Noah on the Moto

In this picture I succeed in simultaneously fulfilling mi Mama's wish and expressly ignoring her instructions-
She asked me to post some pictures of myself- here is one, and she strictly forbade me from getting on il moto- the scooter. Bravo!
There is an explanation Mama mia! I wanted to go to Erice- which is about 5, 10 miles up a hill over Trapani- but the funicular is chioso (closed) per servizio and the autobus is closed per festivi (Sunday?) so, allora, I am out of luck and I walk back to the ostello with my head hung low.
But when I get back the beautiful Antonella at the office/desk- she cannot bear to see me unhappy- so she phone someone and then- I find myself renting il moto for the day. I drove it up the winding road to Erice where there were spectacular views of Trapani (that's it in the background) and the Isole d'Egadi, the Islands and the ocean, and I saw the norman castello and the village which has changed little in 800 years- and I also left my offering for Aphrodite at the site of one of the most important shrines in the ancient world. So I'll put some of those pics up on my next post. It's OK MAMA mia- it was Sunday, Dominica, so there was no traffic and the road was all but empty. I live another day.

Trapani/Erice where the Goddess of Love lives

Ah dear reader- there are only twelve of you, but you are demanding. I have requests for more food pictures and requests for more hostel (ostello) info...
Well, I am in Trapani after four days in Palermo, where the ostello was not so good. THe city? I walked it over and over and over again- but it still confounded, escaped me. I will come back to it and write more.
I just ate one of the best meals I've ever eaten at La Cantina Siciliana in Trapani. The lonely planet guide calls it "one of the finest places to eat in the whole of sicily" and it earned the Slow Food Movement badge of approval.
It was pretty damn good and pretty slow. The restaurant, btw, is on Via Giudecca, the Jewish ghetto/block in Trapani until 1492 when they were inquisitioned off the island- they didn't even make it to il fascisti. There is a Trattoria di David on Via Giudecca today, but I suspect David is an interloper who arrived post-WWII.
Allora, la cena- it was good. I started with the pasta con gamberi and parsley... which I thought meant lobster and parsley- but it was those mediterrainean shrimps with the heads, the long antennae and the beady eyes... very good. I sucked their blood from the juicy heads. And then il secondo piatti was il carne- scaloppine masala... I figured I'd give it a try because Masala- the syrupy dessert wine- is produced just down the road from here... in MASALA. It was good, It was very complex. It might have been too complex and savory for my unschooled palate. In any case, mi pacere.
Trapani is the appendage which juts out into the sea from the north-west corner of Sicily. Erice is an ancient and medieval city which resides on a promontory overlooking the harbor. The women of Trapani/Erice are legendarily beautiful. There was a important temple to Aphrodite/Astarte in Erice in the Greek period (6th and 5th cent B.C.E. ). In those days you could come to the temple, leave an offering for the goddess and get serviced by her priestesses. Legend has it that Deadalus- who made the wings for his son Icarus- was Siciliano- and after he was liberated from the maze/prison on Crete, he returned to Sicily and offered the goddess a golden honeycomb at the temple in Erice. There is an excellent book about Sicily called "The Golden Honeycomb," which I will discuss in greater detail when I'm not about to pass out from food- because it's very good and out of print- but if you're thinking of visiting Sicily, I recommend going on Amazon and tracking down a copy.
According to one Moslem chronicler, the Erice ladies were soooo beautiful that in the 8th and 9th centuries (that's anno domine)- when the Arabs invaded the island, they prayed to God to make the women their slaves. I sort of hoped dinner and a movie would do the trick.
That is where I am. Tomorrow, I will ride the funicular to Erice and beseach the goddess on my own behalf. Better find something to offer her.

