wired2theworld

Travel Logistics and Resources for Naples, Paestum and Rome

wired2theworld — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:00:17 +0000

Below is information on the travel logistics for for an eight day trip to Italy in October 2011 to Naples, Paestum and Rome. These are our experiences with our specific transportation choices and accomodation.

To see the entire trip, start on the Naples, Paestum and Rome 2011 page.

Transportation: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

PLANES:

LAX-FCO-LAX on Air Canada
We flew Air Canada from LAX to Rome. My mother went two weeks ahead of me on a frequent flyer ticket and I bought my ticket to coincide with her flight home. The seats were fairly comfortable with a larger than average pitch (32″) in economy and seatback video on demand with tons of choices. Some of the economy seats also have A/C power ports and USB ports for charging your electronic devices. Headset jacks are the standard ones for an MP3 player, so bring your own because they charge for headsets (and pillows, and blankets, and food) on the US-Canada portion of the route. Those items are free on the Canada-Europe routes.

On the way to Rome I flew through Montreal and on the way back we flew through Toronto. Both airports have free wifi which is nice and way better than LAX which still does not. In Montreal I had my passport checked but my luggage was checked through to Rome. In Toronto we had to get our luggage, go through passport control for US entry, then through customs, then re-check our bags. Thankfully we had a 4 hour layover because this process took up almost half of it. In Toronto, my mother could have gone through customs in a flash using her Global Entry pass, but since I didn’t have one, she waited with me. I now have my own Global Entry Pass and I’m good to go!

TRAINS:

FCO-Termini (Rome’s central …

Santa Cecilia in Rome; A Surprise Under the Church

wired2theworld — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:34:23 +0000

I’m just going to say this up front; this was the last thing we did and probably my favorite experience of the trip. And it’s a little odd that it has nothing to do with food, right?

We arrived at Santa Cecila to find it closed for a mid day break. My tip; get there when they open in the morning, or after mid day break and head right for the crypt. There were a couple of dozen people waiting, some clearly part of a tour group, when a nun in full habit arrived to open the locked doors to the church from within. We were there to see the crypt and headed there as soon as we entered the church.

The entrance is inside the tiny gift shop to the left as you go through the front doors. There is a small fee for seeing the crypt. I paid the nun and she handed me a heavy key and spoke to me in Italian. I didn’t quite understand what it was for, but I figured we had to unlock the door to enter and that I’d bring her the key right back.

It is said that Saint Cecilia was an aristocrat and an early Christian who was martyred in her home in AD 230. The church which stands in Trastevere today is built on top of that home which was used in her time as a secret place of worship. The remains of a tannery can also be seen in the area beneath the church. The first church on this site was founded in the 4th century and the present church was first built in the 9th century. Cecilia’s remains and those of her husband and his brothers were moved here from the catacombs of San Callisto. When her …

A Visit To Trajan’s Market in Rome

wired2theworld — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:00:44 +0000

Even after many trips to Rome there’s always something new to see. I must have walked past the ruins of Trajan’s Market dozens of times and never really gave it much thought. This time I thought, “how is it possible I’ve never been in to see a 2000 year old market?”

They were taking down installed pieces from an art show when we arrived so unfortunately there were parts of the museum which were off limits to visitors. Still, we decided to go in and they discounted our tickets by a couple of euro. The entrance to the museum is on Via IV Novembre, but you can see the curved three story building of the market’s offices when standing in front of the Forum on via dei Fori Imperiali.

Inside the museum’s entrance is the vaulted Main Hall of the old market. Now, in the niches which once held shops, are various statues.

Once through the Hall and out into the open areas, it’s easy to imagine this as a bustling market almost 2000 years ago. According to what I’ve read, certain sections were set up for certain types of businesses, so on one street were all the taverns, and another area might have held all the wool sellers or jewelers.

The view of the “Wedding Cake” or Victor Emmanuel Monument from the top of Trajan’s Market. In all my trips to Rome I’ve never been inside this structure. The Capotoline Museum buildings are in the back, to the left.

Finally from the chapter of my (yet unwritten) book called “Places I’d Like To Live Someday” check out these three apartments. They can all be seen from the top sections of Trajan’s Market so I can just imagne the views they have from their balconies…

For more on Trajan’s Market, check out:

http://www.capitolium.org/eng/fori/mercatitraiano.htm…

Naples, Paestum and Rome 2011

wired2theworld — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:17:58 +0000

This trip was taken on October 2011. We spent four nights in Naples, two in Paestum and three in Rome.

