There isn't a direct train to Sorrento, so we had to take the main train to Naples and from there, we took the local train, Circumvesuviana. An important thing to note is that the Circumvesuviana train station at Naples is called Garibaldi (2nd last stop, or 2nd stop of the line depending on which direction you're looking from), which is somewhat like an interchange. On our way back, we took the train up to Napoli Porta Nolana, thinking that it was the last stop and assumed it was the right stop since it's the only stop which spells "Napoli", but because of that, we nearly missed our train to Rome. A group of Chinese girls had also blurily took the train till the end, and we ended up running like a mad pack of tourists to catch our train at Garibaldi... not an experience I wanna relive.
Anyways, the other end of the train line is Sorrento, mid-way's Pompeii (at the train station to stop at is pretty obvious, Pompeii Scavi).
That afternoon that we set off from Matera to Sorrento, we exhausted the entire night on the trains, and we were lucky that we managed to catch the last train to Sorrento... which meant we reached Sorrento about 11-ish pm.
However, Sorrento's not a hard town to navigate in. And since it was Friday, the streets were bustling with different groups of what sounded like drunkard rioters. I think they were different groups of supporters, for some sports... not soccer that's for sure. It was rather intimidating at first, but turned out that when the "rioters" marched past us, they were just a loud harmless pack having a good time.
Finding bottled water was one of our "favourite night pasttimes", and once again, we had to desperately look around for any nearby convenience shops. Right where we stayed, just a few metres down the street, we managed to find a late-night cafeteria, which sold a 1.5L bottle of water at exorbitant rates, what's new? But at least, we didn't risk dehydration during the night.
The next morning, we headed out early to Pompeii, which took us around 3-4hours to explore, before we headed to the much-anticipated Amalfi Coast. Before settling off on our honeymoon, I was puzzled, not sure if when one mentions Amalfi Coast, does he/she mean the Amalfi town? or the entire coast along Amalfi? Well, after being there, I think I have a better picture...
The Amalfi Coast does refer to the whole stretch, which also includes the Amalfi town. I'm not sure of the other towns, but I do know Positano (slightly higher up the mountains than Amalfi which is at the base) comprise of it and though we didn't stop by the town, passing it during our local bus ride does scream the beauty of Amalfi's scenic coast as well. Think of Positano and Amalfi like that of Venice's Grand Canal, and Cinque Terre that of Murano and Burano - Amalfi's coast much grander than Cinque Terre but less cosier.
Before I get ahead of myself, lemme recap Pompeii. Even though Pompeii was another "must-go", "must-see" place on my itinerary, it was rather... mundane. Pompeii is a huge ancient town that's preserved, conserved because of it's rich history, being buried by Mt. Vesuvius and all that ka-bo-chi (yup, this word doesn't exist, I just made it up) in 79 AD.
However, it was mainly cordoned off and most of the places were out of bounds, not sure whether it was because it was a special day (they gave free entry to visitors) that day or perhaps they were just too paranoid about tourists destroying their sacred heritage. I doubt it was the former, because I don't think the staff there would be going around the entire Pompeii putting up line barriers, and if the latter is true, then it's just plain gimmicky... Pompeii is now overly commercialized.
Not that I wanna compare, but Cambodia's Angkor Wat was way more... "natural" that Pompeii. Tourists were free to roam the entire temple compounds, at their own risk of course, but for Pompeii, there was no risk at all, since the entire compound was pretty much flat, yet, there were so many barricades that it felt I was at a zoo, only being to appreciate the "beauty" of the "enclosures" from a distance.
Well, I didn't hate it, I just didn't think it was that fantastic... overhyped. But I had a mission. A mission that few embarked on... to find the ash-cast immortalised figures of the Pompeii-ans. We hurried around the lost city like "true-blue" explorers, without a map in hand, without a compass, without shades, just our handy water bottles. But after the 3-4hr walkaround, I decided to give up the mission, keeping in mind that there's a coast waiting for us.
And so, we headed back to Sorrento station, which we could take a direct bus to Amalfi, via Positano. When asked about how to purchase the bus tickets, the bus drivers and train staff led me to each other's direction... making me look like a fool for running to and fro. Finally, a kind-hearted bus driver told me to just board the bus, because "it's free". "Wow! Free!" I thought, "Don't ask why, just board".
