15 days in May (with photos!): Naples, Cilento, Calabria & Basilicata
 

We traveled across the instep of southern Italy from May 5th – 20th, 2014 and were warmly welcomed everywhere. People were friendly and quick to say hello. We saw beautiful landscapes, the food was delicious everywhere, and we walked up and down wonderful hill towns.

Part of our trip was a return to places we really like and visited in September, 2012 – Naples and the Cilento Coast – and part of it was new – Calabria and Basilicata.

Here’s who we are:

Rosetravels and DH. We’re in our mid-50’s and live in the Pacific NW. DH LOVES road trips and looking at geology. We both love cities, museums, art, good food, wine, and beautiful landscapes. We like to travel and I’ve been to Italy many times.

Here’s where we stayed:

3 nights in Naples.
Hotel Meuble Santa Chiara
http://www.santachiarasuite.com/

2 nights in Pisciotta, on the Cilento Coast.
B&B Affitacamere Sul Blu
http://www.lacasasulblu.it/en

3 nights at our favorite place in Bosco on the Cilento Coast.
Tenuta Terre di Bosco.
http://www.terredibosco.it/index-eng.html

2 nights near Altomonte, Calabria.
Agriturismo Le Farnie
http://www.agriturismolefarnie.it/index.php?p=39

3 nights near Pisticci, Basilicata.
Hotel Terre Fiore
http://torrefiore.com/

2 nights in Matera, Basilicata.
Torretta ai Sassi.
http://www.torrettasassi.it/

1 night at a B&B near the airport in Milan

A few details:

Rental car from Europcar via Kemwel. Easy. We had very little traffic.
Map was Michelin’s Italie Sud (no GPS other than my phone)
Guidebook was the Blue Guide to Southern Italy
We switched to T-Mobile for their Simple Choice plan before we left. It worked great.
We traveled light and did not check luggage, even on EasyJet.

First up: Naples!

But before I get started I want to thank ekscrunchy who helped with places to stay and eat this year and in 2012 and who continues to encourage travelers to visit new and interesting places. Such a help and a kindness!

sandralist and kja - thanks also for your help with our plans in Basilicata. What a great area!

Rose that is very kind.

You cannot imagine how much I am looking forward to reading your report!

Looking forward to your report. See sawing between this region and SW Spain for a late autumn holiday on 2014....

PHOTOS & A LINK

Fingers crossed that these links work!

Naples: https://www.flickr.com/gp/rosetravels/0x95MM/
Cilento: https://www.flickr.com/gp/rosetravels/DFm6Ab/
Calabria: https://www.flickr.com/gp/rosetravels/044631/
Basilicata: https://www.flickr.com/gp/rosetravels/001QBA/

If you’re interested in geology, DH keeps a blog where he wrote about one of our day trips with probably more to come about the landslides we saw:
http://washingtonlandscape.blogspot....cellum-of.html

tedgale - you should go to this region. :)

Lovely, great food, friendly people and so few tourists. Truly delightful.

bookmarking to read later - can't wait!

Terrific photos! I see that the road to Pisciotta has not improved in the two years since my own visit! I am so glad that you tried Angiolina! And I had planned to stay at Le Farnie but was outvoted and so pressed on to Maratea that day, instead, after lunch in Castrovillari and visit to Morano Calabro, which was shut tight for afternoon break!

Eager for more!!

Wonderful photos. Now I really want to go to Calabria.

Leely2 - Calabria was shockingly beautiful. I had no idea, it was not what I expected.

ekscrunchy - I think you would have enjoyed Le Farnie - thank you for that recommendation. The road to Pisciotta...DH is a landslide geologist so he was thrilled with that road. Thrilled! But in all these years it's the only time he's had to turn back from a crazy, rough road.

NAPLES

We arrived in Naples at 11pm on a Monday, and checked in to the hotel we’d stayed at before. Vincent – the owner – had someone staying up late to wait for us and had given us the corner room with a balcony overlooking Santa Chiara. Nice! Unlike our hometown, where things close at 9 sharp, restaurants were still open and we made a beeline to the closest pizza place in Piazza del Gesu Nuovo. Pizza + wine.

Morning brought a new and favorite ritual: sitting in the sun drinking coffee in one of our favorite squares, Piazza San Domenico. Our hotel provides a voucher at a café and it’s splendid to sit and have coffee and a croissant outside on a sunny morning in Naples. An accordion player was playing his one song (ONE!) nearby and so my husband gave him a couple of coins. He played for us every morning.

We took the train to Pozzuoli to see the tectonic activity. The columns were of great interest to us (OK, mostly to DH) but the beautiful Coliseum was closed because it was Tuesday. After walking around the town and viewing the outside of the Coliseum we caught the train back to Naples.

From the train station at Montesanto we took the funicular up to Vomero and stumbled upon Hosteria Donna Teresa, mentioned in Fred Plotkin’s book ‘Italy for the Gourmet Traveler’. Serendipity. The father said a warm “Prego!” and in we went for a series of good and simple dishes. The grilled vegetables were my favorite. We also had fried alici (anchovies) – the first of many on this trip. That evening we wandered down to the Teatro San Carlo (gorgeous), the Piazza Plebescito and then got lost walking up and down Via Chaia. Eventually it was time for an aperitif, snacks, people watching and then back to our hotel.