Naples; When Going To A New City Is Like Going On A First Date

Wandering Naples; Come take a walk with me around the city

Naples at Night

Restaurants in Naples

Naples Markets; Porta Nolana Fish Market and Piazza Dante Farmer’s Market

Day Trip To Herculaneum

A Visit to Paestum’s Temples and Archaeological Museum

Of Buffalo Mozzarella and the Kindness of Strangers

Agropoli Italy

A Walk Around Rome to see the old favorites; Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Colosseum, and More

Food in Rome; Restaurants, the Campo di Fiori Market, and The World’s largest Mortadella?

A Visit To Trajan’s Market in Rome

Santa Cecilia in Rome; A Surprise Under the Church

Travel Logistics and Resources for Naples, Paestum and Rome

…

Food in Rome; Restaurants,the Campo di Fiori Market, and a Giant Mortadella?

wired2theworld — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:00:56 +0000

One of the best things about being in Rome (besides the 2000 year old monuments around every corner) is the food. Like the monuments, fantastic fresh food is literally around every corner, whether in neighborhood outdoor markets, restaurants, or small specialty shops, the quality of the food is astoundingly good. That’s not to say a bad meal can’t be found, but if you do your homework, you can eat very, very well.

One of our first stops was the Campo di Fiori market. Yes, it’s touristy, but it’s also filled with locals who shop there daily as well as some of the most beautiful produce.

One of my favorite vegetables to eat in Rome is Puntarelle, a bitter green which is usually served raw with a lemony anchovy dressing. In the Campo di Fiori market, you can see how this green is cut, stripped and prepared for purchase.

You can also see how artichokes are cut down to just the small hearts for the famous artichoke alla romana dish. If you’d like to read more about Roman markets, check out my Four Favorite Markets in Rome on my other blog, Former Chef.

The Campo di Fiori is also home to the famous Forno del Campo which is best known for its foccacia. Of course, we had to stop and get a slice which was still warm, right out of the oven.

I’d been wanting to try La Fiammetta since our trip in 2008 when I’d read on Chowhound it had the best eggplant parmesan around. I love anything eggplant, but had not been able to make it to the restaurant on either of my last two trips. This time we went and I am very happy to say we were not disappointed.

The eggplant parmesan was some of the best …

A Walk Around Rome

wired2theworld — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:01:52 +0000

Arriving in Rome is starting to feel familiar, like a homecoming. After spending a full week here in 2008 and again in 2009, and at least three other previous visits, there is a comfort level that comes with spending enough time in one place. I love that I can now find my way around the centro storico without a map.

While I no longer feel obligated to go inside St Peter’s, the Colosseum, or the Forum on every trip, I still like to reacquaint myself with a walk around the center of Rome to see the old favorites. Of course, there are things which have not changed in 2000 years, but there’s also always something new to see. On this trip we’re staying in an apartment (to be detailed in a later post) between the Tiber and Piazza Navona. We have three days to enjoy some sights new to us, but after checking in and having a lovely, long anticipated meal at La Fiametta, we set out on an amble around the neighborhood to see those more familiar places first. Future posts will cover some lesser known sights which we saw for the first time like Trajan’s Market and Santa Cecilia church in Trastevere. But first, let me take you on this quick tour around some my favorite sights in Rome.

Walking into the Piazza Navona late in the afternoon, I was happy to see the fountains unencumbered by scaffolding (often there, at least on previous trips, for cleaning and renovations).

I’ve passed by the small hidden church of Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza dozens of times and I’ve yet to ever see the church doors open. This baroque church built by Borromini in the mid 1600′s sits at the back of a courtyard building on Corso del Rinascimento (#40) and …

Agropoli, Italy

wired2theworld — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:00:08 +0000

So you’ve never heard of Agropoli? Don’t fret, neither had I until I started researching the region around Paestum. Because we had not rented a car for this trip, we needed to go some place on our second day which was easy to reach by bus. The lovely woman who runs the front desk at our hotel confirmed that Agropoli would fit the bill; it was close, easy to reach by bus and had a castle.

After our trip to see how mozzarella was made, we headed off to the bus stop in front of the bar/gelateria at the intersection close to the northwest end of the ruins. Most bars sell bus tickets and we bought our return tickets inside for about 3 euro each way. The bus arrived later than scheduled and while we waited in the bright mid day sun, we were the object of interest of the regulars who hang out in front of the bar (my guess is, daily). I also found that they sell the very same amaro which got my husband hooked so many years ago. We’d both forgotten it came from Campania and I vowed to buy a bottle to bring home to him. The bus finally arrived and it took about 40 minutes to get to Agropoli, some of the road along the beautiful coastline.

