ITALY PT. II

PART II: ITALY SPECIFICALLY

In this second part of my Italy post I’ll offer some thoughts on specific areas of Italy that we visited.  (In case you’ve missed Part I of this post it can be found here   Italy Pt. I)

Lake Como

I will admit that publicity of George Clooney having a residence on Lake Como did provide us with some encouragement to spend a few days at the lake. But we didn’t go stalking him and stayed in Varenna, a significant distance from his villa.

Our Varenna hotel can be classed as “basic” only because I can’t think of a descriptor lower than “basic”. It was clean though. And if you’ve ever slept with bed bugs (thank you for that experience India. And New Jersey.) cleanliness counts.

The mattress was extremely hard – probably harder than the boards supporting it – and provided little comfort. In addition, across the street from our second floor room was a church which insisted on tolling its bell at 5.00 a.m. every morning. 5.00 a.m. Every. Single. Morning.

Our less than comfortable bed.

Me and the offending bell tower.

Would I stay in that hotel again? In a flash! Because what it lacked in amenities it made up for in the most spectacular rooftop view over Lake Como. The owners helpfully provided a rooftop table from which to eat, drink and digest the view. (See what I did there?)

Come dinner time, Agnes and I would get a pizza (notwithstanding my comments in Part I regarding Italian pizza) and a 5 Euro jug of rotgut red wine, trudge up to the roof and eat, drink, chat and gaze as the sun gently descended behind the mountains. A very romantic experience even for a couple that has been married for more than 25 years. Those rooftop twilight dinners are among my most precious travel memories.

Pizza, cheap wine, a million Euro view and my woman.

As for the rest of our time spent at Lake Como, it is best described as “active”. There was much walking – walking through villages and walking along hill trails. The village walks had many stop offs in shops which ignited debates over whether we really needed to buy yet another trinket to remind us of Lake Como.

Village walk.

The hill walks were fascinating for the different perspectives they gave us on the Lake Como region.

Looking down on the Varenna village square from a hill trail.  The offending bell tower makes itself known again.

The only times we weren’t walking were when we were crossing the lake by boat to visit other villages from where we could do some more walking.

Heading off across the lake to another village.

Rome

Every time you turn a corner in Rome the city slaps you in the face with history. True, a lot of it is based on the city’s pas de deux with Roman Catholicism as there are multiple awe-inspiring churches and artefacts. (My personal favourite is Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini with its macabre displays of the bones of Franciscan friars). I don’t have any photos of the bones as cameras were not allowed but here’s a link to an explanatory video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jrCBq1k5so

The odd non-Catholic religious point of interest can be found in Rome such as the Protestant cemetery just outside the city wall where poets John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley are interred. Their plots don’t hold any of the splendour of the city’s Catholic tombs though.

John Keats gravestone

Percy Bysshe Shelley Gravestone

If you prefer your history to be from an ancient era Rome has plenty of ruins from the days when the city was the seat of an empire.

The Coliseum, probably Rome’s most famous ruins.

Maybe you prefer pop culture history instead? Then visit the Via Veneto which was party central for the beautiful people (including Hollywood stars when they were in town) during the Dolce Vita era of the 1950s.

Rome’s greatest attraction for me is that it is a fantastic walking city. When it comes to walking Agnes and I are simpatico but even she had trouble keeping up with me as I wanted to scour every inch of the city on our various “let’s get lost” walking tours. I did acquiesce to her by occasionally stopping at a piazza for food and drink. Like I said, I’m not a big foodie but I loved the social atmosphere at the piazzas and would enjoy my breaks from walking by just sitting back, imbibing, and people watching.

Our best Rome piazza experiences happened at the end of the day when we would finish the day’s adventure at the piazza nearest our hotel. The city’s residents would congregate around the fountain, drink their wine and chat in the way only Italians can. A fair proportion of the people were in their 20s and 30s so I imagine a lot of their conversations were devoted to subjects related to love and such things that people of that age indulge in.

A relaxing end to a full-on day of walking.

Agnes and I would buy a couple of glasses of wine and join the crowd on the fountain steps. We’re too old to engage in conversations about young love but it was still nice to be around young people and soak up the romantic vibe. We’re not too old for romance.