Little little baby Jesus and the bay of Naples

On one of my last days- maybe THE last day in Naples- I rode the funicular with a very nice young couple from Beverly, Mass up to the Museo at the San Martino charterhouse on Capidomonte. From the hill, there's a clear view of the bay and Vesuvius- stunning. The museum (much of which was inexplicably closed the day we went) includes a vast collection of these small terre cotta figurines. They began producing these in the 14th century or thereabouts for churches- and back then they were larger, almost lifesized. They just kept getting smaller and the nativity scenes kept getting more and more elaborate. One of them, the Presipe Cuciniello,consists of 162 people, 80 animals, 28 angels, and about 450 miniature items (this picture is just a detail)- It's really amazing, like a fantastic dollhouse. Well, clearly the craftsmen felt compelled to out-shrink each other- and this definitely outdid the competition. He placed his nativity scene inside an eggshell- I should have photographed something to give you a sense of the scale- but it's a eggshell! the entire thing isn't much bigger than your thumb- or maybe two thumbs. Incidentally, versions of these figurines are also found in Sicily which has its own little puppets tradition- Teatro di Pupi- Marionettes. This is, after all the land of the wooden boy who wanted to be real, Pinocchio and oh... I can't remember the name of the guy who made Pinocchio, Giuseppe?, probably. Google it.

Tales from the crypt- Capella Sansevero

The last century or two hasn't been kind to il Sud, southern Italy, which has struggled to keep up with the north. Most tourists prefer the north (unless, like me, you like your cities slightly dessicated and lived in then you'll want to visit). Basically, things haven't been the same since the Risorgimento- and it wasn't particularly prosperous beforehand. However, Naples did have better days - Two thousand years ago the area around Naples was THE place to see and be seen. The last golden era was in the mid-Eighteenth century when Naples was the capitol of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, ruled then by the ultra-Catholic Spanish Bourbon princes. Naples was prosperous or the Bourbon aristocracy was and the city was renowned in Europe for its rich intellectual and cultural heritage. Today you can see some of those high enlightenment ideals expressed in the architecture and for 7 Euros (hey, high culture ain't free!) you can visit the Capella Sansevero. The chapel was the brainchild of one Prince Raimondo di Sangro, the seventh Prince of Sansevero, who called upon the reknowned artists of his day to create a unified and extremely flamboyant monument to his patrimony... and a place to keep his bones and the bones or his ancestors going back several generations. It's high baroque at it's baroquest- every detail of the chapel from the draping of the marble statues to the last fleur-di-lis is lavishly rendered. The veiled Christ by Giuseppe Sanmartino is particularly famous for the tissue-like quality of the marble... the same goes for the statue of modesty but the guard was strictly enforcing the "no photos" policy at Sansevero (I hate those guys)- so you'll just have to go to the internet to check it out (http://www.museosansevero.it/inglese/cappellasansevero/cristovelato.html). I couldn't resist sneaking a picture of one of the macabre surprise in a crypt beneath the chapel. It seems Raimondo in addition to being a man of letters was also a Grand Master of the Freemasons with an interest in science, medicine and he dabbled in ALCHEMY... He mummified a man, a woman and a fetus (the fetus appears to have gone missing). He managed to preserve the entire circulatory system- veins, arteries and all- along with the organs and tissue and the specimens remain under glass (and in remarkably good condition) in a display. No one's sure how he did it or whether these guys were living when Raimondo got his hands on them. Creepy- and very GOTH!-

Sfogliatelle di Napoli

I took the night ferry to Palermo yesterday- but my thoughts and blog are still about Naples.
So, allora, the Neapolitans have their own pastry- Sfogliatelle. The wiki entry: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sfogliatelle) says there is the classic Sfoglia which is flaky, and the coarser cousin (pictured here w/ cafe machiado). The name refers to the leaf like shape of the classic's shell. I tried both. The pastry is stuffed with ricotta cheese sweetened with orange peels, or orange peel liquor... it tastes orangey. Warm it up and serve it caldo (hot) - very filling.

Cane e anatra!

Due amici (two friends), cane e anatra (dog and duck) living on la strada a Napoli. Anyone out there able to translate the sign?

Old methods

Planned obsolescence- not in Naples. Sometimes the older technologies work best- if it ain't broke... Here, we see the bucket system employed in the Centro Storico district, probably centuries old. It's very simple and practical: tie a basket to a rope and lower to the street. Saves the .05 Euros you'd spend on the metered elevators (I don't know if its commonplace, but the elevator was metered at the hostel.) ... And ALWAYS hang the laundry out to dry on the line- saves energy, smells good and it's good for the environment.

