I Drove In Naples And SURVIVED!

Galleria Umberto, Napoli -A thing of Beauty!

Visiting Naples for the first time and we enter the city courtesy of a taxi driven by a descendent of Fangio. He drives one hand on the wheel at speeds reaching 130 kms -his mullet streaming in the wind. Vicki is immersed in a book the whole way. She later confides that she was too scared to look, hence her eyes were locked on her book.

Naples is a contradiction. It mixes style and sophistication with chaos and rubbish. Naples is bi polar. The traffic is governed by one rule –there are none! Toot and go. Toot and go again. Auto -anarchy. Just go and hope. Assert your position and pray there’s no collision. Main streets are linked to small laneways where the Vespa rules. Pedestrians step into traffic at their peril. Neapolitan pedestrians are clearly thrill seekers. I immediately decide that when crossing streets, I will wait for the locals to lead. I am content to follow. We reach Via Toledo, clearly a shopping precinct. Vicki finally lifts his gaze from her book and smiles.
We check into our small hotel and then walk down the lane to Via Toledo. The crowd has grown on this busy thoroughfare. We ooze into the late afternoon passegiata. The majestic Galleria Umberto comes into view with its glass and iron cupola rising nearly sixty metres above an expansive marble floor. A magnificent architectural achievement and a reminder of Napoli’s cultured past. The pace slows inside the galleria. Visitors display reverential airs as they glance heavenward to embrace the beauty of this magnificent building.
We step back onto Via Toledo assailed by noise, crowds and street litter. We stroll past Caffe Grambinus with its old world charm. It oozes a sense of propriety with its well dressed, attentive waiters. We relax on a Sunday evening, enjoy a coffee and watch the passing parade. By the time we leave it is 11.00pm and the Via Toledo is still bustling with people. The next day we explore further into Naples. We are aghast as we watch pedestrians step from the pavement into the traffic. The traffic miraculously stops. We quickly learn to follow when the locals lead. We hold back, just a mere step behind. We are visitors here and it would be presumptuous to lead the way out into the roadway. Vespas dart and dive from roadway to pavement without warning. They are upon you within an instant. We have been warned that bag snatchers and jewels thieves are prone to riding past on Vespas, conducting grab and snatch raids, so we dress with such eventualities in mind. We see nothing remotely suspicious during our extensive walking tours. Naples vibrates with a discernable sense of energy. Gritty and raw scenes, mix it up with beauty and precision.
We take day trips to Pompei and Capri. We travel to Pompei by train Somehow we end up at Volla and have to change trains at San Giorgio. Eventually we reach Pompei station situated conveniently opposite the eruption site. When we get to Pompei, the place is in ruins! It’s been that way since 79AD The eruption that took place was of an unimaginable scale. Pompei was at that time, a large and prosperous city. The eruption covered it with so much ash and lava that it lay undiscovered until 1549! Quite incredible in light of the large scale archaeological dig that has taken place since that time. We spend an entire day exploring. The next day, we opt for Capri.
The ferry ride takes fifty minutes. Capri is visually beautiful but is also very slick, catering to well heeled visitors. It is early April and yet the island is swarming with day trippers like ourselves. We do not get to Ana Capri. We do see the Limoncello stalls and immediately think of Maria. We pass a women walking a miniature dachshund. ‘Hang about Streuds’ she implores the dog of low gravitation in what is unmistakably a broad Australian accent. Vicki and I afford ourselves a quick chuckle. The Australian accent stands out like a fart in a cathedral in these far from home locales.
We decide on lunch at La Pigna, finishing just in time. A bus load of American students descends on the restaurant closely followed by a similar group of Italian students. Three tables of Japanese tourists hastily leave as the restaurant swells with youthful exuberance. Any pretence of ambience evaporates in the presence of cackles, squeals and yelps.
The Japanese group have been fed en masse, loaded into their bus en masse, and delivered back to their pre arranged island accommodation. No one has to tell these tourists to stay with the group. Their movement is so very safe and predictable, - so little likelihood of unexpected adventures. It strikes me as a sad way to travel. Sheep with cameras would deliver the same effect. As we head back to the ferry, we agree that our time on Capri is too short.
We have decided to drive to Sicily. Car hire is a protracted process but I am up for the challenge. We initially aim for the Amalfi Coast. Eight lanes of traffic lead out of Naples. None of them marked. I manage to leave the city behind without incurring any contact with other cars. I am hot, sweaty and anxious, but our vehicle is unscathed. At one point, in the midst of eight lanes converging into one, a lone pedestrian looms up in the middle of the roadway. She merely raises a defiant hand and the traffic somehow slides around her. As I scan the road ahead for unexpected obstacles, I dream up a T-shirt that reads “I drove through Naples and survived.”
Sicily here we come. I say that because somehow we miss the turn off to Amalfi and find ourselves in Salerno when we come off the Auto-strada. I enquire of the navigator, ‘What happened?’ She informs me, ‘I didn’t get much sleep last night.’
Upon our return journey to Naples a week later, we catch up with the Amalfi coast drive. Now, that’s a driving challenge!