The problem with being an unemployed housewife living in a 200 square foot hotel room in the middle of a corn field is this: you start to go insane. It's been 40 days since we stepped foot off of the plane in Capodichino Airport in Naples and I've done a lot. A trip to Sorrento (and the Amalfi Coast), a trip to Berlin, tours of Downtown Naples and even gotten into an Italian (albeit broken-Italian) fight with a street vendor who tried to cheat me out of my correct change. However, despite all of these fun and exciting adventures, I find myself having days where I hole myself up in this tiny hotel room, eat baked ziti and watch old episodes of the West Wing on iTunes or watching the remaining minutes of "The Sorcer's Apprentice" for the third time.
To end the monotony and before I have to start gainful employment, I signed up for every tour that I could between last week and the second week in August. So far, I've gone to the Open Air Market in Vomero (our soon/not-so-soon to be neighborhood), the Churches of Naples and the Castles of Naples. I've also signed up for a three week Easy Italian class, forced myself onto unsuspecting wives who mentioned, if ever so briefly, that they were new to the area and found 1,001 ways to spend my first three consecutive paychecks. The list includes outdoor patio furniture, a coat rack and entry table, various expensive Italian handbags and lest we forget, the new couches that Tom has promised me when at long last, we can throw out those horrid ones that his ex-girlfriend picked out.
My trip to Vomero was made decidely humorous when a young lad who works for the local American newspaper, the Panorama, came along. With his fancy camera, he took pictures of Brenda (please see aforementioned overly eager friend making note) and myself looking at shoes, dresses and jewelry. Needless to say, he probably hated having to write this article. On the plus side, several street vendors thought that he was a journalist for some really legit newspaper or tourist magazine (no offense, Jeff or the Panorama) and began jumping into pictures and offering us first looks at just about everything. Far be it for me to correct them! He is technically a journalist! Every picture I took ended up with 3 Italian men jumping into the shot and throwing a thumbs up and saying "Go USA! Go Obama!" 'Atta Boy!
I'd hate to bore my dear readers with too many pictures of castles and churches, so I'll just say this: I was oddly surprised by many of the beauties hidden beneath the surface. Naples is known (and quite rightly) for being a dirty city. It's true. Sitting on such prominent real estate, there are views that take my breath away and then stenches of trash or burning trash that bring it right back. Graffiti covers most every wall and makes you so sad to see the loss of something so lovely that withstood so many centuries only to see it covered in spray paint and urine. It broke my heart to walk into the most gorgeous cathedral, Santa Chiara (St. Claire) and to see the marble stair case sprayed with "Giorgio <3 Maria." Great, Giorgio. However, once inside the sacred gates and in what once was the cloister for the convent, stood the most amazingly ornate courtyard. Aldo, the adorable tour guide on both excursions, explained that the nuns we normally dropped off at age 8 and were never allowed to leave the convent walls. Ever. This courtyard was their only means of ever seeing the light of day and what nature is really like. To that end, paintings and ceramic tiles cover the courtyard depicting scenes of what like is like outside of the walls. Pristinely kept over the years, this was one of those moments that made you really appreciate the history of the city.
I'm heading to another Castle (the Caserta Palace) on Thursday and trying to find ways to keep myself busy until our apartment is ready. I was told today that it failed the first inspection and will probably be another week. Tick tock....
Lynne
xoxo
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