Hostel of the Sun in Napoli

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In Naples, I stayed at Hostel of the Sun on Via Melisurgo right next to the port. A single room with not one BUT TWO balconies was 25 Euros a night! Plus breakfast and a huge library of DVDs to take back and watch in your room, or the communal area. It's like being back in college but better. The folks who work there- this is Carla and Harriet- are terrific, cheery and really helpful. I hardly had to open my mouth or approach the desk and Carla would say "Dicemi Noah," (Tell me) "I already know your problema." (But how? When I have so many.) It was true- they knew where to eat, how to get there, what to see and why it would be no problem. They were also great company- Carla has been at Hostel of the Sun for EIGHT years. Whoa! She said "don't get-ah married," and "you look a little a gayh eh in-a this eh picture." Harriet is from England but she's been living in Naples and her Italian is exceptional- not just fluent, flawless. From the moment she described something as "cheap as chips, as they say back in England," well I was all hers. Marco- Mark, behind the bar there is from Portland, OR. a place near and dear to my heart. He'd arrived at the hostel four or five months ago, loved it, and just stayed. He manned the bar at the nightly happy hour from 7pm- on. He just landed a job teaching English two days ago so he is celebrating. Congratulations and good luck (buona fortuna) Mark! He's not leaving anytime soon.
All in all, the folks at Hostel of the Sun (or HOTS) raise the Hostel experience to the next level. It's easy to see why the place is so busy, even in the off season. The put me in a nice room and a great mood... if you go to Naples, go there. I'll be back, I hope.

Il Pulpo- psychic pulpo?

Fried, grilled or chopped up in a salad you're going to love our , delicious chewy purple friend, Il Pulpo. Biologists speculate that this creature- which has no exoskeleton- is EXTREMELY intelligent. Some scientists report Octopi watching the researchers and picking up gestures and sign language. A psychic octopus named Paul found itself the center of a paparrazi feeding frenzy when it displayed the ability to pick World Cup match winners in 2010. Paul passed away in October 2010- may he rest in peace- he never made it into my mouth, or onto my plate o insalate di mare. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11626050

Strike at the L'Opera San Carlo

Actually I did run into some "actions" (strikes) in Napoli. I tried to see the Opera at Teatro San Carlo... I'd heard San Carlo is the second most important opera house after La Scala in Milan and it is certainly an impressive building. Unfortunately it was opening night and it was sold out (or fortunately, since the tickets cost between 30 and 250 Euros). There was a crowd of people milling around the opera house door and maybe a dozen or so polizia/carbinieri with fibreglass shields and riot helmets, but the crowd was completely relaxed- no action here. Actually I thought they were opera fans waiting for rush tickets. Ah, mai non. It turned out they were social workers on strike. They had been working without pay for 30 months or so, or at least that's what someone on the picket line told me. They were unable to negotiate a contact with the region (Campagna) which was too broke to make payroll. I thought I'd misheard or misunderstood- but I asked around and surely enough, the social workers hadn't been paid in nearly three years. Yikes! But how did they survive. "We don't," said a striker in broken English, "it's very off the edge." I urged him to make some signs or posters otherwise dumb Americano and other foreigners (like me) were bound to mistake them for opera fans and cross the picket line. I think I took a picture or two... let me see...

Tags

There was molto grafitti in Naples - a lot of it was really well done. This "Once Upon a Time..." artist had his stuff all over the place.
I didn't photograph too much of it- there was a lot of pro Communismo and defendere il anarcho around. It seemed like students had probably done most of it. There was also a lot of "Mastiffs" tags- these are the Napoli soccer fans- somewhat associated with the right and with soccer hooliganism. And a lot of "libero Tonnino..." or maybe libero al Tonnino but I never found out who Tonnino was and why we want him freed.

Garbage from Outer Space!

