Naples and the island of Capri
As far as
family vacations go, we prefer to do our own research and book a vacation
usually to one place which we like to discover at our own place rather than join
one of those managed tours where the idea is to pack several attractions in a
very short period of time and as a consequence, not have the flexibility to
explore what you really like. However, with our demanding jobs we signed up
going to Italy on a ten day
managed tour to Venice, Florence,
Pisa, Rome, Milan, Naples and Capri. I will write about most of these places in my
future blogs, but of the entire Italian tour, in my view, Capri
beats the rest of the locations hands down.
Capri is a
little island nestled in the Gulf
of Naples. The most
economical way to get to the island is to sleep the night before in Naples (Capri is very expensive to live) and then get a Ferry
or a Hydrofoil to Capri in the morning. That’s
what we did.
By the time our
tour coach entered the crowded city of Naples,
it was early evening. Our tour guide had oversold how wonderful our hotel would
be that night, how it was steeped in history, and how it served one of the most
authentic Italian dinners in Campania. The dinner was to be outdoors under the
historic grand foyer of the hotel at 7 p.m., which would give us just about
enough time to check in, freshen up and show up for dinner. At half past six, our
coach stopped abruptly before pulling into the hotel entrance. There was chaos
with police cars, fire brigade trucks, an ambulance and a lot of excited and
anxious Italian people on site. Our coach stopped a hundred yards before the
entrance and the driver disappeared into the chaos to figure out what was going
on. Every now and then we saw glimpses of him and his animated gestures
conversing with the police as he would shake his head from side to side in
disbelief. A policeman stood by the coach to ensure that none of us got out to add
to the chaos. Italians speak very fast as it is. But the excitement of the situation
meant they spoke even faster, not that I would have understood even if they
spoke very slowly. After a good 15 minutes, our driver came back explaining the
situation in Italian to our tour guide, who then translated for us.
Apparently,
just half an hour ago, that historic restaurant foyer under which we were to
have the exotic dinner, had collapsed suddenly destroying all the dinner
tables, chairs and the furniture underneath. Fortunately, no one was seriously
hurt apart from a waiter who sustained a minor injury as he was coming out of
the restaurant kitchen to set up the dinner tables. The hotel owner was too
overwhelmed to check in any new guests that night – not that we trusted the safety
of the remainder of his building anyway.
After a few frantic
phone calls, our coach was diverted to another hotel for the night. The only
decision criteria were A) that they had 45 rooms available at a short notice
and B) that the hotel building was as “new” with as little “history” as
possible. As we checked in, just about every co-passenger verified that the
hotel was built in the last ten years. We had no way of finding out how our new
dinner compared to what we were going to have that evening, but the Italian
Pinot Noir was excellent and the risotto was sumptuous. The important thing was
that the dinner was indoors with a brand new concrete ceiling above us that did
not collapse during the course of our dinner.
Naples
is traditionally credited as the home of the most famous Italian dish – Pizza. Apparently,
Margherita pizza was named after ‘Queen Mergherita of Savoy’ after her visit to
the city of Naples where she tasted this little known local dish called a Pizza
cooked traditionally in a wood-burning oven, and fell in love with it. The ingredients of the Neapolitan pizza
(meaning Pizza from Naples) have been strictly regulated by law (!) and must
include a certain type of flour, yeast, natural mineral water, peeled or fresh
cherry tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, Mediterranean sea salt, and extra virgin
olive oil.
Italians pronounce Naples as
Napoli, which derives its name from the ancient Greek word Neapolis meaning the "new city". Naples is the capital of the Italian region of Campania and the 3rd largest city after Rome and Milan
with about 4 million people. As
we explored Naples, I found a lot of
similarities with India.
For starters, the weather is relatively hot and so the sky is light blue with
white clouds. Most of the citizens live in crowded apartment buildings with
clothes hanging out to dry from the apartment windows and terraces. I found
Italian drivers to be as aggressive as Indians with little or no regard to
pedestrians crossing the streets. In the midst of this concrete jungle, there
were plenty of palm trees and apartment buildings had their walls decorated
with naturally growing bougainvillea (a common colourful creeper also found in India).
Capri on the other hand, is much more affluent and
therefore has much bigger villas rather than crowded apartment buildings.
Naples is at the base of the famous volcanic mountain Mount Vesuvius. Vesuvius has erupted many times since 1800 BC. In the year of 79 AD, Vesuvius erupted in one of the most catastrophic and famous eruptions of all time. It spawned a deadly cloud of molten rock, ash and fumes to a height of 33 kilometers and lava releasing a hundred thousand times the energy of the Hiroshima bombing. The town of Pompeii was almost instantaneously buried under 6 to 10 meters of lava including around 20,000 people living in it. Since then, Pompeii is one of the world’s most interesting archeological sites, now declared as a UNESCO world heritage to be preserved with great care.
