Napoli - il giorno tre **Naples - day three**

Tired out by the activities we embarked on the day earlier, Penny and I woke up rather late. After washing up, we zombied our way down to the café for our breakfast. It was still the same old spread as yesterday. At least they bothered to change the flavour of the yoghurts.

Today was the day we hit Rome. Apparently the train ride was only 2 hours so we intended to spend our day there, coming back in time for dinner. We headed for the bus stop to hop onto a bus to Garibaldi Centrale where we would board the train and, again by the grace of God, learned that we had to buy our bus tickets in advance from a shop behind the bus stop (what a weird arrangement!). All because Penny needed to break up our notes for some change to dunk into the jackpot machine.

As soon as we reached Garibaldi Centrale, we headed for the office where we could buy our train tickets from a very grouchy man, who was attending to two Chinese girls (there they are again!). Turned out these girls were actually studying in NTU and were there for their vacation!

Superbly excited by our visit to Rome, we were quite annoyed when our 10:30AM train was delayed. We stood at the designated platform buying titbits from the vending machine (€2 for a packet of Twisties!) and finally at 11:00AM the train appeared. Unsure of what to do we just followed the flow of the crowd and plonked our butts down at the nearest carriage we could find. A short while later, a woman came in rambling in Italian; turns out we were in her seat. It was then we realised that the tickets had seat numbers allocated on them. Again by the grace of God, we somehow landed in the right carriage but in the wrong seat!

Moving out from Naples, we passed by mostly farms and countrysides and through a few mountains. With nothing to do, Penny and I tried to get some shut eye since we were still quite zonked. Couldn’t really get into a deep sleep as the seats were not reclinable like those on an airplane. We filled our time by munching on our expensive titbits and snapping photos. As we neared Rome, we could see ruins of what used to be the city walls. This was confirmed when we asked the Italian woman whose seat we’d taken earlier, ‘Roma Termini?’ and she replied, ‘Si, si!’

We were like bats out of hell when we disembarked from the train; the anticipation deepened by the delayed train was killing us! We made our way towards the subway (which I figured should be connected to the train station) and bought a one-day ticket. That would allow us to move around freely without having to worry about purchasing tickets again. We took a ride to the Colosseo station and, boy, was the train packed (we only realised later that night over the news on TV that there was a demonstration going on and there we were scratching our heads over the strong police presence in the vicinity).

The famed Colosseum was right smack in front of the subway entrance when we got out. Again, I was awe struck by the sight of the structure itself – it was just marvellous! Our stomachs were rumbling a little so we grabbed a sandwich from a kiosk nearby (costing us €6, wah lau!). Crossing the road to join the already crowded area in front of the Colosseum, we came across more fake bags and knick knacks being sold. A few pictures and one sandwich later, we came across a group of guys dressed as Roman soldiers. We thought it’d be fun to get a shot with them, so we went up and ended up getting hustled of €20. I’ll never trust Roman soldiers again.

We circled the magnificent structure and made our way back the entrance, planning to buy our entrance tickets. But the extremely looooong queue made us abandon the inclination of entering the Colosseum premises. We crossed the road again and up some stairs to a higher vantage point. There, we took more photos of the Colosseum as well as the Foro Romano next to it. Our next stop was the Vatican City so we asked for directions from some policemen lounging around. According to them, there was a ‘manifestazion’ going on (we thought it was some Chingay-esque festival but this was the demonstration we would see on the news later that night) and the streets were closed, so our best bet was still the subway.

As we went back down the stairs, we passed by a woman beggar whom we’d ignored earlier as we made our way up. Strange thing was, simultaneously, Penny and stopped dead in our tracks and turned around. I was digging my pocket for loose change when Penny said, “I think God just reminded me of something”. I couldn’t agree more. Just as we were passing the beggar, a small voice inside reminded me of the scripture that says we are to show kindness and mercy to the poor. We drop some change into the woman’s cup and made our way into the subway station.

