Naples - unraveling the layers of history

When ever i mentioned my plan to visit Naples to any italian, the first thing they said was 'be careful!'. it is not supposed to be a  safe place. 'its all an urban myth', said my host Ruokko, a math and physics teacher, tutor really, as he is without a permanent job, like most Italians i know by now. He then points out a bunch of people loittering around near the station, and says 'but you should be careful of them' He lives on the top floor of an exceedingly narrow building in an exceedingly narrow lane, luckily not far from the central station.  

Rome and Vatican are very tough acts to follow. The first half a day in Naples i walked around the historical center of the city, and realized that i had had bit of an overdose of Duomos and museos. Some of the Basilicas were probably a bit older but most were from 15-16 century, and i had already seen the best of those. I needed something different. That's where the Greeks came in.

The Greeks started building a complex web of water cisterns around 400bc, which was expanded by the Romans to 400 km long system right under the city's belly. It was used later as a garbage dump and bomb shelter, and now as a tourist attraction. Unlike the water cistern in Istanbul, this one is very deep and very narrow, at some places only 50 cm wide to increase the water pressure. It was followed by a visit to the Roman theater, still deeply buried under modern day buildings, and until recently was being used as a garage and a carpenter shop. Two millennia ago, emperor Nero himself used to perform here. The city was starting to redeem itself.  

Naples is also built in layers like Rome, but a lot more difficult to excavate, as an old law required every building to be with in the city wall for centuries, so the greeks, Romans and Christians built over each other, with eruptions from mount Vesuvius putting some layers in between. As a result, the city has an unmistakable characteristics, with narrow lanes, reminding one of Chandni chowk in delhi, only the chaat corners being replaced with sfogliatelle and pizza corners.


 In the evening, i joined some couch surfers from Naples and St Petersburg for dinner, and Ruokko and his friends for drinks afterwords. After walking through the narrow lanes of Naples till 1 am, i was ready to crash. Thankfully, Ruokko decides to move to his girlfriend's house and i got the bed! His couch would have been really difficult to sleep in. The only disappointing thing during the day was the famous 'Napolitana' pizza, which is regarded as the best pizza in the world, at least by the Italian. Now that, to my mind, is an urban myth..

Pompeii - a day of ruins

It must have been a terrible day for the residents of Pompeii, when in 79ad mount Vesuvius exploded, after being dormant for over half a millennium, with the power of five atomic bombs, burying the town with up to 100 feet of mostly volcanic ash.  After the initial unsuccessful attempt to dig it out, it was forgotten, buried deeply in volcanic ash and mud, for around 1700 years, until someone rediscovered it while digging the land for agricultural purpose. It was a great archeological discovery, and gives such a clear insight into life two millennia ago with largely intact houses, shops, theaters and gymnasiums. The excavation is still an ongoing project. This was far bigger, and better, than Ostia Antica in Rome.  

Encolarno, another town near by, had similar fate in the same explosion, but it was buried under volcanic material and lava, so it was probably more difficult excavate and serious efforts were made only in this century to dig it out. only a small part has been excavated so far, but some of the stuff is more intact than even Pompeii.

I made a quick visit to Mount Vesuvius too. It is still alive and well, and due for a big one, hopefully only after a few hundred years. It was a good place to ponder how unexpected and fleeing life is.

Back in Naples, i only wanted to get to the highest point to take some pictures of the city, with very little interest or  energy left for the few remaining castles,  museums and churches. I was tired and my back was hurting. It was time for a quick power nap before catching the night train to Venice.

Rome part 2 - living a Roman life

I had no idea where in Rome i was going to stay, having been unsuccessful in getting a host. I made one last ditch attempt, just before boarding the plane in Cairo, on a borrowed phone from a local bartender-the only specimen of Egyptian hospitality who i wanted to pay but who didn't accept any payment.

Quite miraculously, some body had canceled at a host's place at the proverbial last minute. Simone stayed near the Roman ruins, and he had agreed to host me. The only ruins i knew were next to colosseum, right at the center of the city. It couldn't have been better.  

Sadly, this is when one learns that Rome is full of ruins. Luckily for me, even though i was going to stay at the very edge of Rome's map in Ostia Antica,  these are one of the largest and oldest ruins in Rome, so intact that one could almost rebuild the city. Simone, my new host, was  a very friendly and helpful young Italian bartender, and he  decided to host me partly to improve his English. He picked me up from the airport late in the night -not a problem as he worked from 10 pm to 3 am, and very generously offerred the bed to me since he anyway slept in the morning. His flat mate Marzio, ran his family ice cream parlor and bar. They are both musicians, photographers and a bit lost in life.  