The Garbage. Yes, there does seem to be a garbage collection problem in Naples but it's not as bad as I'd been led to believe- then again, it's supposed to be worse in the suburbs. It goes back decades with the trash- I've been told- and it's cited as one of the factors that brought down the government of the guy before Berlusconi in the 90s. There's much carping about it in the press. As to the source or root of the problem- there's no shortage of theories/explanations. There's no more room in the landfills- that seems clear. It's not the result of a strike- although there was a public outcry after the government announced the location of a new landfill. Protesters prevented the trash from being collected, this was just this past September/ October, which only exacerbated the problem. There's also conspiratorial speculation about Comorra- the mafia in this region- which supposedly controls collection, incineration and the dispersal of the trash to the landfill sites. They've allegedly been illegally importing trash from all over Europe- Germany mainly- and dumping it in the landfills around Naples... who knows? And everyone is angry at the government- which is allegedly corrupt, in bed with the mob and unable to resolve the crisis. Who knows? Personally, I was surprised to find this happy robot- so cute- tossed out in an alley and I was tempted to take it home- until I remembered that I don't have a home. He looks like good company but where did he come from? The future? Are aliens from outer space dumping on the south too. This photo might be incendiary... as is the garbage ha ha- which burned in the street on this occassion- cough hack!)

The dark and narrow street

In Naples, the streets are narrow and dark... and the drivers are fast and reckless. Beware- there are seldom streetlights, even on the main thoroughfares. You look for a crossing with painted white lines, hold your breath and step into traffic. The scooters and cars will hopefully see you and drive around you. Be careful and take your mama's advice- look both ways before you cross.

Valentina y Valeria amano il cibo a Taverna Boungusto

Taverna Buongusto- Naples

O Lucky mio- O solo mio- met an actual Napoletano, Valeria- who works for Agence France P. among others. She took me out for a night on the town with some of her pals. Wound up at Taverna Buongusto where I was instucted about Napolese dining (there are appetizers, due piatti - two plates and dolce). There's a lot of eating, drinking (vino and aqua minerale) and laughing and some quarreling and teasing between table and staff. Also, the Naples Bologna soccer match was on the TV and the restaurant was transfixed by the match. Naples won 2 to 1 and we couldn't lose- because the fried Calimari was so delicious and light, the pasta dish- I can't recall the name- a local specialty a kind of macaroni and cheese and potatoes- was oof and the conversation and company excellent. Oh the carbs and the places they'll go...

The unvarnished truth

Bursting at the seams, Naples is everything it's cracked up to be: noisy, stressed and distressed, dirty, extremely fast, more than a little sketchy- but it is awesome in the truest sense of the word- awe inspiring. Say what you will- and what I have- about the past and the present comingling in Rome... the truth is, in the North, whether it's Rome, Venice, Genoa, Fierenze- the past is a bit stage managed. It's been polished and fixed up for the tourists and scholars who flock there. Here, in Naples, the ragged past crops up in all it's unvarnished glory. Even the National Museo of Archeological... arguably THE best collection of ancient Roman art and artifacts (due to the proximity of Pompeii and Herculaneum) in the world, is presented in haphazard fashion. The mosiacs, frescoes, statues, instruments- priceless and certainly one of a kind- are kind of tossed throughout the building. There's no rhyme or reason. The audio guide doesn't sync up with the displays. The exhibits are occassionally accompanied by explanations, rarely translated into english... but just as often not. Still, you won't find anything like this collection - in particular the fully preserved wall frescoes and mosiacs from Ercolano and Pompeii- anywhere else. Naples and the region is so old...

Naples can't wait

Ok- I'm going to have to circle back and write more about Rome later- because it's time to speak of Naples- Napoli.

tiber at night

There it is- finally... c'e bella. Uploading pictures to Noah On The Go is slow going. The Author thinks he is going to make a Picasa page and chuck all the pictures up there. Then we can share all these pictures faster.

Tiber at Night and the fountain in Navona

The Piazza Navona is a very popular tourist destination. But what can compare with the moon over the Tiber at night? C'e Bella no?

Non C'e Trippa Pa' Gatti

The restaurant Non C'e Trippa Pa Gatti. Expect nothing!

Non C'e Trippa Pa' Gatti

No one actually ate at Non C'e Trippa Pa' Gatti as far as I could tell... the staff that's Maurizio in the middle and Ahmed (I think) on the right... and they took great pride in their cuisine- and couldn't understand why Romans wouldn't eat there. The Romans probably considered it a little kitchy, but I ate there and it was perfectly fine...
In any case- Non C'e Trippa Pa' Gatti- don't trip on the cat- is in fact an Italian idiom. I spent the first few mornings asking the adorable "Nonna" grand mother who stations herself at the door for most of the day- "Where is the cat?' "Dov'e il Gatti?" ... in my bastard Italian. There is no gatti (cat).
The expression means something like "expect nothing" in English, or so I was led to believe. So you've got "expect nothing" restaurant on Via Urbana in rome. Ask for Maurizio. He'll explain.