Squeezing with the crowd, we got out at the Ottaviano station. From here, it was a short walk to the Vatican City. Along the way, we passed more boutiques and replica handbag stalls. Penny picked up a fake Gucci along the way from an African dude for €20, which was quite a steal considering he was asking for €45 up front. Moving along, we passed by a side gate of the Vatican City and there were throngs of people there snapping their cameras away. It was not long before the columns of St. Peter’s Square were visible. Again, I was awe struck by the enormity of the whole square as we stepped through the columns and out into the open. As was with the concert the night before, I wanted to cry as I couldn’t believe I was actually there in person.

We milled around the square for a bit taking pictures here and there of anything we came across. The queue to get into the City itself was also really long so we didn’t bother. There was a mailbox just oustisde the entrance, presumably for people wanting to mail stuff to their loved ones living within the city itself. Even the washroom was a monument by itself! Penny took a little trip in while I waited outside for her.

Having seen enough of the Vatican City, our next stop was the Castel Sant Angelo which was just down the road. As we walked down, we passed by a very solemn Roman Catholic procession going on - chants of 'Ave Maria!' and such were audible. Didn’t manage to find out what it was about since everyone was so sombre. Next thing we knew, an open top double decker bus dressed in High School Musical 3 livery screeched around the corner, filled with screaming teenage girls waving to passers-by. Quite obviously, this was a stunt to promote the upcoming movie. Juxtaposed to the solemn procession that had just gone by, it was just hilarious.

The view up the street as we approached Castel Sant Angelo was another postcard-worthy shot. We could see the dome of the Vatican City sticking out in the background of a very long, straight street. Back at Castel Sant Angelo, we didn’t have much time left to go in so we just hung around outside to snap some photos (of which one was taken by a very rude and grouchy German tourist who got evidently grouchier when he couldn’t find a view finder to look through on our camera). It was a very touch-and-go stopover as we planned to stop by a few more sites on the way back to catch our Naples bound train. We walked back to the nearest subway station (with Penny’s legs almost giving way) and hopped onto the subway back to Roma Termini.

Still, we managed to hop out of our trains to see the Fontana Tritone, the Teatro Dell Opera, among other things. Somehow we missed the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain... dunno why.

It was almost 5:30PM when we got back to the railway station. With about an hour to burn, we plonked our tired asses down at the nearest café we could find and ordered a chicken set meal. We were both too tired to eat but our stomachs were growling since the last thing we had eaten was the sandwich at the Colosseum. Our train for Naples left at about 6:45PM (delayed again) and this time round, I knocked out for most of the journey back, despite sitting next to an old, irritating couple who refused to open the window and almost suffocated everyone as a result.

It was about 9:30PM when we got back to our hotel. We were never happier to see our beds – we didn’t even want to worry about what to do tomorrow…

Napoli - il giorno due **Naples - day two**

I was up at 6:30 AM sharp on the second day (technically, it was our first effective day in Naples). God blessed us with a beautiful day; the sun was just beginning to rise as I stepped out onto the balcony and the city was just beginning to wake up. Breakfast started at 7:30 AM so being typical, kiasu Singaporeans we wanted to grab breakfast first thing in the morning in order to squeeze as many things into our itinerary for that day.

We headed down to the second floor (secondo piano, the elevator announced, which was actually the third floor since they start counting from piano terra - the ground floor) where the breakfast was served. It wasn't a fancy spread - just some buns, ham, cheese, tarts, eggs (who eats hard boiled eggs in the morning??), yoghurt and a selection of tea. It was sort of a letdown as I was expecting those intercontinental spreads that we were so used to at 5-star hotels. Gobbling down some buns with ham and washing it down with tea just to fill our stomachs, we made our way down to the reception to ask for directions and other touristy questions.