Since 79 AD, the volcano has erupted at least 30 times until
1631, six times in the 18th century, eight times in the 19th
century and in 1906, 1929, and 1944. Therefore the fact that Mt Vesuvius will
erupt again is absolutely certain. Apparently when it erupts, the citizens of Naples will have an
average of 9 minutes to evacuate themselves to safety. Why on earth would 4
million people live in a crowded city at the base of such a dangerous and
active volcano site, defies all logic.
The following
morning, our coach climbed most of the way up Mt. Vesuvius.
From the coach car park, it was a good forty minute climb to reach all the way
to the top. Once we were on the rim of the giant volcanic crater, we could
clearly see plumes of smoke coming out just fifty meters away from us. It was a
pretty scary sight. The whole scene reminded me of one of my favourite
movies ‘Dante’s Peak’ starting Pierce Brosnan. The only solace was that there were lots of
seismographic monitors installed everywhere to give an early warning should
there be any volcanic activity.
We bought a
few specimens of volcanic rocks from the local souvenir shop. I missed my dad
who would have loved the sight since he majored in Geology for his Bachelor of
Science and to this day remains fascinated about rocks despite that fact (or
probably because of it) that he chose a profession that has nothing to do with
geology.
We came down
from Mt Vesuvius and headed straight to the Naples harbour. If you are in a hurry and
don’t mind spending a bit, you can get on a hydrofoil boat, which would
get you to the Port of Marina Grande of Capri,
in about 45 minutes. A hydrofoil is a watercraft which as its speed increases, lifts
up its hull out of the water reducing the drag, thus further increasing its
speed. Its can be a bit rough but if you like speed you’d love it. Most people
travel on the bigger ferries which are very comfortable and get you on the
island in about 75 minutes.
Once at the harbour of Capri,
a mini-bus takes you up the mountain, to the only town on the island also
called Capri. The panoramic views of the azure
blue waters and all the boats parked around the island are absolutely
breathtaking. The views reminded me of another Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep
movie, ‘Mamma Mia!’ which was shot from the hills of another Mediterranean
Greek island of Skopelos. (I’d recommend the movie if
you like Abba songs.) As we were climbing up, the weather was turning cloudy
and we saw the storm coming in.
We had about three hours for lunch and to explore the town. There were some very interesting shops. Like this one where a dining table opens up to also become a leisure games table. We loved the chinaware and fine glass article shops. My wife and daughter bought glass bead necklaces and I bought a paid or glass cuff links as souvenirs.
Several shops sold extra virgin olive oil and lemon cider in
attractive shaped bottles. I had tasted apple cider before, but lemon cider was
new to me, apparently a specialty of the island of Capri.
As a family,
we love Italian food and we’ve had all kinds of pizzas and pastas in some of
the finest restaurants in the world. But the spinach cheese ravioli at the Al
Picollo restaurant in the square of La Piazetta, (the little square – the most famous
square of the town of Capri)
trounced the tastiest ravioli I have ever had. Over lunch, we had a chat with a
couple sat on the adjacent table. The husband was French and the wife was
Scottish. Both were management consultants in a multinational and were on a
three month sabbatical to de-stress themselves and enjoy the island of Capri
in their little boat. They said that on the ‘continent’, it was very common to
take 3 months off after every 5 years of continuous work. By the way, most continental
Europeans also get 6 weeks of vacation every year. After lunch I did a quick
mental math and said to my wife, “We need to take an 18 month sabbatical for
the 21 years of continuous work we have put in so far, with an average of 3
weeks annual holidays…” She violently agreed with me.
It turned out
to be a big mistake! That boat ride felt like the longest thirty minutes with
all the three children aboard getting sick, all the six women aboard shrieking
all the time, with four of the men losing their caps blown away by the wind and
the remainder two men losing their cameras while trying to hold their ground as
the boat rocked violently, initially from side to side, and then even more
violently, from the bow to the stern, with water gushing in at every dip. We saw
some wonderful waterfalls, natural caves, the Blue Grotto and just about managed
to come back one piece. But with all that rocking and through the thick cloud
and rain, we did not have great pictures to prove it was a worthwhile
adventure. Unfortunately, for the rest of our Italian tour, I wasn’t very
popular with the co-passenger families, especially the six ladies who believed
I had put them and their children’s lives in a harms way with my initiative and
situational leadership.
Hey ho, such are
the vicissitudes of this, our sublunary existence!
by Sachin Kulkarni, Pune
18th April 2014.
