Wanderings

Monday, July 11, 2022

Pompei

July 11, 2022

There is one through train a day from from Cinque Terre to Naples. As the train leaves at 5:28 am, it was an early start. The train followed the coast through Pisa and Rome arriving in Naples at 12:30.

We connected to the narrow guage Circumvesuvia train to Pompei. In 79 C.E., Mount Vesuvius erupted in two stages. In the first stage, the volcano rained down small rocks on the city to a depth of 6 meters. The next day, an explosive plume of ash and noxious gas erupted, burying many who had survived the rock onslaught. In the museum at Pompei, there was a rather macabre display of castings of the cavities left by bodies in the hardened ash.

Pompei was a very large city, and the on-going excavations have revealed vivid frescoes in many houses depicting Pompeian life and people. There is a different casa del giorno (house of the day) that they open on different days of the week to help preserve the fragile artefacts. We saw Villa Imperiale today.

Back to the train to complete the Circumvesuviana's run to Sorrento, with a connection to the bus over the hills to the Amalfi coast. The ride was literally nauseating as the driver flew around narrow, virtiginous, blind curves, then screeched on the brakes if a car were already in the narrow roadway. We passed many bus stops with waiting passengers as the bus was already jammed full (1) (2).

We took a moment to collect ourselves after getting off the bus in Praiano and vowed to walk or swim when we left; anything to avoid the bus. Our hotel was a small family run establishment with sweeping views to the end of Amalfi Penninsula and the Ile of Capri.

(1) In late afternoon, the bus runs only once every 90 minutes.

(2) The ticket taker had a side hustle selling masks to those without, as he would not let you on the bus without one.

Frescoes and carvings in Pompei

Recently excavated house

Vesuvius looming in the distance

Some wall section with well-preserved frescoes were moved into the on-site museum

Macabre castings from cavities in the ash

At Villa Imperiale, La Casa del Giorno

Sunday, July 10, 2022

Sentiero Azzurro, Cinque Terre

July 10, 2022

The short train ride from Levanto to Monterosso is mostly through tunnels. Monterosso is the northernmost of the coastal towns known as Cinque Terre (5 lands). Due to the steep terrain, all five towns were connected primarily by sea and steep footpaths before the railway opened in 1874. Paths still connect the towns with each other and the terraced hillsides on the steep hills tumbling down to the sea.

The Sentiero Azzuro (Blue Route hiking trail) runs between the towns. South of Monterosso, the trail rises steeply about 500 vertical feet from Monterosso on a series of irregular stone stairs (1). The path then follows a terrace before rising to about 700 feet above the sea, which is visible far below.

A gentler grade descends back to the sea at the next town, Vernazza (2). Here we enjoyed some gelato as a reward for our three mile hike, and strolled through the town before hopping the train back to Monterosso (3). A late-day swim in the sea soothed our tired legs.

(1) We brought our hiking boots on this trip for later, but they were a good choice for this hike.

(2) There is still no road connecting Monterosso and Vernazza. Travel by car requires climbing to or from both towns over the mountains to reach the main north/south road on the other side of the ridge.

(3) Vernazza station is located at a small opening between two tunnels. A strong wind accompanied an express train nearing the station, followed by a noticeable sucking feeling as the train re-entered the tunnel.

Views to Monterosso

Ascending from Monterosso al Mare

Along the Ridge

Descending to Vernazza

Vernazza Train Station

Waxing Gibbous at Monterosso

Saturday, July 9, 2022

Ciclopedonale Marimonti

July 9, 2022

An early flight today from Brussels to Genoa flew directly over central Switzerland. The Alps rise abruptly, cutting the elevation between the plane and the ground in half. Glaciers were visible on some of the north faces of the high peaks.

Upon arrival in Genoa, we took the train along the coast of the Ligurian Sea from Genoa to Levanto. We booked a night at a B&B in Levanto; it was literally the only vacancy I could find on this summer weekend anywhere near Cinque Terre (1). We went to the public portion of the beach (2) for a swim on this sunny warm day.

A hiking trail app showed a very straight trail cutting across contour lines on the map, a very odd circumstance. The rail line in this area had been rerouted in the early 1960s, straightening the route and redigging the tunnels for two tracks. The previous rail grade (and long tunnels) have been repurposed as a bicycle and pedestrian path (3). The trail is known as Ciclopedonale Marimonti (4).

