Sicilia, Napoli Roma: two months in Italy: THE PLAN!

martedì 28 settembre 2010

THE PLAN!

We plan to go to Italy from Australia, via Vancouver and Seattle, a natural thing to plan when you have family in Seattle. And surprisingly the flights to and from Rome via Vancouver are only marginally longer in total than more conventional routes via Asia and perhaps London. The stop in north America will break travel all into comfortable legs. From Vancouver to Seattle we use ferry or train or Amtrak coach (three or four hours). The customs and immigration processes are said to be considerably less hectic than travelling via LA.

We will be away from home 3 February to 16 April 2011.

Arriving Rome 8 February, we depart next day by train (all day, the train crosses the straits of Messina at lunchtime) for Siracusa in Sicily. Go south for warmth in February, be back in Rome for spring! Two week-long bookings are in place in Sicily, another three day booking to come. Then by ferry overnight from Palermo to Naples. After a week in Naples (who was it who said "see Naples and die"..? Aha, here is the interesting answer) we take the short train trip to Rome where we will be based from 6 March to 7 April. Some lovely places to stay at quite reasonable prices for holiday rentals... four and a half weeks in a romantic hideaway right in the centre of Rome, tre passi dalla Piazza Navona ---- around $2000 Australian. Suddenly, writing 'tre passi" [three steps] I am reminded of my stunned youthfulness, or youthful stunnedness, 42 years ago, first weeks in Rome, going to see Tre Passi Nel Delirio with very little Italian.

After this first entry we will try to write in Italian first...

Andiamo in Italia provenienti dall Australia, passando Vancouver e Seattle, e be - una cosa naturale quando si ha famiglia a Seattle. E scopriamo che i voli da e per Roma via Vancouver sono solo marginalmente pui lunghi delle rotte convenzionali attraverso l'Asia. Fermarci in Nord America e confortevole. Da Vancouver a Seattle usiamo traghetto o in treno o in pullman Amtrak (tre o quattro ore). I processi di immigrazione e doganali sono detto di essere molto meno frenetico rispetto al viaggio via Los Angeles.

Saremo fuori da casa 3 febbraio - 16 Aprile 2011.

Arriviamo a Roma 8 febbraio. Il giorno dopo partiamo con il treno (tutto il giorno, il treno attraversa lo stretto di Messina a mezzogiorno) per Siracusa in Sicilia. Andiama al sud per il calore nel mese di febbraio, torniamo a Roma per la primavera! Abbiamo due prenotazioni di una settimana in atto in Sicilia, cerciamo un posto per un altro tre giorni. Poi un notte in traghetto da Palermo a Napoli. Dopo una settimana a Napoli (chi ha detto "vedi Napoli e muori "..? Aou, ecco l'informazione - interressante) prendiamo il breve viaggio in treno a Roma, dove saremo dal 6 marzo al 7 aprile. Bel posti a prezzi abbastanza ragionevoli per affitti vacanze ... quattro settimane e mezzo in un rifugio romantico proprio nel centro di Roma, tre passi dalla Piazza Navona ---- circa 2.000 dollari australiani. Improvvisamente, la scrittura 'tre passi' mi viene in mente la mia gioventù della stordito, o 'sturditamente' giovane, 42 anni fa, settimane prima a Roma, andare a vedere Tre Passi nel Delirio con molto poco italiano.

...E dopo questo primo post di blog, proveremo scrivere per prima in Italiano.

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TOP PHOTO

A seat on the cliff road at Positano just off the Amalfi Drive, south of Naples.

Just out there in the blue, the Sirens lived and tempted Ulysses. Ulysses' men, according to Homer's Odyssey, had their ears filled with wax, rowing furiously, deaf to the lure of the Sirens. Ulysses had lashed himself to the mast to avoid the Sirens' temptation. According to myth, Parthenope, one of the Sirens, fell in love with Ulysses but he ignored here. She came ashore and died of a broken heart near what is now Naples, a city founded as 'Neapolis' by the Greeks — and still Greek, luxurious and epicurean, through Roman imperial times. Parthenope and Neapolitan culture are synonymous.

Also, according to Greek myth, Persephone, daughter of Demeter, goddess of fertility and harvest, was abducted by Pluto and taken to Hades via the entrance to the underworld in the crater of the volcano at Avernus, near Naples. Not knowing of Pluto's action, Demeter charged three of the sirens, including Parthenope, to find her daughter, lighting the sea with the great volcanoes between Vesuvius which broods over Naples to Etna which occupies southeast Sicily. Demeter was angered when the Sirens could not find Persephone, changing them into birds with female faces or in later rendering creature more like mermaids. Demeter eventually came to terms with Pluto for sharing Persephone, each for half a year.(Gosh, how modern!) Persephone, from the Hades of death and sleeping plants, ascended to Demeter, near Naples, with its rich soils, as the bringer of harvests each year.

To travel in Italy from the south to the centre, from Sicily (occupied by Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Germans, French, Spanish and Americans in twists and turns) northwards to Rome, is to follow the heart a special way, through depths of culture and complexity of character very different from the better known worship from abroad of the world of Tuscany and Florence.