Ok, so after spending the first night in a fleabag off Piazza Prenestina or Via Prenestina... stay away. I found these guys. They work at Non c'e trippa Pa Gatti- a restaurant on Via Urbana in the Palentine... their boss Lucia (pronounced Luchia) rents beautiful rooms across the street for 50 Euros a night... not bad- and very central, and you'll be in the nexus of a few streets that are very Roman. Romans go here... they eat here and congregate here... down the street at Piazza Maria dei Monte and at the cafes and trattorias around here. Urbana and Via Serpenti are beautiful oldstreets with fabrication, design and craft shops, jewelry and clothes makers. Less touristy than the area around Novona, and less upscale than Trastevere- I was happy here, and you'll see Romani di Roma- the Romans of Rome- in their element.

A Roman lunch

I'm not sure which meal this is... In general, the Roman likes meat wrapped in meat, specifically bacon wrapped meat... so hopefully we've got some here. But Wherever I've gone, I always request a mista of the buffet... usually roasted peppers, grilled spinach and greens, mushrooms (funghi), roasted patates, it's all delicious and if you have a delicate... ah yes, there is some bacon wrapped meat here- in this case bacon wrapped chicken on the left...
as I was saying, if you have a delicate digestive system- you will pay, but the farmacia have several antidotes for indigestion- and you might as well go down swinging. Right?

Il fromaggio shop

The Roman cheese

Cheese

but enough about Freud, let's talk about the food. Here is Roman cheese shop. Italy is a river of cheese... and that's not all. Romans eat four meals a day but there is a lot of nibbling that goes on- there are tavernas- you can eat here, cafeterias, pasticherrie, enotecha (bottle shop), cafes (coffee and pastry), trattoria, ristorantes, pizzerias, osteria (food and wine- you would have a meal). Asking now what distinguishes one from the other. Will report back.

Rome- its layer upon layer of history, it's conquests, destructions and reconstructions - is the city Sigmund Freud invokes in Civilization and its Discontents to describe the development of the psyche through time. The city is probably more complex. Walking through it, glimpses of other eras appear and disappear around a corner, out of the shadow on a narrow street, the piazza at night, the cats in the Borghese. It's delirious fun and a little unnerving. The romans seem oblivious to it all or totally comfortable living in the drift of time.

Casa San Paulo

Tradition has it that this crypt, beneath a small church on Via del Corso, is where St. Paul stayed (or was imprisoned?) while in Rome.
Centrally located and spacious by Roma standards- plus the well/toilette on the bottom right- all in all fairly luxurious accommodations.

... or here

...and here

All roads lead here...

Come Fly With Me

Take to the skies! A Red-Billed Tropic Bird, The Rufous-Tailed Jacamar. Courtesy of Asa Wright Nature Center (AWNC), Trinidad, March 2010

The Moderne Traveler

So much technology. No sextant, just a Droid, camera and kindle. Miles, what are you doing there?!
Lord, teach me how to use these...

The Euro

Though they've taken a beating recently you still can't have enough of these! - Can be exchanged for goods and services.

Reading List

Let's go Rome
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
Michael Thomas Speak Italian
The Visible Past: Recent Archeological Discoveries of Greek and Roman History
what else...?

3,2,1,... take off

Welcome to the official launch of "Noah on the Go" (tm), the only blog where you can keep abreast Noah Reibel's comings and goings. He is on the road and on the go as of January 6th, 2011. First stop: Rome. You want to go there with him. You want to know "where's that guy?... can't remember his name," "who he with?," "what he doing?"...
Well, this is the page where you'll get some answers-
If he hasn't been robbed, beaten or killed, he'll be routinely updating this page with pictures, anecdotes, entries, jokes, Italian lessons, local color, field recordings- you name it.
So, come along for the ride. Keep me company, participate, contribute, post your thoughts, questions, feedback...
Let's go- "run fast Comrades, the old world is at our backs."
xo NRR