Eleven days after we had boarded the cruise ship in Istanbul, our first cruise had come to an end. The ship docked in the Port of Civitavecchia, 53 miles (85kms) north of Rome.
We were booked on a second cruise leaving from this port 4 days later, so we had booked accommodation in Naples, a city we had not visited and seemed an interesting place. There were two places we wished to visit from Naples, Pompeii and the Isle of Capri, and had booked tickets for these before leaving home. For the first day of our time in Naples we had booked tickets to ride the Hop On/Hop Off bus to see as much of the city as possible.
We disembarked the ship at 08:00 and were told to wait in a particular area for a bus which was transporting passengers to the station. We, along with a few others, waited for almost an hour and no bus came. A couple of taxis agreed to transport us to the station for the same price as the bus. On driving through Civitavecchia, we saw a statue of a WWII sailor saying goodbye to his lady love, but we couldn’t take a photo as we were too far away. A month later, our daughter pasted the same statue that they had seen in San Diego which is the one that I have reproduced here.
We had booked our tickets to Naples via Rome Central electronically and went to the ticket desk for validation but, were sent to another queue and then to another before our tickets were validated and we could board the train. Sadly, we have discovered that Italians are not very helpful to tourists and have since heard that they are tired of so many tourists, making it difficult for them to enjoy their towns.
The train to Rome left on time but, just outside Rome we had a 15minute wait. We were due to have 24 minutes to find the platform and board the train to Naples. With this now reduced to 9 minutes and no one being very helpful with regard to finding the platform, we missed the train. We took a deep breath and walked slowly from platform to platform, eventually seeing the number and time for the next train. There were no lifts up to the platform so, Trevor waited at the bottom of the long staircase while I went up to see if we could use the same ticket, At last, a really nice railway employee came to our rescue. The waiting train was leaving in 5mins and, yes, that ticket was fine. Climbing all those stairs with luggage, twice, was a bit of an Herculean effort but we got on to the train and left for Naples!
We had arranged with our hotel for a taxi to meet us at the train station and so we went to the main entrance and waited there. After about 10mins the receptionist called to ask where we were and we did our best to explain. She then tried to tell us where the taxi was, so we handed the phone to a security guard who kindly got the details for us. The taxi driver was on the other side of the station in a back street. Who would have guessed to wait there?
Our arrival at the hotel was another disappointment. Nothing like the photos seen in the advertisement. It was just 8 rooms on the 4th floor of a non-descript building, but the receptionist was a wonderful person. There was nothing with which she would not assist. She was on duty from 08:00 and 16:00 so, outside of those hours, there was no assistance, if needed. The room was sparsely furnished with floor-to-ceiling windows and shutters which didn’t close properly and no curtains. There was a high step into the bathroom with a shower which had a slippery tiled floor and nothing on which to hold so one didn’t feel very safe. And this was not an inexpensive ‘hotel’.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the area and were shocked to discover how filthy the streets were. Rubbish poured out of overfull rubbish bins and cigarette butts all over the streets. Graffiti covered almost every wall. There were hundreds of motorcycles and all traffic moved at an incredible speed, many totally ignoring traffic lights and pedestrian crossings. Yet, the local people just walked across the road and somehow no one was knocked over. What also surprised us was to see toddlers being transported on motorcycles, driven by adults, standing in front of the driver. We decided to have supper at a Pizza Cafe. The pizzas were advertised at €5 each but we got a real surprise when the bill arrived; it was for €14.30. We discovered that if one sits at a table, a 10% table tax is charged and, further to that, VAT was charged.
The final straw was breakfast which was included in the price. We were given a piece of paper which was stamped for 3 days to have breakfast at a café down the road. On arrival we were told that we could have any one of 4 croissant types and either a juice or a coffee. Certainly not worth €10. Anyway, even though it was not a great start to our stay in Naples, we decided that it was only for 3 days and conveniently located so we decided to stay and enjoy the city.
Interestingly, it was the one place where we stayed that we were not asked to complete a questionnaire to give our feedback. We would not have recommended it at all.
