The trip was to help Carol get birth certificates from Avellino of her great grandparents as she qualifies for Italian Dual Citizenship. But first we have to head to Rome to a meetup of Expats of Rome at a restaurant where a scene was done for the ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ movie. Very nice one, adjacent to Piazza Navone. Piazza Navone has some of the most amazing statues. Huge Piazza and if you have not visited, definitely worth it. We find the restaurant…have an Apertivo and a few munchies. Meet some nice folks, a bit of pasta and back to our hotel room. Heading to Naples in the morning.
Now although navigating by the seat of my pants is an adventure, as I am getting older, less of this wild navigation is allowed. We went into Rome without a hotel room. Yes we thought we had it confirmed via Airbnb but in fact, we were in the ‘confirmed in the overbooked’ category. Yeah, not cool. We did manage to find a room near Roma Termini. Which is my favorite train station…but in the surrounding areas, one might wonder if the hotel rooms are by the night or by the hour. Yep, that crossed our mind. But a sleep, shower and caffe, and we are on our way to Naples. We are traveling light, a night in Naples, day trip to Avellino to request documents, back to Naples and home. Let the games begin!!!
Lucky were we to be in Napoli a few days after they won the national soccer championship for Italy!! The city was decked out in extraordinary sky blue and white banners/flags and signs!! Naples is so excited. The team had one more game with another team that had beat them in the past – although the loss didn’t impact them winning the national championship. But Saturday night, 6pm, everyone in Naples was glued to TV’s or at the Stadium for this last game. And the Naples team beat them!! Oh the noise and fireworks was astounding. Naples has won 3 championships – with the last one 30 years ago. It was something…the area we were in had life-size cutouts of the team and photos were on!!!
The Napoli F.C (Football Club) Gli Azzurri (The Blues) with a mascot, ‘O’ Ciuccio’ a donkey! Great pride in this team. We saw ‘3 Campioni’ on collector liquor bottles (prosecco), banners and flags. They are celebrating big time there. Well done!!!
Interestingly we had a room booked at the Hilton. An airbnb room. We found the building and were a bit surprised at the building. The doors were so beat up…but as I have found so many times, don’t let that building or front door stop you from going in…and when we did get to our room, WOW. Check the photos, white carrara marble on the floor…and the bathroom was white and black. Stunning room. Brand new.
A bit of caffe and cornetto for breakfast, and off we went to find the bus to Avellino. NOTE: Avellino, while a large metropolitan city, has no train service. That is a problem. People love the old cities and surrounding area villas…oh they are amazing but if your only transportation is a bus…not so much fun. And unless you are a citizen of Italy, you cannot own a car. So trains become invaluable. We walked through Avellino, Carol’s ancestors’ city and area. Of course it was now Monday and the Commune is closed on Mondays. A very kind man working there took all her information and they have contacted her that they are working on it. Cool. A quick lunch, back to the local bus station and back to Naples, then a train that will take us all the way to Orte. Yahooooo. No change of trains and this is a faster train with fewer stops. Cool beans. Except we were on the wrong train. Thinking we needed to give ourselves some ‘wiggle room’ to miss a train or a lengthy visit to the commune, which didn’t happen, so back earlier, jump on the next train heading to Orte and off we go!
Nice train, sat at a table, very comfortable…but the wrong tix for this faster train…we thought cool beans, we’re getting home sooner! Trip going well until the conductor looked at our tix and said, “ah ladies you are on the wrong train. Your ticket is for an intercity train and this is regional (or vice versa) and the fare is more plus now you have a penalty fee.” I offered he should call the police, but no, pay the difference or get off at the next stop. This train is faster than the regular train that makes lots of stops, but not the bullet train. So we paid the 10 Euro penalty and 13.90 Euros ticket difference. Ah it was cheaper than getting a hotel room, so we were okay and definitely liked getting in earlier to Orte. All in all, a quick fun trip, met some cool folks at the Meetup, great train trip with nice people, even the conductor was friendly while getting an extra 10 Euros out of us!!
Back home, catching up with local friends…a Procession was planned for the evening! It seems Orte does a Mother’s Day event for the Madonna of Pompeii. No I have limited information but they carried a huge flower arrangement around the village of the Madonna. Quite amazing and the people follow the procession through the village (at night) singing. It is quite beautiful.
Yes the carciofi festa is passed, onto the next event and there are quite a few here. I’d like to get the calendar of events but it seems more that they all just know...however I have noticed the Orte tourism group is planning more events so it’s getting interesting. Rumor has it that in the last month, 20 apartments have been sold to Americans and Brits. That is amazing. Hopefully we can retain the ‘Italian-ness’ of this village. And a new coffee shop opened, The Bistro. Really nice.
We have now found a mani-pedi gal locally who is amazing! So thrilled. 15 Euros for mani, 15 for the pedi. She comes to your home so I am thrilled. And Alessia cuts my hair for less than half that I pay in America and she is so awesome!! Their excitement to see me and we do the huggy cheek thing. I’ve missed these people. Kind, fun always smiling and glad to see you. Their warmth and welcome attitude is just amazing. And I am so glad to see them.
Raining today, so a visit to the Chinese store for a few things, pay my utilities and then who knows…will see what the day brings! xoxoxoxo
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Thank you for sharing your adventure!
Fun adventures!!
Wow action packed adventure!! Wrong train? Well a friend of mine went down the wrong jet way and flew to a different city? it was one of those that had two doors and luckily he wasn’t sitting in a seat already taken.