Well it turned out that we had to get a ticket at this tiny bus station at Amalfi, and there's no such thing as a one-way ticket. The ticket actually covers to-and-fro, so, if we hadn't gotten the ticket at Amalfi, we wouldn't have been able to get back to Sorrento. Either way, the "free ride" I thought we had affirmed the age old saying, "There's no such thing as a free ride."
The bus ride was quite thrilling, or chilling, depending on one's tolerance for driving up steep, narrow winding roads at jerky speeds. If there was a landslide, surely, our bus will topple down the what-looked-like 100ft down the mounatin like a toy bus. I tried hard to fight that sadistic thought, and pretended to enjoy the ride, while the locals talk about us, right in front of us, not behind our backs mind you. Cos they assumed we didn't know Italian, well they were right, but thanks to my astute language inferences, I pieced up the conversation they had; "the tourists behind boarded my bus without a ticket, cos this other bus driver told them that it was free. I had better keep a watch on them later to make sure these chinese buggers pay up at the station later."
Well, it didn't bother me, because I was semi-praying, semi-appreciating the scenic mountainous coastline - checking out Capri Island in the distance.
Amalfi coast was... gor-grand-geous! We had intended to see the "2-faces" of Amalfi, one before the sunsets, and another after. Luckily we left Pompeii earlier than scheduled, because the bus ride took slightly longer than it was supposed to.
Since it would take like 3 good paragraphs to describe Amalfi, and of which will probably not do it justice, I shall do it in 2 lines. At the coast of Amalfi, there's 2 jetties leading out, with a cliff where the Luna Convent (an ancient hotel with a restaurant in an old tower overlooking the sea) sits on one side, and the town of Praiano on the other side. The jetty closer to the bus terminal (just an open space) offers a more scenic view of the coastline and Amalfi itself.
Amalfi coast looked more breathtaking in the day, after sunset, the town blended into the darkness, and became like any other ordinary coastal towns (ie, not worth staying till after the sun sets). And the sun doesnt even set there... it sets behind the town of Praiano, located pretty low as well, but along the gradually inclining mountains.
As the last bus leaves at 7pm, freakishly early since it was during the non-peak winter season, we had to make full use of our time... and we did what any desperate-for-time tourist would have done, we hunted for and brought home pieces of Amalfi with us... souvenirs!!
We only managed to hit one attraction, the Duomo di Saint'Andrea Apostolo, a cathedral situated on top a 150-steps flight of stairs. The hardest one we had to work for to enter, by far. But one of the most interesting, to say the least. The interior was colorfully lit and the ambience was overwhelmingly homely. Locals (mainly) were gathered in the church to support their kids and friends performing later in the evening. I know that cos' I saw them rehearsing, unfortunately the actual performance was much later than our last bus ride back to Sorrento.
The journey back surprisingly didn't take that long, despite the apparent pitch blackness which covered the winding streets, illuminated only by travelling vehicles.
Sorrento was a night haven. Back in Sorrento, the night life was bustling more vibrantly than in the day, with the addition of many buskers, and it was a food haven as well. Famous people, Italian celebrities (some were famous before they set up, others were famous after setting up) set up their stalls along the main street, and there were a good 3-4 highly acclaimed, highly recommended cafes scattered along the street - pizza, gelato, etc.
But Sorrento didn't just have an unforgettable nightlife to offer tourists, the next morning, the streets were also lined with tourists and locals alike. It turned out Sorrento was a souvenir haven too. We were lucky that we bought a whole chunk load of delicious lemon & original chocolates there because at our last stop in Rome, we realised all the souvenirs were too generic and lacked the "heart".
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| Antiche Mura (Ancient Walls in Sorrento) |
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| Marina Grande (Sorrento's Port) |
When we finally made it back to Rome yet again for the last leg of our trip, we checked out the Colosseum, the largest ancient amphitheatre of the Rome Empire, where the famous gladiators once fought. We didn't enter it because by the time we reached there, it was already closed. Though majestic, the exterior seemed to already "expose" everything it had to offer, as there were little open slits we could see through into the inside of it - but there didn't seem like much to see.
