Paestum

Friday we left our comfortable apartment in Vico Equense, and made for Rome.  However we had one final piece of business left to attend to in Southern Italy: Paestum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paestum

Paestum is generally considered the best excavation site for Greek ruins on Earth.  Even better than Greece.  The site is home to a series of old Greek temples that are absolutely amazing.  The site itself is a partially excavated Greek city.

Check out this Temple of Athena I found!

Wildflowers.

Temple of Hera.

Across the road from Paestum is a museum that has gathered all of the relics that were excavated from the site.  Thousands of Greek objects - jewelry, pottery, statues, and many pieces that originally adorned the temples:

More History through Pizza

Thursday we jumped an early train back into Naples (early for us, anyway).  It's about an hour train ride into the city, so we arrived just in time for lunch.

Our mission?  MORE PIZZA!

Having already tried and loved the oldest pizzeria in the world, our next stop was to try the most popular.



L'antica Pizzeria da Michele is in the heart of the old town of Naples.  This area is where, in the late 1800's, King Umberto and Queen Margherita visited when they were working to unite Italy, and from that visit the Margherita Pizza was born.

This pizzeria, along with many others in Naples, only serves two pies: Marinara or Margherita.  The Marinara is just crust, San Marzano tomato sauce, garlic and oregano.  The Margherita is crust, San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, and basil.

Sorrento and Capri

Wednesday we took the train a few stops in the other direction from Naples to the town of Sorrento.

Sorrento is really nice.  It's famous for wood working, and for the fact that it's sort of the northern tip of the Amalfi Coast, which is a gorgeous region of coastline that's considered a national treasure of Italy.

The towns around this area are all up on the hillside, just like where we're staying in Vico Equense.  After touring around Sorrento for a little while, picking up a few souvenirs for folks, we hopped on the ferry to the island town of Capri.

About 20 minutes later we were greeted by the beautiful city of Capri:

Near the dock on Capri, they have a "funicular", which is just a train that scales the side of the hill.  The main area of the town is up on top:

Capri is a pretty high end ritzy resort area, but being that it's the off season, it wasn't overly crowded.  I wouldn't mind renting a place on the island for a few days just to relax, as the views are obviously gorgeous.

Pompeii

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard of Pompeii.  And if you lived in Pompeii in 79AD, you also ended up under a rock.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii

2000 years ago, Pompeii was a flourishing Roman city.  Casca Longus, the guy who stabbed Julius Caesar, called it home.  

Then in the year 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius decided to explode and bury the city in 20 feet of ash.  The neat thing about that is that it was very well preserved.  It was re-discovered in 1749, almost 17 centuries later.

Statue of Apollo.

Outside the Amphitheater.

Inside the Amphitheater.

Original marble table and inlay.

Here's what the streets and buildings look like.  Imagine hanging out here when 20 feet of ash and lava landed on you.

The city was ancient even before it was buried.  Check out these cart tracks that have been worn into the stone streets.

The Grand Theater.  This is amazingly well preserved.

The original marble is still in place on the steps of the Theater.

Historic Pizza

Tuesday we braved the train back into Naples in search of Historic Pizza.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antica_Pizzeria_Port%27Alba

The "Antica Pizzeria Port Alba" is the oldest pizzeria in the world.  It's been making pizza since 1738!

It was quite an adventure walking around to find it, but once we did, it was worth the walk.  I had the classic "D.O.C", which is an Italian acronym that basically means the rules for making it are controlled by the government.  The pizza itself is considered a national landmark.  It was buffalo mozzarella, olive oil, cherry tomatoes and basil.  The "sauce" was the milk from the cheese and the olive oil.  It was a little soupy, but the flavors were so delicate and wonderful.

Kyra had mozarella, tomato sauce and artichokes:

Yum!

This is my "Conquistador" pose.  I do this when I make historic discoveries for humanity.

So.  Full.

Naples and Vico Equense

Monday we left Sicily and hopped a plane to Napoli.  Naples is the largest city of southern Italy, and one of the busiest port cities in the world (I believe second only to Hong Kong).  It's situated between the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius.

After a hectic drive through Catania to leave Sicily, we landed in Naples, and jumped on a bus to the Stazione Centrale (Central Train Station), and then tried to take a train around the bay to our apartment in the quaint town of Vico Equense.

Unfortunately the train system around here sucks balls.  The first train was so packed that we couldn't fit on it with a shoehorn.  The second train was cancelled.  So the THIRD train finally showed up... and after about an hour, we arrived in Vico Equense.  Thankfully our apartment is only about two blocks from the station, and the view from our balcony made it all worth it:

Caltagirone

On our way back to Catania, we stopped at a little town called Caltagirone. Caltagirone is famous for two things: Ceramics, and the Stairs to Heaven. Holy shit, that was a lot of stairs! Also, each stair has unique ceramic tiles decorating it:

View from above:

Lots of neat ceramics here. We picked up a few gifts that would be easier to transport home. Kyra wanted this plate, but there's no way it would make it home in one piece!

This evening we're staying in a guest room that we rented at a castle. Like, a real one. That's still in use:

Agrigento - Valley of the Temples

Saturday we drove a long stretch of the Southern coast of Sicily to the town of Agrigento.

Agrigento is most famous for a series of ancient Greek temples, built around the year 600BC. The largest and best surviving of which is the Temple di Concordia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valle_dei_Templi

Temple of the Dioscuri (above)

Remains of the Temple of Heraclese (above)

The view of the Temple of Concordia from outside our hotel balcony, along with the ubiquitous lemon trees.

http://www.hotelvillaathena.it/

The valley is absolutely gorgeous:

Temple of Heracles in the distance (above)

Sunday we drive back to Catania, where we flew into Sicily from London. Catania is one of the largest cities of Sicily, but it's not pretty. We're basically going there so that we'll be close the the airport for our flight out to Naples come Monday morning.