Napoli, Italy

March 3, 2003
Weather: high of about 55ºF and mostly cloudy


We get off the ferry from Greece and I continue to feel the world sway for about three days. It turns out to be a bit trickier to do train travel than ferries. Getting on the right train is a bit more difficult because there are so many more trains. And the categories of trains still confuse me. I understand first class, second class, and express, but I have a hard time decoding local names for these things.
Oh, and the news tells us that lots of date-concious Chinese are getting married today because of the auspicious date: 03-03-03.


Nineteen hours later, our ferry from Greece drops us in Bari. It is a pleasant walk through town to the train station and on the way I see that Italian SmartCars are significantly more fashionable than Greek ones. I try to get a shot of the groovy orange interior on a blue SmartCar while Julie waits patiently.
We start to test our train skills in Bari. It is a cruel trick on tourists that there is a town called Cancello and many trains go through it. I thought half the trains were canceled for the longest time.
Self portrait in blue bathroom.
The EU flag reminds me of an early American flag. It wouldn't be too surprising to see "don't tread on me" in the middle of the flag.
Napoli is on the opposite side of Mt Vesuvius from Pompei, so it is a short train ride to the ruins. However, we arrive ten minutes too late to buy a ticket, even though they will be open for another 90 minutes. This wouldn't have been such a big deal if we weren't trying to race through Europe before our Eurail pass expires. Now we really feel the pinch of losing a half day. We come back the next day.
The streets and sidewalks of Pompei are impressive. The ruts of cart whells are worn into the stone.
The Napoli central station proves to me that we are clearly in the civilized world. The opening date for Two Towers here was Jan 16, if my crappy Italian is correct.









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