Southern Italy

Jun 13-18, 2024
AC7952 YTZ-YUL, AC904 YUL-FCO, AC907 FCO-YYZ

Tom was lucky enough to have a business trip to Rome, and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to find an excuse to join him. As we’ve been to Rome a number of times, we wanted to find some new things to see. With four days to explore before the start of Tom’s work activities, we decided to spend our time south of Rome in and around Naples and the Amalfi Coast. To travel to Rome together, we routed ourselves through Montreal, and were even able to reschedule ourselves onto an earlier flight to get ahead of some potential storms and have more time in Italy.

Jun 14

With the earlier overnight flight, we landed in Rome around 8:00am and were greeted by a very busy immigration hall. After eventually clearing the line, we picked up our rental car and made our way to Naples, where we were able to park the car at the hotel and check in early. After a brief rest and shower, we headed out to visit the National Archaeological Museum and explore Naples city centre.

Starting our visit to the National Archaeological Museum

Bust of Emperor Caracalla

Massive ancient Lara Farness statue; at least double scale

The 3rd Century Toro Farnese at 13' is the tallest ancient marble group ever found, depicting a Greek myth

Ceiling fresco in the museum's great hall

Twin bronze statues discovered in 1754 in the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum.

Archaeological Museum exterior

Starting our walking tour at Santa Maria della Sapienza

Statue of composer Vincenzo Bellini in Bellini Square, showing a little of the Naples grit

Looking down tree-lined Via San Sebastiano

Piazza Dante lined with a facade fronting the Conitto Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II boarding school

Imposing statue of poet Dante towers over Dante Square

After our feast on Naples pizza, continuing our walk down Via Port Alba

Making our way up Via Pasquale Scura

Baroque monument to the Counter-Reformation in Pizza Gesu Nuovo

Interior of the Church of Gesu Nuovo

17th Century Spire of San Domenico Maggiore

Continuing our church tour at San Paolo Maggiore

15th Century San Gisueppe die Ruffi

Neo-gothic facade of the much larger 14th Century Duomo di Napoli

Duomo interior

Busy residential neighbourhood at the end of the day

To end our long walk, we made our way back to the hotel. With a busy day of travel and over 20,000 steps and Naples under our belt, we grabbed a quick drink in the bar and headed to bed.

Jun 15

We had a full day of Archeological Tours planned. With just a few days in the area, we planned an aggressive schedule to see both Vesuvius-eruption-preserved towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii. As the smaller Herculaneum was relatively close to our hotel in Naples, we were able to visit right after the opening and well before the crowds arrived. From there, we switched hotels to the suburbs of Salerno and headed back to Pompeii with our belongings secured. With enough time, we then decided to continue on to the ancient Greek ruins of Paestum.

Incredibly preserved community of Herculaneum, frozen in AD79 by Vesuvius's eruption, surrounded by more modern suburban Naples

Looking into the nearly empty ruins first excavated from the volcanic ashes in 1748

Still active, Vesuvius still looms overhead

Well preserved 30' wooden fishing boat found on the nearby beach front in 1982

Making our way down into the excavated ancient community ruins

Column-lined street Cardo III

Exploring the interior of one of the buildings

Some of the remaining colourful mosaics captured in time

Street with well-preserved store fronts

Outdoor pictorial menu advertising what's on offer inside

Vivid walls of House of Neptune and Amphitrite

Multi-level Samnite House

Looking at the new town hovering over the ruins

Five headed hydra bronze statue replica where the original was discovered

Outdoor Sports Complex

Deer statue that sites outside of House of the Deer

Interior of House of the Deer

Villa di Poppea

Terrace of Marcus Nonius Balbus, our last stop before making our way out

Original five-headed hydra bronze statue, carefully stored in climate-controlled space

A fresco in the museum

About three hours later, we're making our way into the Pompeii ruins

Bronze equestrian statue looms over the central Forum of Pompeii

The busy central Forum with now quiet Vesuvius in the background

Basilica - the first-century palace of justice

Via Abbondanza - the main street of Pompeii

1st century weights and measures table used by merchant to measure goods

Macellum provision market located on the Forum

Ancient signage announcing the building purpose

The mini statues, or telamones, that ring the tepidarium in the bath

Steam-bath room or caldarium with the fountain providing water to create steam

Close up of one of the telamones - a male caryatids

Beautiful ceiling of the dressing room

Roman bath dressing room

Marble counters of the fast-foot outlet outside the baths

Counter with built in pots

Streets engineered with sizers to prevent wide carts from entering, showing ruts from the right-sized carts

One of the mosaics in the House of the Faun, the largest home in Pompeii

Exploring more of the massive house

Another large mosaic floor

Very well-preserved fresco walls

The large phallus at the entrance to the House of the Vettii symbolizes the wealth of the merchant owner

Colourful frescos of the Vettii house

Another room in the Vettii house

Grain grinders that supported the bakery

Continuing the tour of the houses

Brothel menu of services

Temple of Isis

Amphitheatre where gladiators and wild animals locked in combat

Greek Theatre, birthplace of the port here in 470 BC

Igor Mitoraj sculpture "Daedalus" stands over Pompeii

Plaster casts were created to fill the void where bodies decomposed in the ruins

Two hours later, we've made our way to Ancient Greek ruins of Paestum and the 500BC Second Temple of Hera

Ruin foundation

Temple of Neptune

Exploring interior of Temple of Hera

Statue outside the tomb

Multi-layer columns of the Temple of Neptune

After a very full day, we made our way back to our hotel near Salerno. We were able to grab a takeaway pizza and a bottle of wine, and got some good rest before another full day of touring.

