So, in these past days I've visited Napels, Avellino and Atripalda in the Regione Campania, moved to Paese Alto of SamBe and made a couple of friends.
I have a 3-sheet written record of my weekend in Campania. I'm not going to post it all, or maybe I'll scan it and post as a hand-written diary.
I visited my mother's friends Ivana and Pino (Giuseppe) who are just great. Well-educated, funny, caring, beautiful. All in all, bravissimi.
I arrived in Napels on Friday and spend half of the day there. Eating pizza in the most ancient pizzeria (Da Michele).
I'm going to be honest. The pizza was a disaster, if I served something like that everyone would tell me to quit cooking and do something better with my life. It was not a Pizza. It was not even a pizza. It was just a piece of half-burnt dough with tomato soup on it, with pieces of melted mozarella. Not funny, though.
Then I tried to get into La Chiesa di San Gregorio Armeno, but it was closed. And it's my second visit to Napels and both times the church was closed. Not funny.
I walked up and down the via San Gregorio Armeno looking at pretty presepe's and then headed back to the Piazza Garibaldi, because I needed to get to Avellino, where Ivana and Pino took me to Atripalda in their car.
On the way home they introduced me to this singner - Giorgio Conte and my favouirte song by far is Passano le nuvole. The most beautiful line is - Passano le nuvole, ma il cielo resta sempre lì. Which means - The clouds will pass, but the sky will always be there - or something along these lines. Also Pino has a collection of vintage film cameras, and Ivana is a principal of a school. Their flat occupies the whole of the fifth floor and they have an elevator to deliver guests right into their living room. The balcony surrounds the flat and all the rooms including kitchen have an acces to it. Which is beyond cool. The view from the windows and balcony is mind-blowingly beautiful with all the mountains surrounding the city of Atripalda. And my room was OH.MY.GOD beautiful and the best. All light and pretty. And also with an ensuite bathroom, really convenient.
Also, I met the Ukrainian lady who cooks for them, Maria by name. And I met Pino's cousin Mario with his wife Carmela. A lovely couple who want me to meet their son Paolo, who was born 8 days earlier than me.
On Saturday I took a bus to Avellino with only my camera and a map in my hand. I first had a look at the Duomo, which was very very old. And then on my way to other sites I got people asking me how to get to the Duomo. They definitely could see that I was a tourist, however they chose to ask me. And I told them. No kidding.
Then I walked along the zona pedonale, visited the garden where young men were gathered in small groups and ... played voleyball, no kidding. Also I had ice-cream in some ancient (I hate this word already, honestly) gelateria. The pistacchio was bad. The nutella was good, but only because it was proper Nutella, not chocolate ice-cream with nutella hints. Then I broke my sandal, and walked to the bus-stop. There was one shop I entered and they offered me Emporio Armani black suede ballerina pumps for only 260 euro. I said no thanks and went back to Atripalda. We had the midday meal, watched some photos from their trip to Russia. Ivana had cought a cold and it was no good. I got a pair of pumps for 15 euro. They are pink-white-darkgrey and totally awesome. In the evening the six of us went to one of the nearby villages to attend to a nut-fest or something. We had the evening meal there. Some mushrooms-chestnut soup, some salami, and pepper stuffed with meat and bread, and also cheese and bread with Persian walnuts right in the cheese and dough and some red wine. Oh and some dessert with chocolate icing, nuts and fine crust. It was all yummy, we listened to local bands performing tarantella Napoletana and left at about 11pm.
Next morning we had breakfast, then I packed, then after midday meal Ivana and Pino took me to the Piazza Kennedy in Avellino from where the bus was to leave.
On the way back to Naples I heard another beautiful song Ti amo e non lo sai by Francesco Baccini. It translates as I love you and you don't know.
On the 6th of October I had a lovely day although I have cramps. Yesterday I moved to Paese Alto, and today in the morning I went food shopping and also got some goodies for the house. I also visited Mom and had a Skype-talk with my sister, I don't have internet up at my place.
When I was leaving, I met an old man at the gates. He wanted to talk about Bible, but I said I don't speak Italian. And then he said that there was a girl about 20yo who didn't speak Italian and spoke English, and asked me if she was my friend and was waiting for me. I said that I didn't know anyone here of that age who spoke English. Then I rode to the crossroads and found the girl. I greeted her in English and she immediately looked kind of relieved. We talked a bit, she was looking for the train station. I said I could show her where it was. And then she told me her name was Shante, she came from Namibia via South Africa. She's gonna stay here for 40 days and do modelling. Which is cool. And also, we exchanged phone numbers and agreed to hang-out together sometime.