Venice

Venice is a no-brainer. If an article devoted to describing the best of Italy has no mention of Venice then you may as well not bother wasting any more of your time reading such a useless piece. Which then also leaves me with a dilemma: What can I add about Venice that the well-informed reader hasn’t already read elsewhere? I dunno, but I’ll try…

The train ride into Venice station is charming in that the last few kilometres are on rails which pass along undeveloped lagoons and low-slung bridges. As we made our way towards Venice I wondered where the famous canals, alleyways, people and buildings were? Dismounting from the train we entered a bustling station that was not unlike any other semi-modern European station. Nothing unique there.

It was not until I pulled my luggage through the station’s front doors that I was suddenly and severely gobsmacked by the sweep of a magnificent floating city. I had to take a second unbelieving look around to assure myself that I hadn’t stumbled onto the set of some Hollywood blockbluster movie about Venice. Even though I had seen plenty of pictures of Venice during my life they still did not prepare me for the reality. I am sure that I have read some travel writers claim that Venice is over-rated. I am here to state that if certain people do consider Venice over-rated then I feel sorry for their spouses because they must be pretty miserable people to live with.

Stepping off a train and onto a movie set.

Apart from water transport, the only way to get about the city is by negotiating your way through myriad alleys. And if you think it’s fun to get lost in anonymous laneways just to see how long it takes you to find your way back to your hotel, then have I got the city for you. For me it was pure bliss to blindly head up a claustrophobic alleyway (being careful not to tumble into a canal), turn a corner on a whim and find myself stepping into a wide open piazza populated with shops, bars and restaurants. Following lunch, or at least a drink, we’d walk out the other side of the piazza, plunge back into an alley on our way to … who knows/who cares?!

I will admit the maze of alleys did test me on our first night. Agnes and I were never in any danger but we seemed to be so hopelessly lost I was sure we wouldn’t find the way back to our hotel before dawn. In retrospect it was quite amusing to be stumbling through the alleys, trying to find some landmark from which we could get our bearings only to come across fellow visitors also trying to find the way back to their own hotels. We would exchange suggestions, bid each other good luck, and head off on our separate ways hoping this new information would lead us to our destinations. Everybody we met was friendly and helpful but I get the feeling as we departed everyone was just as lost as before. Perhaps they all had the same experience we did: we somehow stumbled into a familiar piazza which we knew was only a hundred metres from our hotel.

The 1990 movie The Comfort of Strangers has a scene which is eerily similar to our experience of being lost in Venice’s alleys. The movie is at the following link and the particular scene begins at about 19 minute 20 seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5AZidvjVck

I’m not a fan of cruises, although I have no qualms about taking a cruise to destinations which are too arduous to travel to by other transportation modes (e.g. a cruise around the Pacific islands). That said, I do have a serious antipathy to Mediterranean cruises. I am repulsed at the thought of wrestling with 3,000 people to get off a boat just so I can then climb onto a bus that is about to race off to some iconic Mediterranean treasure. I would then be forced to rub elbows with those same 3,000 people as we all hurriedly take selfies because we must shortly get back on the bus and rush off to the next site. To me that seems just a bizarre way to see Italy.

In the case of Venice, cruise boats are a winner for us tourists staying in the city. Cruise tourists are corralled back onto their ships in time for dinner, leaving us landlubbers to savour Venice’s suddenly vacant alleys and uncrowded piazzas. Areas that were overflowing with tourists during the daylight hours were practically deserted in the evening, offering just the right atmosphere for a romantic dinner. Again, The Comfort of Strangers perfectly encapsulates the experience of an intimate Venice dinner.  The scene begins at the 13 minute mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5AZidvjVck

 

Venice isn’t this intimate during the daylight hours.

Cinque Terre/Amalfi Coast/Capri

I am grouping Cinque Terre, the Amalfi Coast and the island of Capri together since they are each coastal playgrounds. (In the case of Capri it’s also the playground of the rich and famous judging by the super yachts anchored offshore.)

We were interested in exploring Cinque Terre not only because its warm Mediterranean waters are fantastic for swimming but the coast-hugging trails make for keen hiking. And if the pleasures of swimming and hiking are not enticing enough then there are the five (Cinque) picturesque villages (Terre, I’m guessing) which are connected by the hiking trails. Not only do the villages hang beautifully off precarious cliffs, strategically placed restaurants and bars allow you to dine while being mesmerised by a Mediterranean sunset.