Jun 16

The Amalfi Coast is known for its beauty, but it is also a very popular place for tourists. With its single, narrow road, they restrict summer traffic to odd or even license plates during the height of the day. Even with that, it is crazy busy, so we decided to get out and on the road just after 6am. By getting out early, we didn’t have to fight too much traffic until much later in the morning, and, although still expensive, we had no trouble finding parking in each of the towns we visited along the coast.

Passing through the edge of Sorrento before heading over the mountain to the Amalfi Coast

Our first stop along the Amalfi Coast, no issue parking just after 7am

Inspecting the road engineering hugging the cliff

Entering into Positano, our first town along the coast

Out of the car, we did a quick walking tour of Positano

Checking out the boat traffic - the best way to avoid the windy cliffside road

Santa Maria Assunta Church

Separate church bell tower

Looking back on the many layers of Positano from the Grand Beach

More of Grand Beach

Quick walk along the coast to nearby Fornillo Beach, ready for the throng of tourists

Cliffside hotel carved into the rocks

Looking back at Positano as we continue our journey

Same view with a bit more greenery along the road

Just after 9:00am we've now parked in Amalfi Town

Flavio Gioia statue at the main square along the beach

Falvio Gioia close up

Mosaic map of Mediterranean

Sant'Andrea Fountain in Piazza Duomo

Amalfi Cathedral (circa 1000-1300) with a facade added in the 19th century

Example of one of numerous nativity scenes featured along the coast

Close up on the intricate details of the nativity

Amalfi lemons line the shop fronts in Amalfi

Continuing our way along the coast

Along across to Pontone on our way into the cliff top town of Ravello

Tower and church on our way into Ravello

Ravello's cathedral

Villa San Michelle

Villa Cimbrone and surrounding gardens

Looking further down the coast from a vantage point in Ravello

Narrow pedestrian streets through Ravello

Hilltop ruins

Back at the coast, around 11:00am we continue down the last patch of the now very crowded road back to our hotel

After a rest at the hotel, we decided to go back to where we started the day and spend the afternoon in clifftop Sorrento

With the gorge below, it is clear how Sorrento was built on top of the cliffside

Some of the more unique cars taking in the beauty of the coast

More evidence of the city on the cliff infrastructure

Relative calm of Via Santa Maria Della Pieta pedestrian street

Sorrento Cathedral

Cathedral interior

Cathedral intricate nativity scene

Sorrento Men's Club

When you don't have a sand beach, you need to create your own, a quick, but not cheap, elevator ride from Sorrento

St. Francis Church and Convent grounds

When we previewed the traffic for our travel back to our hotel, we noticed a bit of a backup heading out of town on the one road heading towards Naples. Thinking it was likely just a temporary delay, we decided to have dinner in town and hope that things improved. Although we enjoyed dinner, unfortunately traffic only got worse. The delay was actually the high volume of folks that had spent the weekend in Sorrento headed home to Naples. We ended up spending a few hours getting back to our hotel around 9:30pm, inching back through the long tunnel that we’d zoomed through on the way into town.

Jun 17

For my last full day in Italy, we decided to stop at the Royal Palace of Caserta outside of Naples on our way back to Rome. We had planned a less busy day, so were able to sleep in a bit before checking out of the hotel and heading towards Naples. To visit the palace, we parked in central Caserta in a garage under the Royal Palace grounds.

Royal Palace entrance

View of the main palace, the largest erected in Europe in the 18th Century

One of the many statues lining the palace gardens

Looking back at the palace from the garden fountains

Statue with a bit of nose damage

Finding some shade in the tree line gardens taking us back to the palace

Main staircase leading into the palace interior

Looking back on the full scope of the Grand Staircase of Honour

Touring the many impressive rooms with painted ceilings

Continuing our tour

One of an interesting collection of amusement ride models

Royal bedroom

Some of the many antiques filling the palace

The most grand nativity scene of our southern Italy tour

After fighting some traffic and returning the rental car at the Rome airport, we checked into the hotel and first made our way to the Spanish Steps

Catching a side view of very crowded Trevi Fountain before grabbing a late lunch and sending Tom back to the hotel for his work reception

After Tom finished his evening reception, we reconnected for a walk through Rome, starting at Porta Pinciana (city wall) across from our hotel

Egyptian Obelisk in Pizza del Popolo with twinned churches of Santa Maria in Montesanto

Basilica Santa Maria close up

Tiber River as the sun is beginning to set

Church of Saint Roch 'all'Augusteo'

Column of Marcus Aurelius

Obelisk of Montecitorio outside of Parliament

Victor Emmanuel II Monument at dusk

Santi Luca e Martina (625AD) church sandwiched between the Roman Forum and the Forum of Caesar

The Forum ruins with Victor Emmanuel Monument in the background

The Colosseum lit up for the evening

Just as the sun set, we made our way back to the hotel. Although Rome wasn’t the focus of this trip, I was glad that I had time to explore both with and without Tom, as although we’d visited many times, it had been a number of years. Unfortunately, due to some planned subway work and service disruption, it took us a longer than expected to get back to the hotel, making for a pretty late night.

Jun 18

With a morning flight from Rome to Toronto, I had an early wakeup and walked to the train station to grab a train to the airport. My shortened sleep may have contributed to my airport drama of leaving my cell phone at security before passing through passport control. With some help from Tom still in Rome, the “Find my iPhone” app, and very good Air Canada gate agents, I was fortunately reunited with my phone at our remote gate just prior to the flight closing. With the temporary drama behind me, I had a more relaxed journey home, followed a few days later by Tom when his work event was over.