The Adventures of a Rally Roadie

Starting with the Greeks 2,400 years ago, continuing with the Romans and through World War II, people have been tunneling under Napoli. First the Greeks, tunneled and quarried the volcanic tuft that they used for their building.

The real work started with the Romans who built miles of tunnels and cistern to hold the water delivered by aqueduct from sources up to 70 kilometers from Napoli. Eventually, the cisterns were replaced by more modern water systems only to have the tunnels and abandoned cisterns used for bomb shelters during World War II. Today, the complex is a tourist site that offers tours through the tunnels and cisterns. That’s our first stop today.

We have tickets for the 10:00 AM tour but first we have to be given the runaround by Google Maps as we try to fine the entrance to Naples Subterranean. At first, Maps has us walking on the main boulevards for the short (under 2 km) walk. But then Maps leads us into the side streets that are festooned with banners and flags celebrating Napoli’s football team’s Serie A Championship on May 4^th, 2023. To say that the Serie A championship is a big deal doesn’t begin to show how important that football victory is to Napoli.

We follow Maps though the side streets. Right, then left, then up the hill, then up the hill again. Then another left and the phone chirps, “You are here.” Had me fooled. We are I the middle of a city block on a narrow side street with closed doors on both sides of the street. Finally, Barbara looks up and over a closed door there’s a sign – Napoli Subterranean. We are here, after all. Good but confusing job, Google.

We’re about 15 minutes early and as we wait more people show up to join what will be the 10 AM tour group. Promptly at 10, the door opens and we are invited in. We show our tickets, get a short lecture on where we are going and we’re off, er down, the spiral staircase in the tunnels and cisterns.

At the bottom the guide waits until everyone is gathered up into a small, compact group and then he starts the guided tour. He speaks excellent English and gives us a very upbeat lecture on the history of the tunnels and the cisterns. He’s very personable and sprinkles in some jokes and soon has everyone fairly comfortable in the cool, damp and dimly lit undergound.

He tells us about the history of the cisterns and about the unbelievable engineering that the Romans used to build what was a massive water delivery system. The system was in use as a water system for nearly 2,000 years until Napoli’s growth demanded a modern and much larger system.

And then there were the legends that may or may not have had some basis in fact. Many of the wealthy Romans had their homes built directly over a cistern and had an access tunnel dropped from the surface to the cistern so that they could access water directly from the cistern without having to leave the home.

The cisterns were maintained by workers who cleaned and repaired the cisterns and since these access tunnels also allowed people to enter the homes from the cistern, stories abounded of “ghosts” who would enter the homes through the tunnels to steal things from the homes. And, of course, there were stories of hidden romances between couples comprised of a beautiful woman in the home and an adventurous young man who worked in the cisterns. All of which made for great stories that may or may not have been true. No matter, great stories none the less.

Toward the end of the tour, our guide spoke at length about people living in the cisterns during the aerial bombardment of Napoli during the war. The association that maintains the cisterns now have restored some of the areas that were used during the war and have posted pictures of the people who lived here and the damage the bombing did to the surface.

Then the climb back up the 100 plus stairs to the surface. A great and interesting place to visit. We highly recommend it. Here’s a link to the wiki.

The next stop is one of the funiculars, the Funicolare Centrale that goes to the summit of the hill that Napoli is built on. We plug in the name of the funicular into Maps and we’re off. We are told that on the summit of the hill is the Castel Sant’Elmo and from there you get a great view of Napoli, the Gulf of Naples and Mt Vesuvius which has been cloud shrouded for days now.

We should have gotten suspicious sooner than we did. The first instruction from Maps sent us up hill across 2 or 3 side streets and then further uphill. We should have gone downhill or at least laterally to the bottom of the funicular. Instead, we were continuously going uphill. We eventually realized that Maps was up to one of its usual homicidal jokes but by then we were within shouting difference of the top. We find a sign pointing to the entrance of the funicular and it is the top station. We are dopes.

We wander about for a few minutes and decide to forget about the castle, we’ve had enough climbing. We find a nice small cafe and get some lunch at a street side table. Finished, we head back down on the funicular.

After figuring out the automated ticket kiosk (always a fun exercise when there are instructions only in Italian), we head down some stairs and get on the top carriage of the funicular. It has a few stops before we get to the bottom and get off to start the trek back to the apartment.

Of course, we(I) miss-count the number of stops and don’t realize that we have reached the bottom until the carriage starts back up. So we ride back up to the top. (At least we weren’t climbing steps again.) Laughing (we must be the only people who climb to the top of the funicular and then on the ride down, miss the bottom and have to ride back up), get to the top and since the funicular won’t be leaving for another 10 minutes and we have to buy more tickets to ride down, we decide to head for the castle. We really are dopes today.

We head off to find the Castel Sant’Elmo which, of course, is uphill from the top of the funicular. As we trudge along, we meet an Italian man who starts chatting us up and eventually tells us that his brother is a cameo maker with a shop a the top of the hill. I don’t think that we looked that much like easy marks but we were the only ones on the street that he could approach.

At any rate, he brings to the shop and introduces us to his brother who actually makes the cameo. Over the next 15 or 20 minutes, he explains the whole process of making a cameo, from the selection of the type of shell to make the cameo to the techniques that he uses to carve to scenes. It’s a fascinating visit and in the end we do buy a small cameo for Ayron. Everyone ends up happy. On to the castle.

The Castel Sant’Elmo sits on the highest spot in Napoli and has a commanding view of the Gulf of Naples and the surrounding area. To south is the majestic volcanic cone of Mount Vesuvius that buried Herculaneum and Pompeii in 79 AD. Built between the 1200’s and the mid 1500’s, it has survived intact and now is a museum open to the public.

But the view is what really makes the climb worth the effort. And today is a beautiful postcard day with a brilliant blue sky and almost no clouds save the few flitting around the summit of Vesuvius. We take our pictures and visit the museum and then it’s back to the funicular.

This time, we ride to the bottom and get off at the bottom which seems like an accomplishment considering the way the rest of the day has gone. Along the way we stop at the Galleria Umberto I

which we had visited when we first came to Napoli many years ago. At that time it was beautiful cross-shaped building that was a bustling shopping center. Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site that has fallen on hard time. There are almost no stores or people which is sad considering how beautiful the architecture is. Time marches on.

We slowly make our way back to the apartment and call it a day. The air conditioning hasn’t been fixed but the apartment is cool and the fan more than suffices. Later, we’re back on the street for dinner and a gelato night cap. Tomorrow, an early flight to Sicily.

Obiwan