Matt Damon!

I never made it to Positano today. This morning actually started out pretty meh. I woke up to thunder and could see lightning. This didn't really deter me so I showered, ate, and headed out to a nice little hike down to the port. (the walk there was about an hour or so). I also woke up to a stuffy nose and a sore throat. I fear I'm coming down with a cold. My nose has been runny all day but my throat isn't really sore anymore. I plan on going to be early tonight and I'm hoping I just have allergies to something here. I think I'm also breaking out in some hives on my arms so maybe I should try some of the allergy medication I brought with me instead? At least I'm hoping it's hives, but it could be a heat rash starting... I doubt it's bed bugs (thank-you Lily for making me worry about them! I haven't seen any bugs in my bed and I've checked so I'm sure I'm good in that department). Either way I refuse to get sick and if I do get sick I refuse to let it stop me from having a good time.

Turns out the ferry service doesn't exist anymore (or it's on strike - I didn't quite understand) and the only way to get there is to go to Sorrento first. That involved a two hour train ride and then an hour bus ride or a really, really expensive ferry and then a bus ride. I figured that was a little too much trouble so I gave up on the idea of it. I did decide to maybe go to Ischia for the afternoon and when I found out it was going to cost me over €50 just for the trip I decided against it. Instead I bought a ticket for a tour of Naples. There were 3 different routes which the ticket was valid for (it was good for 24 hours and you could you it on all of the routes). I ended up going on all three tours. There was technically a fourth but that one was only offered on holidays and Saturdays. On the first tour I saw; largo catello, piazza vittoria, villa pignatelli, mergellina, cape posilipo, posilipo, parco virgiliano, via petraca, mergellina piazza del leone, piazza vittoria, chiatamone, via acton/porto. On this tour I got a lovely scenic view of Naples with Vesuvius in the background! It was really, really pretty. It also rained quite a bit and I was sitting on the top of the bus. An open top. For a few streets I had to keep ducking to avoid getting slapped in the face by wet trees. I didn't see one of the trees and ended up getting hit in the face. It kinda felt like a water park ride at the same time. It was a nice change to the heat and humidity lately.

On this first tour I met 3 couples who were on a cruise and had stopped in Naples for the day. They were all older and Irish and really friendly. We chatted away while waiting for the bus to arrive. I went on the second tour with another couple (a fourth couple) that was also on a cruise, and this couple was from Indiana. I swear that the guy looks so much like Matt Damon. If I didn't know any better I'd sweat that it was him. He kept his sunglasses on the entire time and his voice even sounded like the actor. I snuck a photo but I won't be posting it on the blog because it's not really fair for him. I didn't get their names but they were really nice. We parted ways before I hopped onto the third tour bus. On the second tour bus we saw; largo castello, piazza del gesu, piazza dante, museo archeologico, sanita, capodimonte, catacombe S. Gennaro, bellini, madre - via forja, porta capuana, piazza bovio/universita, and the via acton/porto I should probably mention that this was a hop on/hop off tour bus and I basically stayed seated for the entire trip so most of these I only saw from the bus. So I didn't stay on the tour bus for the entire third tour as I've already seen the last thing on the list and the second last stop dropped me off near-ish one of the streets by my hostel. It was close to that one street with the good pizzerias and plenty of cute local shops. So the third tour I saw; the largo castello (again) via duomo (which I discovered on my own the night before) Madre Museo Archeologico (fun fact my hostel is next to this museum) piazza dante and I'd seen the via acton/porto on the other tours and I'd been walking around there lost looking for ferry tickets earlier in the day. Instead of hopping off the bus at the museum I went further to piazza dante and wandered down some of the streets to get some dinner. I ended up buying a bag of pasta and some sauce and went back to the hostel to cook my own food. I also got some pineapple juice. It's a nice change from water. The stove is one of those older stoves where you need a lighter to light it so I had to ask for help from the staff to get the thing lit (I don't carry a lighter with me). I was playing with the heat and accidentally turned off the stove before my pasta got a chance to fully cook and being too embarrassed to go back to the staff I decided to go ahead and eat my pasta. It really could have used the extra cooking time. I couldn't finish all of my meal so I put the rest of what i couldn't eat in a zip lock bag (I brought a good dozen of them with me) and put my food in the fridge for tomorrow night. I still have plenty of pasta sauce which I may have to leave behind since I doubt it'll survive the ferry ride, it is just squished tomatoes... should I chance it? I have until Saturday morning to decide. It won't get a fridge until Sunday night. I have seen opened pasta containers on the counter and people still eat the stuff... So I've uploaded two batches of photos, one from Naples and one from Orvieto. Rome is coming up next. You may have to click to more posts to see the images from Naples.