Thursday, August 30, 2007
Cosenza 9/9/06 Through Naples 9/11/06
THIS ENTRY IS SO DISORGANIZED THAT THE PICTURES DO NOT NECESSARILY MATCH THE TEXT. i HAD FEW NOTES AND DON'T KNOW WHAT ALL THE PICTURES ARE. JUST LOOK AND THEM AND KNOW THAT WE ENJOYED OURSELVES WHILE WE WERE SEEING THESE THINGS AND MARY WAS TAKING THE PICTURES.
Saturday, September 9, 2006---The Cosenza Adventure
Cosenza is a small town a couple of hours south of Naples by train. We had a reservation at a time share in a small village about an hour from Cosenza. We had planned to kick back and rest a few days and spend the rest of the week visiting Naples. We were told that there was bus service from the train stations in Cosenza out to the resort. We took an overnight train and got a sleeper compartment so we would get there by early afternoon on Saturday. That worked great, what came later wasn’t so good
When we arrived we went to the car rental office the resort had told us about. It was closed and would not open again until Monday. We went to the bus station and found that the last bus had gone and there would not be another until noon on Sunday. I checked and we could get a cab of 125 Euros (about $160 US), so I called the resort and described my problem to their English speaker. He is the same one who told me to just come on down that I would not need a reservation for a rental car. He also told me they had a regular bus schedule out there. He did not tell me that the schedule was once a day. I asked him if he could send a courtesy vehicle to pick us up and he did not know what that was. He said just come tomorrow on the bus, and I said just cancel our reservation and hung up the phone.
We got ripped off by a taxi driver when we went from the train station to the bus station. We finally found a person at the bus station who could speak enough English to direct us to a hotel close enough for us to walk. I didn’t want another fight with that taxi driver. We went to a wonderful hotel named The Royal Hotel. It was four star with a nice restaurant and free internet. It cost very little more than a hostel in a big city, and the guy at the desk spoke English. We spent the night there and I got on the internet and made reservations at hostels in Naples and Rome and on Sunday we went to Naples. Besides the theft of Mary’s bag in Barcelona, this is the most negative experience we had.
Sunday, September 10, 2006---Naples
The front desk at the hotel called and arranged for a cab to take us to the train station... The driver spoke English and we only had to pay about half what we paid to come in yesterday. We got out of Cesenza and I was happy to be gone. By changing our plans and canceling the timeshare we added a few days to the time we could spend in Naples and Rome. We decided that we wanted most of the remaining time in Rome so we just spent Sunday afternoon and Monday in Naples.
We had a beautiful ride to Naples. Most of the trip we were within sight of the coast and had a good view of the villages and small towns along the Tyrrbenian Sea. I really thought that Naples was on the Mediterranean Sea, but looking at the map proved me wrong. Whatever the name, it is a beautiful view of the city of Naples from along the coastline as it spreads out on the hill above the sea. We arrived in early afternoon and got to our hotel. We spent the rest of the day walking around the city. On Monday we took a bus tour, (actually three) and saw all the sights. All the tours began at the Plazza Municipio. It looks like an old castle and houses the offices of the city.
The views on the tour were much better than the translation of the guide’s script, so I didn’t get a lot of notes. One thing which we did bring away from the tour was some great music which they played during pauses in the guide’s presentation. We bought a couple of CDs which had all the music on them. (In Italian of course)
I’ll make a few observations based on our short time there. Naples is by the sea and all the streets lead there. The town does not have the ancient buildings that most of the cities do because it was almost completely destroyed by the Germans during WWII. Although it is more modern, it is not as well cared for as most of the cities we visited. There were lots of street people, and a lot of trash in the streets. The most beautiful and the best cared for was the area along the Bay. From the road along the coast you can see the Isle of Capri and the volcanic island of the Lost City of Pompeii. If we had enough time they have special tours for both of these sites which would be worth while.
We went out and found us a good restaurant and sampled the Naples food. The food is as regional in Italy as it is in the United States. The people are more adamant about the superiority of their region than anywhere we traveled. We went home to bed early because tomorrow we are going to Roma.
Cosenza is a small town a couple of hours south of Naples by train. We had a reservation at a time share in a small village about an hour from Cosenza. We had planned to kick back and rest a few days and spend the rest of the week visiting Naples. We were told that there was bus service from the train stations in Cosenza out to the resort. We took an overnight train and got a sleeper compartment so we would get there by early afternoon on Saturday. That worked great, what came later wasn’t so good
When we arrived we went to the car rental office the resort had told us about. It was closed and would not open again until Monday. We went to the bus station and found that the last bus had gone and there would not be another until noon on Sunday. I checked and we could get a cab of 125 Euros (about $160 US), so I called the resort and described my problem to their English speaker. He is the same one who told me to just come on down that I would not need a reservation for a rental car. He also told me they had a regular bus schedule out there. He did not tell me that the schedule was once a day. I asked him if he could send a courtesy vehicle to pick us up and he did not know what that was. He said just come tomorrow on the bus, and I said just cancel our reservation and hung up the phone.
We got ripped off by a taxi driver when we went from the train station to the bus station. We finally found a person at the bus station who could speak enough English to direct us to a hotel close enough for us to walk. I didn’t want another fight with that taxi driver. We went to a wonderful hotel named The Royal Hotel. It was four star with a nice restaurant and free internet. It cost very little more than a hostel in a big city, and the guy at the desk spoke English. We spent the night there and I got on the internet and made reservations at hostels in Naples and Rome and on Sunday we went to Naples. Besides the theft of Mary’s bag in Barcelona, this is the most negative experience we had.
Sunday, September 10, 2006---Naples
The front desk at the hotel called and arranged for a cab to take us to the train station... The driver spoke English and we only had to pay about half what we paid to come in yesterday. We got out of Cesenza and I was happy to be gone. By changing our plans and canceling the timeshare we added a few days to the time we could spend in Naples and Rome. We decided that we wanted most of the remaining time in Rome so we just spent Sunday afternoon and Monday in Naples.
We had a beautiful ride to Naples. Most of the trip we were within sight of the coast and had a good view of the villages and small towns along the Tyrrbenian Sea. I really thought that Naples was on the Mediterranean Sea, but looking at the map proved me wrong. Whatever the name, it is a beautiful view of the city of Naples from along the coastline as it spreads out on the hill above the sea. We arrived in early afternoon and got to our hotel. We spent the rest of the day walking around the city. On Monday we took a bus tour, (actually three) and saw all the sights. All the tours began at the Plazza Municipio. It looks like an old castle and houses the offices of the city.
The views on the tour were much better than the translation of the guide’s script, so I didn’t get a lot of notes. One thing which we did bring away from the tour was some great music which they played during pauses in the guide’s presentation. We bought a couple of CDs which had all the music on them. (In Italian of course)
I’ll make a few observations based on our short time there. Naples is by the sea and all the streets lead there. The town does not have the ancient buildings that most of the cities do because it was almost completely destroyed by the Germans during WWII. Although it is more modern, it is not as well cared for as most of the cities we visited. There were lots of street people, and a lot of trash in the streets. The most beautiful and the best cared for was the area along the Bay. From the road along the coast you can see the Isle of Capri and the volcanic island of the Lost City of Pompeii. If we had enough time they have special tours for both of these sites which would be worth while.
We went out and found us a good restaurant and sampled the Naples food. The food is as regional in Italy as it is in the United States. The people are more adamant about the superiority of their region than anywhere we traveled. We went home to bed early because tomorrow we are going to Roma.