Killing time waiting for a Cinque Terre sunset.

I think of the Amalfi Coast as being like Cinque Terre but writ larger. Both regions are nestled in mountains and along cliffs but the Amalfi Coast is more heavily populated. It has not only villages but also towns and cities. The Amalfi Coast also has its hiking trails but they require more effort to reach and are more arduous.

What Amalfi loses in simple undeveloped beauty it makes up for in a bustling urban environment that is still capable of showing off Italy’s beauty and history.

 

I wouldn’t want to be an Amalfi Coast bus driver.

My favourite Amalfi Coast settlement, though, was the village of Ravello. (Briefly discussed in Part I.)

Not only is it beautifully situated on a mountain top, which was reached by a 1970s era bus valiantly struggling against the road’s steep incline, but it also has a bit of Hollywood history as the site for John Huston’s movie Beat the Devil which starred Humphrey Bogart among others. The village square would host their poker games after the day’s filming was completed.

Ravello village square.

One of the glorious views to be had from Ravello.

Al fresco was the only way Agnes and I dined at the Amalfi Coast.  Seriously, who wants to be hemmed in by four walls and clattering cutlery when one can be enjoying the ambience of a table for 2 set up in an alleyway.  I don’t care if an enclosed restaurant is Michelin rated, I’ll always opt for a warm night and an outdoor meal.

I think of Capri as an appendage of the Amalfi Coast since our day trip to Capri was from our Amalfi base. Capri is certainly beautiful and can easily be explored by foot. To really feel like you are part of the island I’d recommend renting a motor scooter. This was my first choice but, alas, I couldn’t master the oversized scooter needed to negotiate Capri’s mountain roads within my 5 minute practice window. So we opted for bipedal transport through the alleys and the local bus for the roads. A bit disappointing because circumnavigating Capri on a vintage Vespa would have allowed me to fantasise that I was hanging out with Liz and Dick circa 1962.

Capri. Nice view, wot?

Naples

We had received a multitude of warnings about Naples prior to visiting the city. Most commonly we were warned to keep valuables tight about us as purse snatching from motorcycles was a popular Neapolitan pastime. It seemed that everyone we met that had been to Naples had seen some act of thievery. The stories spooked Agnes and I sufficiently for us to play it safe and substitute a stay in Naples for a city tour which originated from the Amalfi Coast. Maybe it was because we took to heart the warnings and kept our valuables close to ourselves that I am relieved to say we had no larcenous mishaps.

It is a pity that Naples has such a bad reputation because we enjoyed its rundown ambience and would have enjoyed exploring its shops and artefacts on our own. Parts of the city, though, are in definite need of repair before it can be said that Naples is as great as other Italian destinations.

Naples’ arts and crafts.

 

Unfortunately, Naples’s customer service also lived down to Italy’s reputation for rudeness. The tour stopped at a café which promised “the best coffee in Naples”. Agnes and I had doubts that this was anything more than just the usual tour bus hyperbole but we entered the shop with an open mind. Maybe it was the best coffee in Naples (a quick survey on the bus disagreed) but without a doubt it was the worst coffee service I have ever had. The bullheaded barista did not even attempt to hide the loathing he felt for the customers he was serving. Ok, maybe he thought we tourists were just a bunch of rabble that do not appreciate the love he puts into his coffee. So I was willing to give him a pass on that. Except – I happened to catch a documentary on Naples a couple of years later which featured the self same Neapolitan coffee shop. And there was our bullheaded barista! And he offered surly service even when the cameras were on him! Boy, talk about hard core miserable!

Nor was he the only surly server in the shop. After receiving our coffee we moved on to the pastry section where the server was a female version of the barista! Maybe they are married to each other and are engaged in a long term tango of misery where their antipathy for each other is projected onto customers.

And with that slightly sour note, hopefully served with some levity, this concludes my two-part post on our Italian travels. Even though there were some negatives on our Italian travels, on the whole it was a uniquely fantastic trip. We hope to follow it up one day not only by revisiting some of the places we’ve already seen but also by adding Sicily to the itinerary. ‘Til then “Ciao”!