I spent the first night in the bar, and got invited to Barbara's birthday party, a polish Italian girl, and Simone's friend. It seems that Italian bars are  always full, irrespective of time and location. Simone dropped me home around 1 am.

Next day, i went to villa Borghese in the morning, which turned out to be not a villa but a large garden with variety of things to do, so i rented a bike and hung out at the park. In the afternoon I had reserved my only guided tour in this trip to the Vatican, more on which in a separate blog.

In the evening i met up with Alfredo, a biologist researcher, who wanted to show me less touristic but more Roman spots of the city, though he walked through the more touristic spots in the center of the city so i did't miss those. I got back late in some very empty trains to some very empty neighborhood. It was a relief that the house was not far away from the station.  


After seeing the Vatican, i was less enthusiastic about seeing many other museums so the morning was spent at Ostia Antica, the famous Roman ruins, and the afternoon was spent in cooking the Indian meal, which both Simon and Marzio had for the first time, and seemed to like very much. I went to the city one more time to cover a few more spots, but it was clear i had already seen the best the city had to offer. The time was right for a change of scenery in Naples.

Vatican city- the center of the Christian universe

The Church may have got many things wrong, including the age of the universe and how humans evolved, the one thing it did right was to collect the best masterpieces of painting and sculpture over centuries, even though it was for the personal enjoyment of the Pope and clergy at the time, and then to open its gate for the benefit of general public. It was, i am sure, a very priftable decision too. God bless the Pope who authorized it! I am really glad i am getting to see this after seeing so many of the worlds best museums, or they wouldn't have felt that awesome. The louvre moves to the second spot, there is nothing that compares to the Vatican museum.

  Vatican may be the smallest country in the while world, but as the guardian of the Christian world, it packs a punch way way beyond its weight, easily one of the most significant places in the world to shape the human history, probably the most important. It may be built over only 110 access of land, its corridors length totals over 14 km. It had its own army, guards (only Swiss need apply), postal stamps, even its own football team, the most used card there is a blue card, shown to any clergy man showing too much excitement to get him to cool down for 5 minutes. This is one of the most amazing countries to visit in the world.



 It is said that if you spent merely 60 seconds admiring each piece of art in Vatican, you would spend 14 years in Vatican. I bet that doesn't include the bathroom breaks. Add another couple of years for the art work the acquire in that time! Clearly, my six hour tour was grossly inadequate to admire this art collection. And what a magnificent collection it is. The best artists in the world have worked here- Michaelangelo, Da Vinchi, Rafael, too many to count here - and they have produced some of the most magnificent art pieces world has ever seen.

No amount of pictures and videos can really do justice to do this place. This is one place which one has to come and experienced for itself. Just make sure, like me, you have seen the other great museums first, and admired the most well known chapels you wanted to see, or you may not be that awed by anything after you have visited the Vatican.

Cairo - is that it?

  After the excitement of pyramids wore off,  the rest of the trip went downhill very fast. In a short time one learns how expensive Egyptian hospitality is. They have mastered the art of first offering hospitality and then making sure you pay for it by buying expensive stuff from them. I understand the trick very well, but some how still knowingly fall for it for the fear of offending people around me. Every one is telling me, as honest muslims, how the other person was doing 'monkey business', selling me overpriced imitations, overchargimg me for services etc. Heck, I am even paying 1-2 usd in 'bakhshish' for every free call they offer to make for me, and its not the person whose phone i use but the one sitting next to him who asks for it. May be some of them are genuinely friendly and hospitable, but i became wary of " this is my Egyptian hospitality, brother" very fast.

The metro is far away, and poorly networked. half the taxis are without meter and you have to negotiate for everything Nothing is really walking distance, and few people speak English, so i finally started using taxis to take me around. I managed to cover most of the attractions that Cairo has to offer, but with the exception of the Egyptian museum, there was very little of interest. Yes, going through the first mosque in Africa, and some old churches and synagogues, and tehrir square where the Arab spring began, was interesting, but there is no information, brochures, descriptive plates,  or tour guides around- one had to rely on what the taxi driver knew. I went on the nile river cruise- which could cost 1 usd or 10, depending on how much you negotiate - with a group of culturally synthesized college students, with the girls wildly gyrating in belly dancing moves on Egyptian pop music, fully covered in 'hijab'.  

