Wednesday Wanderings: Galleria Umberto I in Naples

Galleria Umberto I is a public shopping gallery in Naples – located right opposite San Carlo theatre, which was constructed more than a hundred years back and named after, surprise surprise, Umberto I – the king of Italy at the time of its construction (more details can be obtained from wiki). The gallery has four wings, and is surmounted by a beautiful glass dome. In my opinion, the gallery is a might-as-well-visit-since-I-am-there location in Naples 🙂

Galleria Umberto I in Naples

And when you are there, don’t forget to look down either. It has some really beautiful tile designs as well!

Tiles design at Galleria Umberto I, Naples

Monday morning spice: Food in Naples

Reviving an old section today – Monday morning spice – some photos to cheer you up on a dreary Monday morning. And thought, what better way to bring back a section which has ‘spice’ in it’s name than to talk about food! And that too food in Italy!

With absolutely no doubt about it, the top rank goes to… Pizza!!

You thought Italy was famous for it’s pizza? You’re right, but within Italy, Napoli is especially famous for it. And it’s not the typical pizza you’d fine which is baked in electric oven and has a hundred different type of toppings. The ‘real’ Italian pizza is cooked in smouldering embers of a clay oven. There are two main types – Margherita and Marinara (or, to be precise, pizza napoletana margherita and pizza napoletana marinara). These are very basic, very tasty and quite inexpensive (just 3-5 Euros for a full-size pizza). You can get ones with different type of toppings added to them, but they don’t really need any toppings. If you really want to mix it up a bit, get the margherita with double mozzarella – it’s yummy! 🙂

Travel tip: Only go for a pizzerie which has a sign outside which says ‘Vera‘ pizza – this indicates it will present to you authentic clay-oven baked pizzas.

And that’s how a REAL pizza is made! At Da Michele restaurant.

p.s. The pizzas in Napoli were so tasty, I don’t have a single photograph of them – I gobbled them up so fast! 😀

Continuing with the pizza theme, Neapolitans love cheese. Here’s a dish called ‘Braciola al ra gu’ which is essentially meat with cheese stuffed inside it. Luxury.

Okay. even meat has cheese stuffed inside it. Yum.

And to cap it all off, I also tried Risotto. This was at the unfortunately pricey restaurant called Locanda del Grifo (although pizzas were quiet cheap at just €4). This is Risotto fiori di Zucca, which was nice and tasty. Not mindblowing though.

Risotto fiori di Zucca

Italian food. I miss it. I am feeling very hungry now. I better go get a full English breakfast! 😉

Did I bump into James May in Naples?

(For the uninitiated, James May is one of the presenters on the motoring show Top Gear – famous for getting lost, being nicknamed ‘Captain Slow’ and his dry, almost-sincere humour)

 

I stayed at Hostel Mancini in Naples (a good hostel by the way) and met this interesting gentleman who was one of the hosts at the hostel:

Almost James May

The real James May

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, whenever I talked to him, I couldn’t help but smile, expecting one of those funny resigned things only James May would say. And he must have been thinking – Why does this moron keep smiling, when with a lot of sincere effort in my broken-English, I have just told him about the rife pickpocketing that happens in Napoli? And about the fact that he’s planning to go to top of Vesuvio in a t-shirt and he should be taking a fleece jacket instead? Ah, these tourists – morons! Can’t do anything about it.

😀

Oh, well, honest answer is no. But, almost.

A short hike to Mount Vesuvius

In my previous post, I mentioned how excited I was about the opportunity to visit a semi-active volcano – Mount Vesuvius – known for erupting every 30 years, and whose last eruption was 1944 – which means it’s definitely due an eruption and it’s going to be a big one!

So, on the morning of Friday May 4th, I just couldn’t wait, got up early, finished a quick breakfast and was off to Circumvesuviana railway station (it’s very close to the main railway station of Naples at Piazza Garibaldi). Luckily, the train towards Sorrento was in just 10 minutes (although, in Italy, just like India, if you ask “Oh, by the way, how long do I have to wait before the train departs?“, the answer is always “Just 5 minutes!”). By the way, I had been warned about pickpockets in trains multiple times, so I made sure my wallet was well-hidden away. Fortunately, the train was quiet empty and I didn’t face any trouble. Apart from the presence of two obnoxious American ladies who were very very loud, made a big fuss about how weird and funny it is to talk to Italian people and provided a full-length discourse of how they would name an apple as Mr Joe and keep it throughout the journey and take photos with it. Oh well.

My destination on this train journey was Ercolano, about 30-40 minutes away from Naples, which is not only the gateway to Mt Vesuvius, but also home to the archeological site of Herculaneum – which is just like Pompeii, much smaller, less famous but better preserved due to being engulfed in a different type of volcanic material at the time of eruption. I had intended to do a full-hike of Mount Vesuvius, but due to time constraints and a general warning by my hostel host that the hike path has been closed (although I don’t believe that to be true), I chose to go for the bus till the tree-line of the mountain followed by a steep 800m hike to the top to see the crater.