We rented bikes and rode north along the sea and through the cool tunnels to the next town, Bomosello. We watched young guys (who else) jumping off cliffs into the sea. The stretch of the trail further north was quieter. As we neared Furnaci, I knew the trail was about to end when we heard a train rumbling in the newer tunnel next to us. At Furnaci, the trail dead ended at the new rail alignment. The only way into town was down a long flight of stairs, through a tunnel, then back up the other side.

On the ride back, we stopped for a swim at dog beach, just north of Levanto.

(1) We had planned a longer trip starting in France on July 1, but I got Covid in late June. Because my plans were scrambled, I took whatever lodging I could get at the last minute. It was a lovely B&B with only two rooms, a garden with lemon trees, and a clothes line guests could use.

(2) Many beaches in this part of Italy are private, covered with beach umbrellas of uniform color and placement. You can tell the public beaches by the irregular placement and varied colors of the umbrellas.

(3) There seemed to be too many bikes in the town that had about a dozen streets and was surrounded by steep mountains.

(4) Basically translated as "bike and walking path sea and mountains."

On the trail (Ciclopedonale Marimonti)

In the tunnels in the bike trail

The three arches

Adolescents (boys of course) were jumping off the cliffs

On the ride North

At Furnaci

On the ride back

Note the palm trees. Levanto is over 100 miles north of Boston (Lattitude wise)

Dog Beach

Almost back to Levanto

At Levanto

Friday, June 10, 2022

Ferry to Hel

June 10, 2022

Across the bay from Gdansk at the end of a long thin peninsula lies the town of Hel. The seasonal ferry began running this week (1). As the boat cruised from Gdansk to the sea, the enormous scale of the busy shipyards was revealed, with extensive repairs both in the water and in dry dock. The boat reached the sea at Westerplatte, where the first shots were fired in World War II (2), before proceeding up the coast to Sopot and across to Hel.

A lively group on deck were engaged in some sort of drawing game, trying to copy a very angular picture of a cat. As we approached Hel, one of the group members (many of whom had orange bells suspended from their belts?), dressed as Neptune to welcome the group to Hel. Copious quantities of the local beer enlivened their spirits (riding a ferry is thirsty work, even at 9:15 a.m.)

Ordering fish and chips at an a oudoor restaurant in Hel, I asked for a glass of red wine. "No" the waitress replied peremptorily "you're eating fish, you need white wine: Pinot grigio." I agreed (I don't think I really had a choice).

A stroll to The Plaza (as the very end of the peninsula is called) was through a more honky-tonk part of town, with game arcades and bars. Along the way, a number of military installations dating from the 1950s are preserved, built to repel a Capitalist/ Imperialist American invasion (3). Just over the horizon from the point (about 35 miles due east) is the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad (4).

Unlike the ferry to Hell, the ferry to Hel permits return journeys. I had planned to take the train back to Gdansk (the longer but quicker way), but the trains were running late, so I returned by sea.

(1) The geography is similar to the relationship between Boston and Provincetown at the end of Cape Cod.

(2) The German city of Danzig (Gdansk) was declared a free city after the first World War, and was phyisically separated from the rest of Germany by a strip of coastal Poland (a), known to the Germans as the "Danzig corridor" (b). On September 1, 1939, the German naval training vessel Schleswig-Holstein, which was in port for a "friendly visit," opened fire on the fort at Westerplatte, firing the first shots of WWII (c).

(a) Poland had ceased to exist as an independent nation in 1795, being divided between Russia and Prussia until the end of World War I, when many nation-states emerged or reëmerged upon the dissolution of the German and (especially) the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

(b) Hitler's unmet demand for the return of the coastal territory (the "Danzig corridor") to Germany was one of a main pretexts for the German invasion of Poland.

(c) Some historians argue that the Second World War began with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria almost a decade before. This was more of a bilateral war. The Asia-Pacfic theater of WWII (as a large scale war involving many nations) began with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and subsequent invasion of British territories in Asia in late 1941.

(3) The defense pact of the former communist bloc countries was named after the Polish capital: Warsaw. After communism collpased, Poland joined the NATO alliance in the 1990s; they had been Russia's neighbors for a long time and still had a sense of mistrust.

(4) The city was called Könisberg until the end of WW II. Part of the German exclave of East Prussia, the territory was taken by the Soviet Union in 1945. Wedged between Poland and the Soviet Republic of Lithuania, the territory was assigned to the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic. Kaliningrad thus stayed with Russia upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 (d). The exclave is physically separated from Russia, with NATO territory between the exclave and the rest of Russia.

(d) The area is believed to be heavily armed. The proximty of the Kaliningrad exclave to Swedish territory is one of reasons commentators have given for long-neutral Sweden's recent request to join NATO.