We decided to hit the La Pignasecca market first. According to the guidebook, it was the oldest market in Naples and the nearest one to our hotel. The rest would just have to wait. To get there, we had to take a stroll up Via Toledo, which is a shopping street filled with boutiques and cafes. Nothing was open at that time of the day - there was just the morning crowd rushing to work. About 10 min later, we wandered off Via Toledo into this little street (couldn't figure out where the street signs were, but we realised later it was actually La Pignasseca itself) because Penny noticed some fruit stalls. She even bought a sweater from a stall run by some Chinese folks (aren't they everywhere these days??) for €7.

Wandering further into the street we found a seafood stall which had so many different variations of aquatic life forms on offer. Just looking at the clams alone, there were at least six varieties there (not counting the mussels and see hum)! And there were fish in all different manners and sizes, squids, octopuses (or octopi?), stingrays - it just made my head spin taking in everything! If we had access to a kitchen, I reckon we would have bought ourselves a few crabs and fish just to get a taste of the Italian sea.

Having irritated the stall holders enough with all our picture taking, we moseyed further yet into the market and came across a vegetable stall. Again, we were awed by the variety of fresh produce they had to offer! Everything looked so succulent like they had just been harvested from the ground (there was still dirt and mud on them)! There was so much vibrancy and colour to the vegetables that we were tempted to buy one of each item just to bring them back with us.

As we wandered further, we realised that perhaps we were still too early so many of the stalls were not open yet (the guidebook says the market opens at 8 AM). We decided to head back to the hotel to book our day tour to the Pompei city ruins and Mount Vesuvius, the volcano responsible for burying the said city. The bus for the tour had already left, so the tour agency sent a Benz to send us to the first stop – Pompei city.

Our guide there, Esmiralda, bought the tickets for us and explained how to use our audio guides (we had missed the group by about 45 minutes so we didn’t get a speaking guide with us). We opened up the map and almost fainted when we saw how big the entire area was. We had only one and a half hours to cover what would normally take 4 hours. So we ran! We decided that since we didn’t have enough time to cover everything, we could only see the major stuff. We stuck pretty much to the main street, turning off every once in a while should we come across anything interesting or to snap some photos, but our main objective was to see the colossuem at the other end of the city. Which was pretty much worth it in the end - the colossuem was just incredible!

It was magnificent but yet heart-rending at the same time as we went about viewing the other excavated remains of Pompei city. Remnants of what used to be residences, gymnasiums, amphitheatres and town centres served as grim reminders of Mount Vesuvius’ enormous eruption which buried the city in 79 A.D. With Mt Vesuvius looming in the background, it wasn’t hard to imagine how frightening it must have been back then.

In an enclosure were also other excavated artefacts that once belonged to the people of Pompei – vases, pots, push carts and sculptures – along with actual human and animal bodies that were preserved by the volcanic ash. Fascinating but creepy.

We made our way back to the entrance in exactly one and a half hours and Esmiralda showed us to a nearby restaurant, Ristorante Vesuvio, for our first Italian lunch. We started off with salad (no dressing, just EVOO and lemon) and a plate of fried battered sotong and prawns. Up next was a spaghetti vongole (with ultra sweeeet clams) and gelato for dessert. Wonderful!

Our next driver, Feliche, arrived and ushered us into yet another Benz to drive us up Mt Vesuvius. He didn’t speak much English so most of our conversations along the way were accompanied by a lot of gesturing. After about a 15 minutes drive up the winding roads (which nearly made us puke), we stopped at a car park that was near the peak – we had to hike the rest of the way up! We almost fainted when we looked at the long trail ahead of us that disappeared around the side of the volcano. But the long hike up was quite interesting as we looked down on the city – makes you realise how awesome God is by creating everything around us.

Half an hour later, we heaved a sigh of relief when we finally got to the crater. The trail continued, circling the crater but we were satisfied with getting to where we were. Several snapshots and some massaging of our legs, we started to make our way down again. We almost slipped on several occasions as we made our way down the rocky trail. We hopped into the Benz and made our way back to the hotel. I had to close my eyes as I REALLY felt like puking this time round. It was about 4:30 PM by the time we reached the hotel. Our tickets to the Andrea Bocelli concert were sitting on the table! Penny and I both took a quick shower and hit the bed, wanting to get some rest before heading out again.

