Appassionato

Padre Pio tucked among the rocks in the Bay of Naples

    I have to say that Naples, for me, is where the true understanding of what Italian appasionato or passion can be found. Naples is every crayon in the box. It is every chocolate ate swirling around in a crazy flavour. Naples is not just about the crime or the birth place of pizza. Naples is about the passion for life that Italians seems to have been bread with and live their lives for. We were prepared to not wear anything of value. We were warned to keep a close eye on our cameras. I think this warning is what turns everyone off from Naples. Just warning everyone, we did have a close call of a Rolex watch attempted to be stolen and a few butts grasped while on the bus but we all survived. Looking past this, Naples is an amazing city.
   From the train station we headed to the subway to get off at the Mellegina stop. We are going to walk along the bay in the rich area of Naples. Wow, to be rich and live along this bay would be lovely. Most of the buildings are now grande hotels. A century ago, these buildings were grande mansions. I am amazed by this bay because this is the bay that docks all of the huge cruise ships. This is also the bay that millions of Italians left Italy for America. This is the Bay that my great-grandparents left from to head to America with their 12 children to achieve the American dream. We rounded the bay and I had to stand on one of the rocks to view the same view that my great-grandparents had. As we continued on, we came across these gentlemen selling the catch of the day: octopus, squid and small fish. One of the guys started playing with the octopus enticing one of us to buy it for our lunch. Sorry guys, we are having pizza.

 

Castle Nuovo

    Danilo stopped us to talk to us about the locks of Naples. The youth of Naples are so passionate about their love. When they want to express their love, they come down to the bay and write their names on a lock. They lock it up on one of the fences lining the bay. On the lock the names of the two lovers is written. Then the key is thrown into the bay. This is passionate love.

Piazza Plebiscito

    Danilo, stopped us again to talk about about Castle Nuovo. This once was the castle that housed the King of Naples and Palermo. There is also an old story that there was a golden egg thought to have been housed in the castle. The castle is placed perfectly in the bay surrounded by three sides of water. It is almost impenetrable. We continued around the bay until we reached Piazza Del Plebiscito. It is named after the plebiscite that brought Naples into the unified Kingdom of Italy. It is one of the largest piazzas in Naples. There is so much international history in this piazza. We just kept walking because we needed to head to lunch.
     To the right of this piazza and up about a block is an amazing hole in the wall family run restaurant that serves some of the most amazing Italian dishes I have ever tired. This little old man was waiting outside of the door for any sight of Danilo and us. He was a cute little thing. He quickly sat us down at our table inside and started laying everything imaginable in front of us to eat. There were so many variations of bruschetta and many different antipastas. I chose to order the mazzerella di buffala pizza or buffalo's milk mazzerella pizza. This was my first time trying the buffalo's milk mazzerella and I have to say it was amazing. Honestly, it was a food coma. We had to walk in order to get the food to digest. Danilo said that for the afternoon we would walk through old Naples. This is where we had to pay special attention to our personal belongings. Many people are robbed on the streets of old Naples.

Procepia (nativity scenes)

There is a huge difference from the grande boulevards of the bay area compared to Old Naples. The streets are closer and the buildings are taller. I think the idea of "craming" the most people into a smaller area can be understood here. This is where many of the dreamers leaving Italy to go to America stayed. This is also one of the poorest area in Naples. However, I find it one of the most interesting areas I have walked through. I think that the very passion of the Italian people lives in every square inch of this place. The best way for me to describe my experience here is that it is like walking into a fiery pit swirling around with every emotion possible. Many of the shops display rare trades that are only found in Naples. Paper flowers are made in one shop. In another shop statues are made of every Saint around the world. I tired my luck in this shop. I have been trying to find a statue of Saint Laurence or San Lorenzo. His is the patron saint of cooks. He was char grilled to death. Before he died he yelled out "turned me over I am done on this side." Many Italian kitchens have this statue displayed on a shelf overseeing the Sunday Pranzo with extended family and friends. My luck ran out because the shop only makes this statue on request. I don't have time to wait for a statue to be made. Darn!!! One of the more interesting stores was one that makes manger scenes. In Naples these scenes are called procepia. Every home will have one displayed year round. The restaurant that we had pizza in even had one on display. I would have loved to buy one and bring it back for my parents but most were too large. Jesus' birth was displayed in many settings even in an Eskimo village.
   We toured two of the most famous churches in Naples: the Jesuit Church of Jesus Nuovo and Santa Chiara. In one of the small chapels of the Jesuit Church holds Ex-votos in forms of different body parts asking for grace or thanks. They are hung in a chapel in dedication towards a doctor in the early 1900's that had the knack for curing his patients of all aliments. We took a bathroom break. We were all going to meet in this side hallway just so we were all together. I was the last one to return from the bathroom. Apparently everyone from my group had been removed from the area. What I was told by the group is that there was an exercisim happening. A Priest had removed them. Natalie was rather freaked out by the whole thing. As creepy as it was....I felt like I had missed something big.
   We had to catch the bus back to the train station to catch the train into Sorrento. On the bus back, apparently Matt had someone trying to steal something out of his pocket. We were packed so tight on the bus that he couldn't tell whether it was one of us bumping him or someone really was trying to steal something out of his pocket. The swirling concern of having something stolen echoed around the bus. We were finally able to get off at the bus station and catch the Circumvesuvian train into Sorrento. We are staying that the Ulyssess Deluxe Hostel. http://www.ulissedeluxe.com/sorrento-inexpensive-accommodation.html  When Danilo said it was a hostel we all thought oh crap it is going to be trashy. Were we ever in a surprise. While on the train, I stood with Rocco and we started chatting with these two American girls who are students at NYU. They are studying in Florence for the year and headed down to Sorrento for the weekend. They just so happened to be staying at the same place we are staying.