you find columns that were part of an old Roman villa on this site. This villa once served as a prison for the last Western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, after he was deposed by Odoacer in 476 AD.
Returning to the Piazza del Plebicito, cross the Via San Carlo to the 19th century Galleria Umberto I. The refined galleria is an octagonal structure, enclosed under a glass and iron dome. Stylish shops and businesses fill this indoor mall.
Exit the Galleria Umberto and board the Funiculare Centrale for a ride to the top of hill. Upon your arrival, follow the signs to the Villa Floridiana to escape the hectic pace of the city. While the neoclassical villa houses the National Museum of Ceramics, the real attraction is the serene garden and the sea-and-sky view of the Bay of Naples. You may wish to enjoy the cool breeze and a picnic lunch from a shaded bench overlooking the city. A number of turtles in a nearby fountain are your dining companions.
After lunch, ride the Funicalare Centrale back down to the bottom and follow Via Toledo through the heart of old Napoli – the Spaccanapoli district. Naples earns its reputation from these chaotic, unkept streets. Common sights include laundry hanging from balconies above the colorful shops and street vendors hawking goods with their operatic voices and theatrical gestures. Enjoy some window shopping as you walk between tightly parked cars and dodge oncoming vespas on your way to the National Museum of Archeology.
One of the finest museums in the country, the National Museum of Archeology features Greek and Roman antiquities. Larger-than-life statues of Hercules, Atlas, Bacchus and Diana meet equestrian statues and busts of long dead Roman emperors. Highlights include lost treasures from Pompeii like the famous mosaic of Alexander the Great meeting Persian King Darius in battle and the statue of a faun from which the House of the Faun derives its name. Several galleries feature frescoes and erotic items acquired from both Pompeii and Herculaneum.
After passing your afternoon at the museum, continue your tour at the 14th century Gothic Duomo. Displayed within the Chapel of San Gennaro, a silver reliquary bust of the saint holds his skull and two vials of his congealed blood. Tradition holds that if this blood fails to liquefy on each of three festival days during the year (the first Saturday in May, September 19 and December 16), disaster will strike the city. Remember that Mount Vesuvius is a short distance from Naples.
On the opposite side of the Duomo, the 4th century Basilica Santa Restituta was the earliest Christian basilica in Naples. It stood alone until 1315 when it was incorporated into the Duomo. The columns inside were recycled from the Temple of Apollo which originally stood on this site.
Dinner time is likely upon you as you walk back to the train station. And this is your opportunity to enjoy original Neapolitan pizza. At the train station, board the R2 bus and experience a genuine Neapolitan traffic jam as you ride to the first stop on the route. Exit the bus and walk through the maze to L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele.
L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele, in business since 1870, is renown throughout Naples for its traditional wood oven-baked Margherita and Marinara pizzas. Add these two items to beer and Coca Cola and you have the entire restaurant menu. Amazingly, wine is not available for some strange reason. A rustic two room interior adds to the ambiance. Savor your meal as people line up outside for a table.
At this point, if you are like me, a good meal and a memorable day trip have dispelled any stress and reservations that you might have had about Naples. The real Napoli is charming, vibrant and colorful. And the secret behind this revelation is a bus ride from the train station.
Naples, Pompeii and Sorrento full day tour from Naples
If You Go:
♦ Find the tourist information booth at the train station and ask for a map of the area.
♦ Purchase a day pass for the bus. This also allows you to use the Metro and the funicular.
♦ Ride the R2 bus from the central train station to the Palazzo Reale.
♦ Admission to the Palazzo Reale was 8 Euros at the time of my visit.
♦ Photography is not permitted inside the Church of San Francesco di Paola.
♦ Admission to the Castel Dell’Ovo is free.
♦ The Funiculare Centrale (funicular) leaves from Via Toledo near the Galleria Umberto.
♦ Entry into the park at the Villa Floridiana is free.
♦ Hold on tightly to your belongings as you walk through the Spaccanapoli neighbourhood as motorcycle riders have been known to suddenly grab items and speed away.
♦ The National Museum of Archeology is located on the Piazza Cavour on Via Pessina. Admission was 10 Euros at the time of my visit.
♦ The Cathedral of San Gennaro is found on Via Duomo. The cathedral is usually open in the late afternoon after 4:30 p.m. Admission is free.
♦ L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele is located at Via Cesare Sesate, 1-3-5-7. Ask staff at the tourist information office in the train station how to find this pizzeria.