As a total aside - from the Teatro San Carlo we spent quite awhile watching a man put a book or a package on car windows while drivers waited for the light on a busy street. Then he’d pick them back up as they were leaving and sometimes they gave him money. Nobody ever kept a package. We went closer for a better look at what he was putting on windshields but couldn’t really see. He’d set out 20 or so packages on cars, then run back to pick them up. His timing was impeccable and we were fascinated. We assumed he had left Africa under difficult circumstances and was working to make a living.

For dinner we went for pizza at La Locanda del Grifo, just off Tribunali. It was a big soccer night and they had 2 sections: the more elegant outside area and with a boxwood separation, the big screen for the soccer game. We sat near enough to hear and enjoy the excitement. Very fun. Pizza + wine.

On the way back to our hotel we walked past a church with many, many college students sitting on the steps and singing together. Delightful! And earlier that day, wandering by the Opera House, we heard a soprano practicing near an open window and saw the orchestra at practice through their skylights.

We love these moments.

I love Donna Teresa in Napoli. Glad you enjoyed your trip to Basilicata, and I hope to go Calabria next year.

from the Teatro San Carlo we spent quite awhile watching a man put a book or a package on car windows while drivers waited for the light on a busy street. Then he’d pick them back up as they were leaving and sometimes they gave him money. Nobody ever kept a package. We went closer for a better look at what he was putting on windshields but couldn’t really see. He’d set out 20 or so packages on cars, then run back to pick them up. >>

rose, on a train from Valencia we came across a man leaving packs of tissues on train seats [near other passengers] with a little note on them; after a few minutes he came back to collect them. Again, I saw no-one "buying" the tissues but presumably some people do.

enjoying your report very much; I spent half a day or so in Naples in February and can't wait to go back!

It's about time someone wrote about Naples, the most intriguing city on this planet!!
Complementi!

I'm so glad you enjoyed your time in Basilicata and am glad you found my input helpful. You are most welcome! Sounds like you started with some of Naples's enchanting moments. I'm looking forward to reading more about your journey.

Waldo - you were so helpful a couple of years ago with advice and in stoking my interest in the city. It's one of my absolute favorite places.

POMPEII & HERCULANEUM
The next day we planned to go to Herculaneum. We’d done some research and decided we probably could just visit one, and we thought we’d prefer that to Pompeii. We missed our stop on the train so….change of plans! Pompeii! We bought the 7 day Campania Arte Card (for us it was a good value) and went right in. Once we got past the crush of people in the first part of Pompeii (do they really pop in and see just that first piazza and road?!?) we really enjoyed it. Gorgeous colors!

After that we managed to exit the train at the right station and went to Herculaneum. It was interesting, in a ‘so that’s how they lived!’ way but we preferred Pompeii because of the large scale and the setting with the roads and vineyards. I thought the colors and forms were deeply beautiful.

Leaving Herculaneum we were hungry, thirsty and spotted a little deli with a sign for panini. We popped in and the butcher made us great sandwiches: bufala mozzarella, prosciutto, slices of a ripe green tomato, olive oil, salt, pepper. We took them and big bottles of water to a nearby wall and sat and ate lunch. Back in Napoli we wandered from the train station through the interesting/rough neighborhoods to the center.

We walked and walked, soaking in the city. I was eager to capture photos of laundry and of street scenes and of the young men who deliver espresso. If ONLY we had that in my hometown, rather than coffee shops sending us all out into the world with paper cups. I'd love a regular espresso delivery around 10 am!

We stopped for aperitifs on our way to our hotel, then had dinner at what was now our favorite pizza place on Piazza del Gesu. If DH finds a restaurant he likes, he likes to go for every meal! We have a running conversation when we travel with me wanting to try everything and him wanting to be a regular in one place. But our favorite place had great people watching and their bufala pizza was really delicious. Good dough, chewy and a little charred on the bottom, cheap and tasty house wine. Salami + pizza + wine = perfetto.

The next day was Thursday and friends were arriving to join us for a few days! In the morning we stopped in at Pio Monte della Misericordia to see the Caravaggio. Interesting. But what interested me most is that I tried to find it two years ago and couldn’t. Seriously, it couldn’t be easier to find! Final hours so we went for pizza and wine at our favorite pizza place. Then back to our hotel where Vincent called a cab and off we went to the train station to pick up our friends. It was FUN to see friends from home standing outside the Central Train Station! We continued on with our driver to the airport to get our car.

Within minutes we were careening out of town, past Mount Vesuvius, had one of those ‘OMG that’s REALLY Mt. Vesuvius’ moments. We resisted the exit for Pompeii, and headed towards Paestum and the Cilento Coast.

rosetravels: We had a great 5 day visit to the Salento peninsula in Puglia in -- hmm, 2012?? I have wanted to return to the region and expand my knowledge of it.

tedgale - yes, we felt a strong need to fill in some of the blank spots on the virtual maps in our heads. These were places we just didn't know at all. Now I'm thinking about Portugal and just read your TR and saw your photos.

To rosetravels (and everyone else)-You were wise going to Naples. No place on earth can one get the truly mind bending experiences that can be had in Naples. I go to Naples frequently, and I always get something new in the way of memories to bring home with me.
Incidentally, (I just remembered this last night), my wife was raised in Naples, her complete family is still there, but I digress, HOW MANY PEOPLE THAT ARE STILL ALIVE ON THIS LARGE EARTH CAN SAY THAT THEY WERE AS CLOSE AS TWO FEET FROM ADOLF HITLER? My wife was and she can still completely remember it clearly. She remembers that the fuehrer looked straight at her and she recalls his wierd blue eyes.