City is generally cheap,  as petrol costs only 50 cents usd per litre, so even after paying for Egyptian hospitality, it was not really expensive, but i was tired of all the negotiations, communication problems, heat , dust, noise, pollution and and a disturbing lack of sense of history in this ancient civilization. It was a one pony trick of pyramids holding it together. I had had enough of this place and i was looking forward to get back to Europe sooner than i had imagined.

Giza- lives only because of its dead pharaohs

I am in Africa for the first time in my life. My journey is taking me back in time, and Egypt is a perfect stop to see what the world was like in the ancient times. Unfortunately, it is also dusty, dirty, crowded, noisy, polluted, and badly organized. Only the weather is better than i thought.

    My host Ibrahim is an IT professional but works as an accountant. Job situation is difficult, and tourist arrivals have slowed since the revolution. Hema, as he is usually called, lives with his family. He was kind enough to pick me up from the airport when i offered to pay both ways, and, I suspect, after adding a fat margin for himself, but it was a good idea as there is no way in the world i would have found his place inside the meandering nameless roads.  

This is such a different world from where i was just a few hours ago. I have been told to knock on the door before coming out of my room so the women in the house can cover their heads. The house is in shambles, with hardly any lock or faucet working properly. I put a small towel at the door to keep it from opening and to indicate someone is inside. Every one has a late start, and life usually goes on late in night, with lots of eating places open till early morning. He smokes sheesha first thing in the morning and three times a day, but when i catch his younger brother smoking, he is scared to death that i will tell Hema who will beat him up. They sit around smoking sheesha and playing dominos till late night every day, and are generally friendly to include me in everything. There are hardly any women to be seen outside in the night, and side walks are full of sheesha smoking domino playing horse riding, loudly shouting and laughing, occasionally fighting egyptian men.

Hema lives next to the Giza pyramids, so that's where we head first. He obviously has setting with the tour operators and shopkeepers, but i find only mildly irritating as organizing any thing by myself would have been difficult, and its good to have a personal concierge in this place. Some where i had to pay the cost of being so unprepared and it was in Egypt. I choose a camel to go to the pyramids, which is not a comfortable ride, but i get used to it pretty fast. Going inside the pyramids, unfortunately badly lit -may be just to give tourists the experience of what it was truly like in the ancient times - results in an eerie and bruising experience. The sphinx, though, is smaller than i had imagined it to be.

The pyramids are obviously a wonder to behold, and the statistics associated with it is also astounding in every way. It took over 30 years to build with 100k slaves. These are the oldest architecture built by mankind that are still in existence today. And no reason would have existed to visit Giza, had they built the pyramids anywhere else.

Rome part 1- where all the roads once led,

Whatever I have seen of Roman empire palaces and ruins so far, it leaves no doubt that they once were the rulers of the world, and competing dynasties were trying to out do the previous ones in building the most magnificent architecture and artifacts the world has ever seen. One good thing about my itinerary has been that each subsequent city, barring Milan, has become more magnificent, but right around the mid point of my journey, i think i have just about hit the peak in Rome.  

My host Angelo was an IT prrofessional, living stylishly alone with his dog. I had met a nice American family while coming from the airport who had given me a good run down on Rome as they had been living in Rome for a month. It was clear that three days were not going to be enough. Again, i had made reservations to some key attractions, which saved me long waiting times.

The day didn't start off well, with heavy showers in the morning, but weather was great for rest of the day. I spent the morning in Basilica San Paolo, next to the house, and MacDonald for the free wifi. So far in Europe, the ongoing financial crisis had not impacted me directly but there was a flash strike by transport workers, so had to cover the city walking, which in the end turned out to be a good idea.

Since Rome has been built on 7 hills, and in layers, a lot of ruins have survived dramatically intact, specially after the great fire of 64 ad, which is the famous one when Nero was playing the fiddle while Rome burnt, apparently it was his doing to clear the area for his plans of building royal palace.. It is amazing to see what magnificent structures were being built almost two thousand years ago. I walked through the famous colosseum ruins, stepping on the same stones on which emperor Nero and Constantine once walked. The Palatino, forum, Pantheon and Piazza de Venezzia, were all with in walking distance.