About the author:
Troy Herrick, a freelance travel writer, has traveled extensively in North America, the Caribbean, Europe and parts of South America. His articles have appeared in Live Life Travel, International Living, Offbeat Travel and Travel Thru History Magazines. He also penned the travel planning e-book entitled ”Turn Your Dream Vacation into Reality: A Game Plan for Seeing the World the Way You Want to See It” – www.thebudgettravelstore.com/page/76972202 based on his own travel experiences over the years. Plan your vacation at his website www.plan-a-dream-trip.com
Photo credits:
All photos are by Diane Gagnon. A freelance photographer, Diane has traveled extensively in North America, the Caribbean, Europe and parts of South America. Her photographs have accompanied Troy Herrick’s articles in Live Life Travel, Offbeat Travel and Travels Thru History Magazines.
1. The Bay of Naples
2. Church of San Fransisco di Paola
3. Galleria Umberto I
4. Spaccanapoli District
5. Statue of Bacchus in National Museum of Archeology
6. L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele
by Jane Parlane
The bus back dropped us at the Piazza Indipendenza, the site of one of Europe’s most beautiful castles. The Royal Palace of Palermo, dating from the ninth century for many centuries housed Sicily’s rulers and even today it’s the seat of regional government. Local politicians are lucky enough to govern from such an architectural gem with its beautiful mosaics, painted roof and marble walls.
In our rental car it was an easy one-hour drive east to Cefalu, originally a fishing port. Now it’s an attractive cobblestoned tourist town with a sandy beach – not completely lined with recliners. Our accommodation was in an old stone house just a minute from the cathedral and main square. It was easy to find a restaurant table overlooking the sea and over a chilled Sicilian wine watch the bright pink sunset explode while families paraded past.
Taormina has many bars where you can sip a Marsala or Campari martini and just people watch. Most evenings you’ll see Sicilians decked out in their finery strutting the streets. Alternatively book an opera or concert at the Ancient Theatre dating from Greek and Roman times – sadly the opera was cancelled during our stay. But the swordfish at a trattoria washed down by a local wine and tiramisu to follow eased the pain.
It was an easy day trip the next day to the ancient limestone towns of Modica, Ragusa and Noto, the latter famously rebuilt in 18th century in the baroque style after an earthquake destroyed the town in 1693.
Our final destination for the day was Agrigento, famous for its Valley of the Temples. It was exhilarating to look out of our hotel window and see Greek temples standing there. This once ancient city, Akragus, was dominated by seven great Doric Greek temples built in the sixth and seventh centuries BC. Today several are still wonderfully preserved making the area one of the world’s most important archeological sites. It’s easy to spend two hours with a guide wandering the site, especially in late afternoon when the sun lights up the temples. A bonus for us was the spectacular exhibition by world-renowned Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj cleverly placed among the ancient structures.
It was an easy drive on the autoroute to catch our flight from Palermo airport the next morning – just over an hour.
Cistercian monks built the round chapel of Montesiepi around the “cross” in the stone. The domed roof is built of concentric circles of alternating white stone and terracotta and frescos by Sienese painter Ambrogio Lorenzetti decorate the walls. It has been claimed that the chapel itself is a “book in stone” hiding the location of The Holy Grail.
Italian scholars claim that Galgano’s Sword in The Stone precedes Arthurian legends and the original story may well be Italian. The first stories of King Arthur appear decades after Galgano’s canonization, in a poem by Burgundian poet Robert de Bron. It has been suggested tales of The Round Table may have been inspired by the round chapel and the name Galgano was altered to become Gawain. Claims that the Italian sword was a fake, made to echo Celtic legends of King Arthur, have been recently disproved. The skeletal arms in the chapel have been carbon-dated to the 12th Century, and metal dating research in 2001, by the University of Siena, indicates the Italian sword has medieval origins. Could it be that the stories of King Arthur are really based on Italian history?
Every summer the company Opera Festival Firenze holds classical music concerts and operas in this splendid setting. Performed annually, a spine-tingling rendition of “Carmina Burana “ under the Tuscan stars, is unforgettable. Other favourites include Vivaldi’s ”Four Seasons, “Swan Lake” and “La Traviata.”
When I first approach, the exterior seems unremarkable, a rather austere, two-storey, peach-coloured building on the edge of a small square that serves mainly as a parking lot. This is the pride of Cesena? I can’t say I’m impressed so far. I enter a long, echoing hallway with a display of photos of brilliantly illuminated pages from Plutarch’s Lives. It feels so modern and barren. I wonder where the actual books are.
‘The elephant is the symbol of the Malatesta family,’ Alberto tells me, ‘because elephants are powerful and have good memories. The Malatestas haughtily regarded their enemies as merely annoying ‘mosquitoes’. They also were known for deformities of their heads and their very long noses. In fact, Malatesta means bad head. Portraits of them are always in profile to show their good side.’