Will it be too rude if I quote Mean Girls here? Remember that line about Africa?
Ok, then after midday meal I washed-up and then loaded the washing machine and went to bed because I felt SOOO bad. And also the chain on my bicycle fell off the gear and I couldn't fix it because I felt so bad.
I slept for two hours and then headed back into the center with my laptop and the camera, to take pictures and use a wi-fi in a cafe. I met up with Mom at this shop called Non solo 99 cent. Where I got sticky papers for shopping lists. Then we had coffee at Caffe Moretti and I checked my e-mail and everything. And that's when I found out about Steve Jobs's death. Devastating. I was so sad, I almost cried. To cheer me up, I downloaded the latest episode of Glee and a couple of songs.
Then I came up here, because the Old town is up the mountain. Which is not fun when you ride up but it's totally cool when you go down the hill on a bicicletta.
I have a 3-sheet written record of my weekend in Campania. I'm not going to post it all, or maybe I'll scan it and post as a hand-written diary.
I visited my mother's friends Ivana and Pino (Giuseppe) who are just great. Well-educated, funny, caring, beautiful. All in all, bravissimi.
I arrived in Napels on Friday and spend half of the day there. Eating pizza in the most ancient pizzeria (Da Michele).
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| check out the queue |
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| Doppia Mozarella for 5 euros |
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| I shoot this through the bars on the gate |
On the way home they introduced me to this singner - Giorgio Conte and my favouirte song by far is Passano le nuvole. The most beautiful line is - Passano le nuvole, ma il cielo resta sempre lì. Which means - The clouds will pass, but the sky will always be there - or something along these lines. Also Pino has a collection of vintage film cameras, and Ivana is a principal of a school. Their flat occupies the whole of the fifth floor and they have an elevator to deliver guests right into their living room. The balcony surrounds the flat and all the rooms including kitchen have an acces to it. Which is beyond cool. The view from the windows and balcony is mind-blowingly beautiful with all the mountains surrounding the city of Atripalda. And my room was OH.MY.GOD beautiful and the best. All light and pretty. And also with an ensuite bathroom, really convenient.
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| Vintage cameras |
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| Grandfather camera :) |
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| Just a still life composition |
On Saturday I took a bus to Avellino with only my camera and a map in my hand. I first had a look at the Duomo, which was very very old. And then on my way to other sites I got people asking me how to get to the Duomo. They definitely could see that I was a tourist, however they chose to ask me. And I told them. No kidding.
 |
| Just a random gate near the Duomo |
Next morning we had breakfast, then I packed, then after midday meal Ivana and Pino took me to the Piazza Kennedy in Avellino from where the bus was to leave.
On the way back to Naples I heard another beautiful song Ti amo e non lo sai by Francesco Baccini. It translates as I love you and you don't know.
On the 6th of October I had a lovely day although I have cramps. Yesterday I moved to Paese Alto, and today in the morning I went food shopping and also got some goodies for the house. I also visited Mom and had a Skype-talk with my sister, I don't have internet up at my place.
When I was leaving, I met an old man at the gates. He wanted to talk about Bible, but I said I don't speak Italian. And then he said that there was a girl about 20yo who didn't speak Italian and spoke English, and asked me if she was my friend and was waiting for me. I said that I didn't know anyone here of that age who spoke English. Then I rode to the crossroads and found the girl. I greeted her in English and she immediately looked kind of relieved. We talked a bit, she was looking for the train station. I said I could show her where it was. And then she told me her name was Shante, she came from Namibia via South Africa. She's gonna stay here for 40 days and do modelling. Which is cool. And also, we exchanged phone numbers and agreed to hang-out together sometime.
Will it be too rude if I quote Mean Girls here? Remember that line about Africa?
Ok, then after midday meal I washed-up and then loaded the washing machine and went to bed because I felt SOOO bad. And also the chain on my bicycle fell off the gear and I couldn't fix it because I felt so bad.
I slept for two hours and then headed back into the center with my laptop and the camera, to take pictures and use a wi-fi in a cafe. I met up with Mom at this shop called Non solo 99 cent. Where I got sticky papers for shopping lists. Then we had coffee at Caffe Moretti and I checked my e-mail and everything. And that's when I found out about Steve Jobs's death. Devastating. I was so sad, I almost cried. To cheer me up, I downloaded the latest episode of Glee and a couple of songs.
Then I came up here, because the Old town is up the mountain. Which is not fun when you ride up but it's totally cool when you go down the hill on a bicicletta.
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