We got up again at about 8 PM, changed and headed out into the streets. The concert was starting at 9:30 PM so we didn’t want to be late! We hit Via Toledo again and walked towards the venue, Piazza Plebiscito. Surprisingly, it was quite dead for that time of the night – all the shops were closed! As we got closer to the venue (I didn’t even realised we’d reached as I expected the walk to be longer) at Piazza Trieste e Trento, there were cafes and restaurants here so there was quite a crowd. Piazza Plebiscito was just next to it so people were already crowding around to get a good spot to watch the concert. Guess you didn’t need tickets for the concert after all!

As we approached the entrance, we were told to put on our wristbands (I was wondering what they were for) and ushered into a VIP area for some drinks and light snacks. God is great – not only did He bless us with a free holiday, He sent us to a free concert with VIP passes! Not being able to eat (the lunch was causing havoc in my stomach), Penny got herself a drink and we hung around savouring the moment. We finally took our seats about 15 minutes before the concert was scheduled to begin.

After what seemed like eternity, the members of the backing Czech National Symphony Orchestra filed onto the stage to take their seats, accompanied by their conductor, Steven Mercurio, to do a sound check and an opening number. A while later, Andrea Bocelli finally appeared on stage, with rousing applause, to give an opening address presumably to talk about his upcoming album, Incanto, and why his performance in Naples.

The performance itself was nothing short of spectacular. Even his mother was in the front row watching her son perform! Bocelli had three guest performers with him pepping up his act - Italian movie star and singer Massimo Ranieri, flutist Andrea Griminelli and Italian soprano Cecilia Bartoli. The night ended in an encore with Bocelli and all his guests appearing together on stage to sing a final number for the ecstatic audience. Following all the fanfare and standing ovation, the performers disappeared backstage to address the Italian media who were also there to cover the performance. Clamouring for more, the audience (us inclusive) was evidently reluctant to leave even after the lights started to dim, signalling the end of the concert. Only when all the lights went off and the cleaning crew arrive did the audience realise that the concert was indeed over. We started dragging our feet to leave the square, all the while straining our necks to hopefully catch a last glimpse of Andrea Bocelli and his friends.

Starting to feel peckish after all the excitement, Penny and I headed for a pizzeria next to our hotel. We were disappointed that the guy was closed (an earlier check with the boss told us he closes at 12 MN but it was only 11:30 PM), but he did refer us to another pizzeria down the road. We quickly made our way there, sat down and ordered a pizza to share (although we were baffled by the Italian menu). Satisfied with our first true blue wood-fired Italian pizza, we headed back tour room for a well-deserved night of rest after having engaged in so many activities.

Tomorrow we go to Rome. Woo hoo!

Napoli - il giorno un **Naples - day one**

Too excited to sleep, I woke up bright and early on Thursday morning at 5 a.m. (despite sleeping close to 12 midnight the night before) to do some last minute packing. I went through my list that I had prepared the day earlier to make sure I didn't leave any important stuff out. Penny woke up a while later and joined me in the packing after washing herself up. We were all set to go when Velouria woke up, insisting that she go to the airport with us.

So off we went! Praise the Lord a cabbie was just moving off as we reached the carpark, saving me the trouble of running out to the main road to hail one. We reached the airport slightly behind schedule, but still managed to get the seats we wanted at the check in counter. The flight wasn't full so we had the luxury of switching seats later. A quick breakfast, a short prayer with Velouria and several hugs and kisses later, we made our way into the departure area eager to get onto the plane. It was going to be a 13 hour flight, with a 2 hour transit in Munich before hopping onto another 2 hour flight to Naples. We couldn't wait to shut our eyes as we didn't get much sleep the night before - we wanted to be fully rejuvenated to take on Naples!