Despite all the negative stereotypes associated with such experience in Italy, ‘Vesuvius Express‘ mini-bus turned out to be a good choice considering it saved me a lot of time, it started and came back on the pre-decided times and the driver drove in a perfectly sane manner, something you stop expecting after having a look at the traffic in Naples.

The walk to the top was of medium difficulty, the only hindrance was the continuous stream of traffic jams caused by hordes of German pensioners walking up the volcano. On a more serious note though, I’d recommend wearing shoes with good grip (or even walking boots if you have them) as the path has a lot of gravel, dirt and small rocks and can get a bit slippery. Definitely no heels, although I did see a couple of ladies in spring dresses and well, I guess, that’s how they roll.

View of the surrounding ridges and hills, with the clouds moving in!

I had read in my guidebook that Vesuvius is infamous for being foggy at the top, thus robbing the tourists of a beautiful view of the Bay of Naples. When I started my trip in the morning, I didn’t see any clouds near the mountain, so thought – Bah! Guidebooks and their warnings! But it turned out, just when I started the hike, clouds moved in around the peak and this is the view I saw:

View of Bay of Naples from Vesuvius

A bit disappointing, you know. 😛

But the crater didn’t disappoint. After encountering a few shops selling fake souvenirs apparently made of ‘black-lava-rock’, the crater suddenly came into view and took my breath away. It was quiet deep, and although the main vent was completely covered up during the last eruption, there’s still small plumes of smoke arising from a few tiny vents all around the crater.

First look at the crater of Mt Vesuvius!

Smoke coming out from one of the vents!

You can walk halfway around the top to see the crater from different angles. There’s also a small shop at the top selling really expensive water – so, it might be a good idea to get some water from Ercolano or Naples before you board the bus to the top.

It was also interesting to see the clearly-visible layers of earth around the crater, which I guess must have been deposited every time there’s a new eruption. I am sure it must be a treasure trove of information for actual geologists. 🙂

Another look at the crater – and the layers of volcanic material visible around the crater.

I don’t know about the safety aspects involved, but it might be fun to descend into the crater. Someone should take it up as a business idea to start hikes down into the crater – with the thrill of an eruption which could happen any time – without warning! 😀

Useful Information:

Train to Ercolano from Naples: € 2.5

Mini-bus from Ercolano railway station to Vesuvius (called Vesuvius Express) : € 10
(You can get a 1 Euro discount if you show the map provided at hostels which advertises this company)

Entry fee to Mount Vesuvius: € 8
(I’d recommend buying this along with your ticket at Vesuvius Express saving you queuing time)

What else can you do in Ercolano? Enjoy some tasty pizza, visit Herculaneum (just 200 yards from railway station) or visit Pompeii!

Offbeat tip: If you are flying out of Naples at the end of your trip, try to get a seat on the left hand side of the plane, you’ll get a great view of Mount Vesuvius as the plane flies right next to it in it’s take-off path. Keep your cameras ready too (sadly, I didn’t 😦 )

Once in a blue moon

Do you know what’s the origin of the phrase ‘Once in a blue moon’?

In 1883, a volcano called Mount Krakatoa in Indonesia had one of the most explosive eruptions of all times – (and copying from wiki) it was equivalent to 13,000 times the nuclear yield of the Hiroshima atom bomb. It ejected approximately 21 km³ ,of rock, ash, and pumice. The sky had so much volcanic dust, and that too for months, that the moon appeared blue. Now, such a big eruption does not happen very often. In fact, this one is considered to be the single largest recorded eruption. Hence, the phrase ‘Once in a blue moon‘. An event that happens very rarely.

 

But why I happen to know all this? Because I was crazy about volcanoes when I was a kid. Geography was my favourite subject (No wonder, I ended up loving travel so much) and geology was my primary field of interest. Aconcagua, Cotopaxi, Vesuvius, Krakatoa were names on the tips of my fingers. In those days, when the internet was just a baby (that makes me sound so old!), I read up every possible book on volcanoes and geological phenomenon that I could find in my school library. I had posters about newspaper articles on volcano eruptions and although India doesn’t have much in the name of volcanic activity, I was proud of the fact that India did have one active volcano – Barren Island – in Andaman and Nicobar islands – which was quiet far away and difficult to reach. In those days, getting a chance to visit a volcano would have been a dream come true. Probably more a bucket list thing, though I was not aware of the concept of bucket lists when I was 13!

 

But why am I telling you all this?

 

Because that dream just came true. 🙂

 

On my trip to Naples, I got a chance to visit Mt Vesuvius. In fact, it was probably the main reason I decided to go to Naples. And Senor Vesuvio did not disappoint.  I do not mean that it erupted! That would have been tragic (and no offence Pompeii, but amazing as well) – but I mean, the visit was absolutely worth it – I did a mini-hike to the top and saw the crater! More about it in my next post! 🙂

 

Mount Vesuvius from Castel Nuovo, Naples

Mt Vesuvius from Castel dell’Ovo, Naples