In the evening, i met up with Jyotsna, who was visiting Rome on work, and it was a good ending to the day which started with bad weather and transport strike. I barely managed to catch the flight to Cairo due to amazing inefficiency of Alitalia, a sad example of how far the descendents of this once great empires have fallen. But Rome is still not done, and i will be back after three days in Cairo

Pisa - fortunately the tower tilted

It is difficult to believe now, but there was a time when Pisa was the biggest center for art and culture, with the worlds finest art and sculpture collections, some where around the 12th century before Florence took over during renaissance. the city's fortunes had been declining ever since, specially during the world war time, and though some serious attempts made in last few decades to restore the lost glory are bearing fruit, the restoration work is still not complete.
 
Built around the center of the city, the tower of Pisa would have been interesting because of its historical nature, but surely not one of the most known and visited tourist attraction in the world, had it not tilted over the way it did, with out falling over. The architects wouldn't have realized that defect left in its construction was probably the only thing that made it survive for centuries, with money pored over for its conservation as a world heritage.
Climbing the tower was not allowed, i believe, til 2010, but they finally managed to stabilize and made it secure so i could go up for a beautiful 360 degree view of the city. The rest of the area is interesting too, with old sculpture museums and duomo, and i was done in around three hours, even after playing guardian to couple of American kids who weren't allowed at first to enter the tower without adult supervision  

Its only an hour away from Florence by the fast Italian trains and definitely worth a half day visit,  and even the train journey is enjoyable specially as the train passess through some pretty tuscan scenery. Italy is greener than i imagined and Tuscany is a picture postcard type beautiful area. I would have loved an additional day just hitch hiking through its small villages. May be next time.

Florence -Visiting the birthplace of renaissance

With out doubt, good weathther has been trying to catch up with me. Whenever i am leaving a city i can see the skies clearing up. Finally it caught up with me in Florence. My host Pasquale is a typical Italian from south of Italy,  with a sense of humor and a heart laugh. He is an economist and a consultant, and visits Florence occasionally. He rents out the roons to the university students near by, and unfortunately for me, he just found new tenants. The room reserved for me has gone to a Hungarian girl, and the other one to a British guy, so my bed is now in the living area. ” you have lost a good room but gained good company” Pasquale said with a laughter.

Cycling in a new city is not a good idea. Any thing can go wrong with the cycle, the traffic and the weather, but when he offered me his cycle to tour the city, i took the chance, and was very relieved to bee back home with nothing going wrong with three cycle, traffic or the weather. It is a magnificent but small city, very doable on the cycle. It was the center of art and culture in the 15th century, and widely considered to be the birth place of Western civilization.  

Florence certainly made up for the disappointment of Milan. Even better, this was the cultural promotion week in Italy so lot of attractions were free, though i had pre-reserved some key attractions to avoid the long queues. That turned our to be a good idea and i could cover a lot in a couple of days,  including Santa Maria cathedral, church of Saint Croce, the duomo, Bargello museum, and the most famous Uffizi. What i didn't finish myself, Pasquale showed me on a private guided tour the second day, along with the historical nuggets to go with it.

Some of the views from the old bridge and Michael Angelo plaza were magnificent . The paintings and the sculptures were astonishingly beautiful, and i finally understood why among the thousands of beautiful sculptures, some like the statue of David are considered path breaking and pinnacle of the art form. It was easy to imagine what the city must have been like in its hey days. Luckily, it still retains its charm from centuries ago.



Location : Via Francesco Caracciolo, 77, 50133 Florence,

Milan- more friends to make than places to visit

Milan was only a transit spot for me from Geneva to Florence. it was to late by the time I figured out that all the museums in the city are closed on Monday, and the only real famous painting to see -the last supper by Michael Angelo- was booked out in advance. To make it worse, my hosts informed me they wouldn't be home till 830, and it was still raining. And the idea of carrying the bag pack the while day didn't appeal to me.

Luckily I had met Sushila and lucci at Vishal's wedding in London. They live in Milan downtown, and had kindly invited me for coffee in the afternoon. I called Sushila and preponed the plan. After coffee she gave me the city guide, An umbrella and marked the places of interests and off I went after dropping my bag pack at her house.

Other than the Duomo, the rest of Milan was bit of a disappointment , specially after what I had seem in this journey so far. Most of the museums were closed anyway. I hung out with Mohit, an MBA student from Paris, and his wife Itisha and just walked around the city. It was the design week in Milan, but I want planning to buy any furniture so we avoided that.