The plane took off as scheduled. As soon as the plane levelled, the snacks and drinks came out. We finished it quickly and proceeded to find some empty seats around us to get some shut eye. It wasn't long before lunch was served. Penny was too tired to eat so I gobbled down my beef and potatoes and went back to sleep. I awoke a while later with the first in flight movie, The Nanny Diaries, already screening. Penny was already up watching the movie so I got my headset connected and joined her.

With nothing much left to do after the movie ended, we both went back to sleep. I awoke again a few hours later with the second in-flight movie, Get Smart, already screening. I jumped back into my seat to put my headset on. Towards the end, Penny woke up and joined me as well. We were both hungry by the time the movie ended, so we headed towards the back of the plane where there was a mini buffet going on. Nothing fancy, but wonder of wonders, they had Nissin Cup Noodles! We cooked a cup each, grabbed a couple of sandwiches and some juice, and headed back to our seats to wolf everything down.

It was back to snoozeland after our little snack. But we couldn't sleep much and we awoke a while later as dinner came. We didn't have much space in our stomach left so se just nibbled a bit here and there. The last in flight movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, filled up the time between our dinner and the end of the flight.

Before we knew it, we touched down in Munich! After we got off the plane, we gave a quick call home (it was 10:25 p.m. Singapore time) just to hear Velouria's voice and proceeded to mill around the airport. The airport was structured in such a way that we had to go past immigration to catch our connecting flight to Naples at the departure hall one floor down, so we thought we might as well go out and breathe some German air. And boy was it cold! It sort of caught us unprepared so we made it snappy, retreating into the building again before we froze our fingers off! We headed into the departure hall again to do some shopping (we found, to our greatest delight, Vel's frog stuff toy that she'd lost - Penny bought it from Frankfurt a couple of years back and we suspect our maid Estella packed it with her when she left for home). We also had some time to stop by a food court for some juice, a cup of yoghurt and a sausage - costing us a frigging €13!

After what seemed like eternity, our flight to Naples was ready for boarding. The crew served us a little snack of a sandwich and chocolate - we couldn't stomach the sandwich as the bread was rock hard and the ham too salty for our palates, but decided to keep the chocolate for later consumption. We landed slightly ahead of time and - praise the Lord - didn't wait long for our baggage. There was no immigration to clear, so it was straight to the arrival hall to look out for a guy holding a sign with my name on it. He found us in a jiffy (we must have stuck out like sore thumbs) and whisked us away into his vehicle.

As the limo made its way into the city, the reality started to sink in - we were in Italy! The streets were pretty dead for that time of the night (about 9pm) though we did see a few pizzerias still open and countless Vespas zipping by. We reached the hotel within 15 minutes and checked into our room. We emptied our toiletries from our bag, proceeded to take our shower and prepare for bed.

Needless to say, we were dead beat after being on the move for almost 20 hours. But we couldn't wait to hit the streets in the morning after having our breakfast bright and early at 7:30 a.m.

Back from Naples into reality

It has been a wonderful trip and it was evident that the Lord was with us the whole time, now it's back to reality. We had great flights (both there and back) that were not painstakingly bad, just bearable, despite the long periods of time being hurled through the air at 900km/h and the lengthy transit times in between. Our days were jammed pack with activities that still somehow turned out right despite our laid back nonchalance or perhaps our minds were too preoccupied with the hustle and bustle of the city.

We stumbled into a train carriage without realising that the seats were actually allocated on the tickets; turned out we were actually in the right carriage, just the wrong seat. Penny and I both made an about turn at the same time after passing by a beggar sitting on some steps in Rome (recalling the scripture about showing kindness to beggars in). Our hotels turned out really great although I had my doubts.

I suppose the only grievance I have is how expensive everything is – we paid €3 for a cup of orange juice at a street kiosk!

I can't say this enough, but God has come through for us despite our lack of trust and demonstrated (yet again) just how faithful He is when you simply put your trust in Him.