Nearby, the Arch of Constantine and the Foro Romano Palatino (Palatine Hill) stood, with many ancient structures seen around the complex. But we couldn't enter because by then everything was closed. We walked further down to the Foro di Augusto (there's just so many ancient structures scattered around the Rome City that every 100metres of so, you'll be sure to pass by one), one of the Imperial forums of Rome, I believe somewhat like Singapore's supreme court, where legal proceedings were held. There was some artsy lighting over there, adding a blue glow of enchanted mystery to the crumbled ruins.
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| Arch of Constantine |
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| Foro di Augusto |
This was the peaceful part. We had initially planned the next half of our last full day (30th Dec) at the Colosseum cum Palatine Hill, and the other half at the Vatican City, but it turned out that even one day spent at the Vatican, was like signing up for a package tour - hectic as hell. Vatican City was one of the most "unplanned" unexpected variable in our trip, causing us to "lose" time in Rome City... but that said, was well worth it.
So what's there at Vatican City? The world's 2nd largest museum, the Vatican Museum. Now I know why there's one official travel book for each Rome City and Vatican City despite it's proximity to each other... because there's just so much to do at each. If I were to give advice on hindsight right now, you'll probably need to spend at least 2 full days at Vatican City, and 3 full days at Rome to cover most of their attractions, comfortably.
Vatican is most famous for the Sistine Chapel, where Michangelo's works are displayed. It's where the famous painting, The Creation of Adam is painted on, up on the ceiling of the chapel. However, expect not to see a whole ceiling of it, because it only took a small portion of the ceiling, with other interesting works as well. Why it's so famous, I'm not sure, possibly because of the "finger touching" scene made even more famous by Steven Spielberg's ET scene. When we first entered it, after walking through a long hall displaying other artifacts and gifts such as carpets and paintings, we looked up... to see a whole ceiling of yet another "set of paintings", trying hard to find that one famous "finger touching" painting.
It blended in almost too nicely, appearing almost too mundane. Not wanting to "waste" our efforts entering the chapel, ok.. talking about efforts, lemme rewind a bit. It was raining pretty heavy that day, and the queue was notoriously long. I had hoped that somehow, the non-peak season and bad weather, together with the weird timing would deter tourist from checking the chapel out, but I was wrong. The only way to enter the Sistine Chapel was through the Vatican Musuem, and you'll have to get tickets into the Vatican Musuem which includes the visit to the chapel.
We were approached by black tour guide at the end of the queue, some 1km away from the main entrance. Even though the queue seemed to be moving fairly fast, I figured it would have taken us like 2 hours before we reach the main entrance. So for once, we heard out a "street vendor". She was supposedly an official guide, showing us her pass and all that "false" formality, and quoted us 32 euros each to skip the line. My dear thought she saw the official entrance fee to be 28 euros, and after some calculation, factoring some minus minus from 28 euros since I didn't quite believe their profit margin to be that small, I decided to take that leap of faith by buying tickets from her. Time = money, and we didn't have the luxury of time.
She brought us straight to the front of the entrance, however, instead of entering it, she brought us across a road, into what looked like a black market ticket shop. We went in, packed like sardines, and guides were seen "escorting" their "baits" to the main counter. It took us around 15minutes to get to even purchase our "skip the line" tickets, and just before reaching there, I noticed a local guy getting rather agitated with his guide. Heard something like some scheduled timing or so. I had initially looked around the shop, making sure we didn't get ourselves into some illegal trade, but analysed the situation to be a rather legit thing. Only thing I overlooked was this piece of paper stuck onto the wall of the counter, stating a few different timings, an hour apart.
Then it dawned on me that even for skip the line, there was specific timings to enter, it was entirely get-your-tickets-and-skip-the-line-straightaway but we had to wait for the next timeslot. The next one turned out to be around 30 minutes later, and when I questioned that lady, she pretended to quickly address the issue and told us that she would help us ask if there was an earlier timeslot.