We really had no idea where to get off the bus, so we asked the driver and were dropped in center of town, where we set off to try and to find some sort of tourist information center. We followed the signs to the “Info Point” but the kiosk was closed with a note pinned to it saying to go to the local municipal building. After asking the school age daughter of a local cafe owner …

Of Buffalo Mozzarella and the Kindness of Strangers

wired2theworld — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:00:55 +0000

One of the reasons we went to Paestum, besides the incredible ruins, was to visit the birthplace of buffalo mozzarella and hopefully see how it’s made. The day before we’d attempted to visit Vannulo dairy and arrived in late afternoon only to discover there were no tours (sometimes, but only in the morning) and saw nary a buffalo. I had to console myself with some chocolate gelato made with buffalo milk (really good).

The next morning we set out on foot from our hotel to visit another local dairy, Masseria Lupata Barlotti. The walk was about half a mile along a two lane road with not much shoulder. We tromped though the long grass at the side of the road, past fallow fields, as cars whizzed by. About half way there, a woman in a very small car stopped and asked us, in Italian, where we were going. We told her “to the farm” and she motioned for us to get in. My Italian is minimal, but she made it clear it was not safe for us to be walking along the road. She dropped us at the driveway to the farm amid many “molto grazie”. My mother and I were surprised at her generosity, but not as surprised as when the exact same thing happened on our walk back to the hotel.

This time, we’d only walked about 30 feet when another tiny car pulled over and a different woman insisted that she give us a ride. We thanked her and got in. Again, she spoke no English but we figured out what she was saying, “You would do it for me.” I was stunned. And honestly I was not sure I would, back home in Los Angeles, where we never pick up hitchhikers, let alone stop and …

A Visit to Paestum’s Temples and Archaeological Museum

wired2theworld — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:00:23 +0000

Paestum? What’s that?

When I told people I was going to Italy on this trip, they almost always asked me “Oh, where in Italy?” My guess is that the expected reply was “Venice” or “Tuscany” but when I said “Naples, Pasteum and Rome” I’d be willing to bet not one of them (save my sister-in-law, the classics professor) had ever heard of Paestum, let alone been there.

Paestum is known for two things; for its fantastic archaeological Greek temple ruins, and as the home to buffalo mozzarella. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was often a stop on “Grand Tour” of 18th century travelers. Many people visit here as a day trip from Naples or the Amalfi Coast. Our plan was to spend 2 nights there, visiting the museum and ruins on our first day, and on day two, see a local buffalo mozzarella farm and the nearby town of Agropoli.

A fairly short train ride whisked us from Naples to Paestum for about 6 euro each. Sit on the left side of the train for a view of Mt. Vesuvius and on the right for Bay of Naples views. If you go from Naples by train, and intend on returning through Naples, buy your return tickets in Naples as there is no open ticket booth at the Paestum train station. You can buy the return tickets from a local bar, as we did, but this was a bit of a fiasco because they actually ran out of tickets and sold us 3 sets of tickets totaling the trip cost in lieu of a single ticket. Our hotel was horrified and traded us tickets belonging to one of their workers. If you are coming from the Amalfi Coast, it is easiest by car, though there may be bus service.

There is …

How To Become A Trusted Traveler With The Global Entry Program

wired2theworld — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:00:38 +0000

Have you ever been standing in an endless immigration line after a long international flight and seen the flight crews go through a special line and bypass the queue? Were you cranky and tired and more than a wee bit jealous? I know I was. That’s why when I heard about the US Customs and Border Protection’s new Global Entry program I knew this would be something we’d want.

At first I thought we might not travel enough to make the expense worth it, but then I did the math:

14 step online application.

10 minute interview at the airport US Customs office, given by very nice guys wearing guns.

$100 for 5 years.

Not waiting in line at immigration or filling out customs paperwork after a 17 hour international flight?

Priceless.

That’s $20 a year, so you don’t have to wait in line, or $10 per trip if you do an average of 2 international trips per year as I do. If you do more than that, it’s a no-brainer, really. And if you have a Platinum AMEX card (alas, we don’t) it will reimburse you for the $100 fee.

Here’s what you get for your $100:

The ability to bypass the regular immigration line when re-entering the US through at least 20 major airports.
No filling out customs paperwork on the plane.
Immigration done at a self service kiosk where you scan your passport, fingerprints and answer a few customs questions.
Expedited customs line.

In addition, there is a new pilot program for expedited TSA pre-screening which means if you are already approved for this program you may be able to go though a special security line at the airport. There’s been news of the expansion of the program over the next year or so.

Another advantage of being a trusted …