Full story and pictures coming up.

Napoli que vaniamo!! - the prelude (part 2)

One more day to go before we fly off. Received more info today - now we know that the concert will be held outdoors at the famous Piazza del Plebiscito. Wow!

Still waiting for the Universal Music people to call me. Apparently, I have to sign some indemnity form to sell my life away for this trip. Heh heh.

With what little time I have, I did some research online to find out what to do in Naples, how to get around, etc. While looking for a city map to print out and bring along, I realise that nobody seems to do a plain old skool printable map anymore. Now all the maps are interactive showing you the exact spot of certain locations with satelite imagery and all that techno jazz. Turns out the Piazza del Plebiscito amphitheatre is not very far away from where we're putting up, about a ten minute walk.

Getting excited now. Stomach is churning. Can't think. Could be the footlong Subway Club I had for lunch though. Praise the Lord for this wonderfeul, wonderful blessing.

Napoli qui veniamo!! - the prelude

I am of the opinion that every Singaporean likes to be aptly prepared for any circumstance that they can anticipate ahead of time. Exams, interviews, weddings, arrival of a new baby – we will do anything and everything to source for pertinent information regarding the subject at hand. Somehow, perhaps embedded deep within our Singaporean DNA, we don’t feel at ease taking on something at the spur of the moment. That, suppose, is a polite way of implying that we are all kiasu.

Me, I relish surprises. However, excited as I may be, I wasn’t particularly thrilled about leaving for Naples without having much time to do my research. Our flight details had just been confirmed by Universal Music this morning (the organisers and sponsors of this trip), the Andrea Bocelli concert is on Friday evening and the major bummer is that we have to leave on Tuesday morning (the return leg takes almost a day due to the long transit time and different time zones - we will only arrive in Singapore on Wednesday morning). That’s about all we know at the moment. A quick check online (God bless the advent of technology!) has revealed that there are tons of things to do in Naples – museums, art galleries, monasteries, a volcano (Mt Vesuvius, the only active volcano in Europe), the ruins of the unfortunate cities Pompei and Herculanean that were buried (and simultaneously preserved) by volcanic ash from the aforementioned volcano, island hopping, shopping, et al. With satellite technology, I could even see the hotels that we were going to put up at!

The task at hand now is to learn (very quickly) some conversational Italian enough to get us by – the usual pleasantries (hello, goodbye, thank you, do you speak English, numbers) and some other unpleasantries (should the need for cussing arise).

I suppose we’ll figure out the rest when we get there. Two more days to go! Woo hoo!!

This trip has been blessed by an Almighty God. So I trust that He will plan and lay everything out for us.

Napoli qui veniamo!! -- *Naples here we come!!*

'Someone once said if God had a voice, He would sound like Andrea Bocelli. And I REALLY need to hear God's voice at this point in my life!!'

I received a call from MediaCorp TV on Friday evening. The lady, Sandra, introduced herself and said 'I guess God has heard you'. Obviously, I was lost for a moment as I tried to recall all the dealings I've had with MediaCorp the past few weeks. The only thing that came to mind was a job application with the Promotions Department.

When Sandra said 'We're sending you to Naples to watch Andrea Bocelli', the only words I managed were 'Shit. No way.'

MediaCorp TV had been running an SMS contest over the past week to promote Andrea Bocelli's new album Incanto and were giving away a trip to Naples to watch him live. Penny was lamenting about how nice it would be if we could win a free trip so she egged me on to send in an entry.

The words at the beginning of this post were in my SMS. And I remember praying to God, 'Father, sorry to use Your name in vain, but if it's in Your will please let it happen because only You know how much we need a break from all the craziness swirling around us'.

It all happened so quickly, I'm still trembling from the shock. We leave on Thursday morning for Naples. Everything else is still sketchy as we haven't received a lot of other information as of now.

Praise the Lord. We're going to have wood fired pizza for every meal and gelato for dessert every single day.