The more I look around this hushed, ancient space, and the more Alberto tells me, the more awestruck I become. In the 15th century, one large book would have been worth about the same as a country home with all its livestock, and 343 manuscripts are kept here. All are hand-printed by the Franciscan monks on pages made of goat and sheep vellum. The covers are leather-bound wood, with metal studs so the leather doesn’t rub on the shelf. A perfect micro-climate, unheated and with air circulation from the vaulted ceiling, has protected the books. In fact, the Malatesta Library is recognized throughout the world as the only humanist library whose buildings, furnishings, and book collection are fully and perfectly preserved.
Because this library was so well lit, it was one of the first where books could be read in the same room in which they were shelved. The circular rosette window faces east and the sunlight pouring though is the main light source. Along the south and north walls are also numerous arched Venetian-style windows. The panes consist of many circular bottle bottoms tinged pink and green, which act as lens to magnify and radiate the light onto each row of desks. I squint my eyes and can imagine robed Franciscan monks toiling to copy manuscripts in fine, painstaking calligraphy, illuminating the margins with brilliant colours. As the sun and shadows shift, the monks pick up their pages and pens and follow the daylight around the room.
Numerous books are open and on display in glass cases. One, from 1444, is a book of legal trials and sentences from Florence. Another, from 1496, is a book of liturgies, a different one for each Sunday’s mass for a year. I’m especially drawn to seven huge choral books, made large enough for a whole choir to view. The capital letters and borders are amazingly intricate, illuminated with real gold leaf and brilliant green, pink, blue, red, and purple. Many also have postcard-sized illustrations, of strange beasts, birds, flowers. I even notice that pictured inside some of the capital letters are toiling monks.
All three temples face eastward, presumably to allow the rising sun to shine on any deity statues inside. Furthermore, they are close together on flat terrain which allows for easy comparison. Having these three large structures so close to the road as you arrive is intimidating. You almost feel like their respective deities are still inside demanding your worship and sacrifices.
The neighboring Temple of Poseidon, dating to 450 BCE, is the largest and best preserved structure on site. Thirty-six honey brown travertine columns form the peristyle. This temple reflects the transition between the Archaic and later Doric styles. Again the remains of two altars are located in front of the structure. Only the larger altar is of Greek origin; the smaller is Roman.
The Ekklesiasterion is located just inside the park fence, opposite the museum. The circular, limestone oratory was the site of democratic assembly for this city-state. This low-lying structure has 10 levels of seats.
The Valley of the Temples at Agrigento is all that remains of the ancient Greek city of “Akragas”. Founded in 582 BCE, residents would construct eight temples over the next century. Of these, only five are accessible on site.
The Temple of Hera stands at the highest point of the ridge. Twenty five of its 34 honey brown calcarenite columns remain standing, making it the second best preserved temple in the park. This temple was constructed between 450 and 440 BCE.
Exit this side of the park to visit the last two temples. The first is the Temple of Castor and Pollux (Dioscuri). Four of the 34 honey brown columns remain standing amidst fruit-laden olive trees. Here visitors find that Greek-style columns were not one solid cylinder. Rather they were assembled from several cylindrical drums. The end of one of these drums features a square indentation. A wooden peg may have been set in this indentation as a means of aligning and stabilizing the drums as they were stacked one upon the other. Visitors should note that some of the drums on site may have belonged to other structures at one time.
You can put the Valley of the Temples into perspective with a tour of the Archeology Museum.
Arriving at the Neapolis Archeological Park you find little evidence of any ancient structures within. Your first impression is that of a quarry. Appearances are deceiving as the park actually includes the largest Greek theatre in Sicily. This theatre is hidden from view by trees. You only discover the structure when you arrive on site. Carved out of a limestone hill in the 6th century BCE, this theatre held 15,000 spectators in 67 rows of seats. A tunnel around the periphery may have allowed people to enter and exit the theatre quickly. The upper level of the structure features a number of arches carved out of the solid rock as small “grottos”. One of these holds a small waterfall inside. Compare this Greek theatre to the nearby 3rd century CE Roman amphitheatre. The Greek theatre is semicircular and open while the Roman structure is oval and enclosed.
Leave the Museum and walk to Ortygia Island, the historic center of Syracuse, for more Greek history. Your first destination is the remains of the 6th century BCE Doric Temple of Apollo. Only two of its 42 grey limestone columns and a section of wall remain standing. This temple is in a serious state of disrepair after last having been used as a church during the Norman period almost one thousand years ago. The temple grounds are fenced off from the public.
