Salerno I apologize for not honoring your beautiful churches, beaches and ancient ruins but we really just used you as a springboard to visit Pompeii and the inimitable Amalfi Coast. We had intended on exploring Salerno this morning for 3 hours but we were so exhausted, luckily our cases were packed . It was 10.30 and we were being picked up by Antonio at 11am from cafe Zero Otto Nove.
Eric is really loving the Nutella croissants here and he had his regular and I had a crema one. Confession time, I cannot eat without spilling or crumbling all over my self. I wish bibs were socially acceptable as my croissant crumbs every morning look like giant chest dandruff . The pigeons love me here as I shake off the crumbs.
Antonio takes his guests to the Naples airport for €30 which is the same cost as by public transport. He was such a great host, he has been our favorite host so far. Although Enrica and Maurizio in Torre del Lago Puccini were impeccable hosts , Antonio felt like a friend. He and Eric bonded during the journey to the airport over the tranquility of smoking, lax parenting, economics and travel. He said although he has a 3 night minimum he would welcome us back if we stopped in for a night on our way to Sicily in 2 years time.
Napoli airport was a smooth checkin. We had Japanese food, yep that's right. The Italian food was at ridiculously high Cairns prices so we had yakitori and salmon noodles. Volutea air has large comfy seats the only area i can fault them is that once you've gone through the boarding gate it's chaos. No line just a mad dash to the steps. I was number four in line and I got smashed in the shins by a he-man with two hardshell travel cases on the left and on the right a barefoot monk tried to swipe me by whipping around his wooden rosary beads. Uhuh father not today I put my arm out to block him. I ended up being tenth in the scrum.
Waving goodbye to mainland Italy we were all prepared for our next adventure in Eric's nannas stomping ground Sicily. Nina hadn't given us many details so we were staying in Palermo the capital for 4 nights and Catania for 1. Once again hindsight makes you wish for a rewind button.
Upon landing Eric said straight away "I don't like it. The grass is dry and brown. " I directed him to observe the intense blue of the sea beside the runway and the goats on the mountain outcrops on our right.
We caught the train as per our host Rosario's instructions then stood there stumped. We couldn't see the name of our street as promised in our message string. The Indian car window cleaners asked an elderly yet spritely man to help us. He was very intense and tried to sell us tours. He wanted to talk to our airbnb host so he could drive us but we were worried about being scammed.
Rosario luckily answered when I rang and said he'd pick us up. Within 10 minutes he arrived a young - too busy to deal with dithering old people- long haired fellow , fluent in English. He squeezed us into his tiny battered car and we went down a few streets on the most run down ghetto we'd ever seen in our lives. We gulped down our shock.
Next shock was the 3 flights of steps per floor we were on the 5th floor so it was 15 flights up the huge marble stairs. He opened the door to the apartment and it was amazing. It was very roomy with a new kitchen and washing machine . There were two big bedrooms with balconies to hang up your clothing and a giant living room with a dining table. After unpacking our clothes and having a micro nap we set out for dinner. Maybe our nap was macro as it was around 10pm when we reached the Ballaro Markets.
Even Eric was frightened walking through the streets dictated by google maps, in this case there should be a safe walk option as this was really like taking a walk on the wild side. There was not much open and we were very hungry so we went to drug deal cafe and had a spritz, we watched the bar woman make it although I didn't feel she was an unsafe person.
The owner was intrigued by the two squaries and asked where we were from. He shouted something out and a table was cleared for us. We also had porchetta paninis and shared a large beer. We were privy to a few dope deals and were offered hash and cocaine. A lot of clean cut looking teenagers dropped in to score their drugs.
It was nearly midnight so we said our goodbyes and walked through the dubious alley way, not making eye contact with anyone. We stopped in a tranquil piazza to catch our breath and have a pit stop. As a reward for our bravery we had limoncello spritz and a bruschettini the latter being a giant Bruschetta covered in burrata, cherry tomatoes, basil and prociutto - it was a delicious start to Sicily. We arrived back in our own ghetto soon, I still felt creeped out by the naked human with a tail and two heads painted across the expanse of to crumbling buildings. The squalor made me feel grateful for my safe life in Australia. As I fell I listened to the sounds of sirens and dogs barking .
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