After spending the evening with Lucci and Sushila again, I went to my hosts place- Rick and Ilaria, and had a nice little evening with a typical Italian dinner and post dinner conversations. I was quite exhausted though and feeling more tired by not doing much during the day. I was off to steep soon afterwards. It was time to look forward to Florence and some good weather

Location : Via Francesco Caracciolo, 77, 50133 Florence,

Visiting the past and future in Geneva

 

While I am making new friends along the way in this journey, nothing compares the joy of meeting old friends, and the only two close friends from college days I have in continental Europe, Jyotsna and Pratik, both happen to live in Geneva. The journey from Paris to Geneva was very picturesque, and Jyotsna, smiling and vivacious as always, was waiting at the station for me. She had the weekend all planned out. Six options, two weather dependent (which was lousy the whole time), dinner here, lunch there, every thing was arranged, reservations made -it was like being at home again.   The only item in my agenda was to visit CERN, the largest Hydron collider in the world, discovering the true nature of life, universe and everything in between. Most of my Europe visit was about discovering the last few thousand years of history, but CERN is not only about the history since history began, it is also about discovering the secrets of the future. This is one true modern temple worth visiting, and the few hours spent there were exhilarating. Luckily for me, another friend visiting Jyotsna from New York, Ajay Kapur, was a physicist and turned out to be a perfect tour guide for CERN.   We met Pratik and Avni for very typical swiss fondue dinner. I hadn't seen them since 2003, and there was a lot of catching up to do. For a little while it was like living up the college days again. Next morning, we went to play badminton with Pratik's desi gang, and i was quite glad that i had just started playing a bit regularly back home. Jo had to leave for Rome for work in the afternoon, so Pratik took me home for a lovely idly lunch, and to meet his cute little princesses Seher and Sana. Then he drove me up to the mountains, and I encountered snow for the first and the last time on this trip. He then took me out to a fancy Italian place for dinner with his desi gang,   Visiting old friends, CERN and the Swiss mountains was just the perfect way to spend the weekend in Geneva, and only thing that could have improved it was the weather, which seemed to be clearing up as i left for Milan on Monday morning.

Midnight in Paris

Surely there are better ways to see Paris than to stay in a hundred year old building in a really old and typically Parisian neighborhood,  with a native French pastry maker who doubles up as your local guide in the evening, but for now i can't think of those. despite her very tough working hours,Nina has been an ideal host for me

I was so totally unprepared to visit the city. No tourist map or language help. Other than Eiffel tower , Arc De triompe and Louvre, i didn't even know what else was there to see. Luckily i meet this Brazilian couple - Patricia and Mario, who were there for 2 days only and they were much better prepared. They gave me some maps and showed me the way around  

No matter how much you have seen Paris in pictures and movies, you can't ready be ready for the magnificence of Paris. The louvre was astoundingly beautiful and rich in its history and art collection. It is the best museum in the world. I focused on seeing the main master pieces like Mona Lisa and David, there is no way to do justice to this museum in the time i have. But i had lot more to cover- The pantheon, the Montmartre, Musee D'arsy, hotel De invalides, obelisque, ecole militaire, and the church of notre dame. It was breathtakingly beautiful, and it transported me to an earlier era just like in 'midnight in Paris'

I walked 5 to 6 hour a day. And climbed  400 staiIrs a day. Nina joined me usually around 4 to take me to her favorite parts of the city aand the museums. I was exhausted by the evening but i did manage to cook some indian dinner, which she liked. One of the evening I meet up with Anna and Al, two beautiful and typical Parisian girls who had couchsurfed with us in Singapore. They very generously took me out for dinner and it was a splendid evening.  Its good to have friends in a new city.  

I spent the last half day just trying to get on top of Eiffel tower. 3 out of 4 lifts were not working so the queue was unusually long. Faced with the choice of leaving with out climbing the tower, i had to resort to the old trick of finding a big Indian group up ahead in the line, and just mixed around. It got easier when they learned i was traveling the world after quitting my job, and the tour guides were nice enough to include me in. Still it took close to four hours to get to the top and I had just about enough time to get to the station to catch the train to Geneva, feeling pretty satisfied I knew what living in Paris was like and i managed to cover most of the big attractions there.