From Here to There

It's farther than you think from Den Haag to Napoli. . .

Our travel day started before 6am, when we were up at our hostel in Den Haag packing our bags and picking up a packed breakfast before setting out to the train station. The trains in Holland have been a treat - there are double decker ones, and they are very cheap and frequent. We tripped in to Schipol Airport, Amsterdam and checked in at the airport for our flight to Milan Malpensa, Italy. The flight took about an hour and 50 minutes, and was over some beautiful parts of Europe - it was amazing to fly over the Alps. Having landed safely in Milan Malpensa we caught a bus to Milan itself, a 50 minute ride, and were dropped off outside Milano Centrale train station. We nipped quickly into the nearest ticket office and booked two seats down to Naples. Unfortunately we were left with a couple of hours to kill before the train left, so we got some much needed lunch and, having ventured out of doors, decided that we would sit in the train station to wait - it was much more salubrious looking inside than out, and that was saying something!

The train, when caught, was delightfully primitive. Our compartment was very comfy, if not absolutely up to date decor-wise, and the bathrooms were an excitingly novel experience (you can't use them when the train is stopped in a station. You get the picture. . .) We settled ourselves in for our eight hour journey with remarkable equanimity, equipped with books, playing cards, and breadsticks. We had assumed a restaurant car would be available, and were a little nonplussed at being confronted with a small push cart of food (all there was on the whole train), but we managed to stave off the pangs. We had our compartment to ourselves for the few hours, and then were joined by various other girls.

Arriving in Napoli at around 11.30pm ("see Naples and die" kept ringing in my head) we phoned our hostel host Giovanni who sent a taxi down to collect us. Owing to my misunderstaning of some of those subtle cues (I'm not used to people pushing their services on you) we hopped in a taxi which wasn't actually sent by Giovanni, but was just looking for custom. A most exciting drive ensued - roaring up narrow lanes, passing other cars in the most unlikely looking places, stopping on every blessed corner to ask random pedestrians if they knew where Giovanni's hostel was. . . I have a new respect for Italian devoutness. I know where it comes from. . . We did eventually end up in the right place and, having been buzzed in, lugged our suitcases up three flights of broad marble staircases. Giovanni met us at the top with glasses of fresh cold water, and never was anyone so welcoming! We were sat down and given an insider's opinion on what we need to see and do, urged to stay an extra night (we did) and offered home cooked pasta (at 12 in the middle of the night!). We declined the pasta, being too sleepy to eat, but listened very carefully to all the instructions on what to do. Giovanni gave us a map of the city, where he marked in what to see, what streets to go down, what areas NOT to go in, which buses to take, and where to eat pizza. It was amazing!

Anyhow, we did make it to dreamland at about half past twelve, and were refreshed the next day to start our tour of Italy.