I got defensive, and skeptical, and was so ready to maul her apart if she couldn't guarantee us an earlier timing but she eventually did, lucky her. She left us straight after we paid up, and were soon taken over by another "confederate". Thankfully, we were doubly lucky that day, because we somehow managed to tag along another earlier group, meaning we waited no more than 5 minutes. However, when we reached the entrance, we had to wait yet again, for the lines, orginal line, and skip-the-line line took turns to enter.
Once inside, another of their confederates helped us to purchase tickets, it was actually a big group consisting of around 20 pax and we were all rushing to keep up with the guide. It was like keep up with the pack, or be forever lost...
The whole shebang took like an hour, and the original tickets were priced at 16 euros each. We weren't sure we had actually saved much time, but we sure convinced ourselves that we did tremendously (guess we'll never know), because we had paid double the amount to get into the sacred chapel... and it had better be worth it.
We may not have been able to experience the alternate reality lingering in our minds whilst walking through the hallway en route to the chapel, but once inside, our hearts were finally put to rest. We were at peace, and no longer wondered if we were ripped off or not because despite paying double the amount, setting foot into Sistine Chapel and checking out the great works of Michangelo was indeed worth it.
The Sistine Chapel's pretty small, no more bigger than a big screen cinema like GVmax or The Cathay, but it held the finest paintings of a genius artist who was able to paint 3D art even before it became popular in our modern era.
There were seats along the sides of the chapel, with stern Vatican Guards "shhing" the visitors every 5 minutes. They even had to inform visitors the "house rules" repeatedly over a PA system, "No talking, no photos, no..." Yup, it was that strict.
We spent a good 20-30mins in the chapel, we even managed to get a seat, but because all the paintings were high up, everyone had to lift their heads to appreciate the artwork. Prolonged looking up led to strained necks, cut-off blood circulation, nausea and giddiness. It was like sitting at the front row seats of a cinema, but closer.
The paintings were so well drawn that our eyes were gradually taken in by them... both my dear and I had to enter soft discussions on whether what we saw was really 2D or 3D or not the paintings playing tricks with our eyes. It turned out that almost everything was 2D, with the exception of the pillars. It's pretty hard to explain that awe, but simply put, it was one heavenly artistic mega optical illusion.
The rest of the Vatican Museum was less as impressive, but not because they weren't good, just that the Sistine Chapel was off-the-charts jaw dropping - a once-in-a-lifetime experience I highly reccomend to anyone visiting Vatican City. But devote a full day to it, wake up early, and queue early, don't skip the line, save the money, and enjoy the works nonetheless.
Gifts to the Pope from some countries, Singapore included, such as Astralia (Aborigins), Japan (Samurais) and Bali (Batik) were on display at one of the exhibits, stamps at another, popes carriages, paintings of ancient maps as well as an open compound where there's duplicate panels describing the works inside the Sistine Chapel.
We also visited the St. Peter's Basilica at the main square, and we managed to enter it just before it closed, phew! The queue was also pretty long, the skies were dark, but guess God was on our side. Inside, we saw one of the grandest interior of any cathedrals we had stepped foot into - it was no surprise though considering it's one of the holiest catholic sites. There was a massive number of mega statues and frescoes, and these were made from the "atas" materials by what looked like marble and ivory. That said, I guess Cathedrals no longer amazes me that much. No matter how grand or majestic a cathedral may be, I now prefer one less showy, more cosy, more intimate, more... for the people.
After it closed, we did manage to hit one more attraction in Rome, the Spanish Steps, reminiscence of Singapore's Orchard Road where the branded goods are being sold. It's an expensive area alright, and we managed to save a few dollars by walking further down for our dinner.
That last few hours, that last night in Rome, in Italy was spent souvenir shopping. And as I've mentioned above, most of them were generic. Not much to buy, the usual magnets, figurines, decorative plates, etc. Same old, same old.
Still, I liked Rome, because of it's unqiueness, having so many attractions in a single city. And even though we were sad that marked the end of our journey, we returned home with high spirits, and despite having to transit at Helsinki Airport for 8 over hours (it's a small airport, nothing much to do there, especially since it's New Year's Eve), we were excited to get back with our new stash of home-furnishing souvenirs... the next stop... er... Singapura Punggol?
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