Napoli – June 5, 2023
Jun 20th, 2023 by rallyadmin
Breakfast in the hotel dining room and then check out. Pack the car and we’re off for a longish drive to Napoli. Back through the winding streets and onto the autostrada. We’re headed for Bomarzo to see the Sacro Bosco (“Sacred Grove”), also called Park of the Monsters.
Bormarzo is about 150 kilometers southeast of Siena. We go about half way on the autostrada and half on 2 lane country roads. We’re out of the dramatic mountains now but the scenery is all open, rolling hill farmland with almost no traffic.
It’s overcast when we get to the park in Bomarzo but the sun is trying to shine through the breaks in the clouds. We buy our tickets and walk up a tree-covered walkway into the Sacred Woods.
The park was the creation of a mid 16th century Italian captain, Pier_Francesco_Orsini, who wanted a place to escape from the difficulties of the real world after his war experiences and losing his beloved first wife. To that end he created all manner of sculptures, small secluded hideaways, majestic open courts and even a tilted stone house that still stands, tilted much like the much larger Tower in Pisa. See the Wiki link above for more compete details.
Then we’re back in the car for the rest of the drive to Napoli. The country roads are fine and fun to drive but the roads around Napoli are the usual nightmare of Italian city driving. The Italian drivers, for the most part, are good but extremely aggressive drivers. Give them a millimeter and they’ll try to stuff a Fiat Panda in there.
We’re headed for the airport to drop off the car. We have a very early flight tomorrow AM to Sardinia and I don’t want to have to drop off the car and fool with an early morning flight check in on the dreaded Ryanair.
After a couple of passes around the airport area we finally find the rental car return lot. Have I mentioned the almost total lack of info signs here at the airport? All of the rental car companies use this one lot so you have to cruise around until you find the correct area for your rental company.
I pull into a slot in the correct area and almost immediately a service man from the company is there checking the car for damage, nicks and/or scrapes against the already known ones that are marked on the rental agreement, He finds a couple that he says are there but I can’t see. Whatever. I bought the insurance when I booked the car. Been down this road before.
As an aside, the car was a diesel Fiat 500L with a manual transmission which was a great car for 2 people and luggage. And though it didn’t have tremendous horsepower, it had plenty of torque to get to speed easily in autostrada traffic. The 5 speed tranny was pretty good at maximizing the small diesel engine. (I don’t remember when I last drove a manual transmission road car.) In short, I really liked it.
We get the car checked in and wait for the rental car shuttle bus to take us back to the airport terminal. At the terminal we get in the queue for a taxi to our boutique hotel. When it’s our time, the gaggle of taxi drivers are standing there ask where we are going. When I tell them they immediately start telling me how far away the hotel is and how expensive the taxi ride is going to be.
The haggling starts. They want 50 euro. I tell them 30 euro. (The shuttle driver warned us about this and said not to pay more than 30 euro.) I tell them I’ve been to Napoli many times and 50 euro is absurd. (I don’t tell them that the last time I was in Napoli was 35 years ago.)
Finally, a taxi driver breaks, with tears in his eyes, and offers 40 euro. He claims that he’ll lose money at 40 euro and his little babies won’t eat for 2 days and his wife might die from cancer but okay. I agree. I know we’re being ripped off but it’s late in the day and traffic is already bad and I want to get to the hotel and quit for the day.
We load up the luggage and climb in and leave in the mad house airport traffic which doesn’t faze the taxi driver at all. It takes the better part of 30 minutes to get to the hotel but the driver drops us right at the front door of the Hotel Christina. And he’s true to his word: 40 euro and he thanks us.
The hotel is a boutique style hotel complete with a front desk, a tiny bar and no restaurant. It also had a less the upbeat young man checking us in. Credit card, copy the passports, key card, third floor. The key card doesn’t work. Back down for another one which does work. Back down again to reserve a 4:30 AM taxi back to the airport. Check in clerk still cranky. No change.
We clean up and take a break. It’s been a long day. Check email. Copy pictures from the phone and the camera to my computer. About 6:30, we leave the hotel to find some food close by.
The Hotel Christina is in a somewhat busy area. There’s still a lot of traffic and a lot of noise. WE walk up the main street a ways looking for a suitable restaurant and finally settle for one almost across the street from the hotel. The meal is okay but certainly not up to the level that we’ve been having on the trip so far. (The food has been almost universally great.)
We finish the meal and pay. Back to the hotel and an early night. We’ve got an early flight to Cagliari in Sardinia and 4:30 taxi to get us back to the airport. And the dreaded Ryanair flight.
Obi-wan