On Sunday I did absolutely nothing, just lazed about on our last day in Lecce. Well, I did do washing as this was our last day with a washing machine until we get home. A spot of house cleaning so we leave the apartment as we found it and then just read my book, had a pausa and packed the case. On the move again tomorrow which will involve two train changes.
Three photos taken last night while we were in the looong queue for gelati
Monday: We left the apartment at 10.15 to walk to the station, but before that we went for breakfast at the bar on the corner. I have been eating cereal and yoghurt this past fortnight after the massive spreads at all the hotels during our pilgrimage walk. A coffee and a cornetto does the job for most Italians.
We were travelling 1st class today on the Frecciargenta (the silver one) because the price was cheaper than 2nd class when I bought the tickets three months ago. A bonus was a snack box and a drinks trolley that made several passes through the carriage throughout the trip. Drinks ranged from prosecco and other wine to juice and soft drink, water and coffee.
Like RyanAir, they announced at each stop that we had arrived at .... on time! All very good until there was a malfunction on the track and the train eventually arrived at Caserta forty minutes late. I hadn't pre purchased tickets for the next leg because they were only E3.70 each and no benefit in early purchase. Good plan.
Our change to a Regionale train (stopping all stations, and the bottom of the hierarchy of Italian trains) was a bit chaotic as those trains had also been affected by the outage. But we are always so impressed with the style, comfort and cleanliness of these trains.
Eventually we arrived in Naples just before 6 pm and easily made our way to our accommodation.
This was the first time we have encountered a totally electronic and person-free check in. I booked on-line, paid on-line, sent our ID electronically and communicated with the owner on-line. We received a step by step set of instructions which involved pressing an intercom button, going through two doors, up in a lift, locating a key safe and entering the code to get the key then opening two more doors before we were in the apartment. We also paid the bed/tourist tax by putting the money in the key safe.
The keys? A set of four including one long one.
This might seem odd however at our palace in Lecce we also has four keys - one for the front door, one for the rear door, one for the glass door to the lift and one big one for our apartment. Quite a lot to carry around all day.
The apartment is newly converted and is white on white. We have a corner studio apartment which gives us two full length balcony windows. We do look for places with outdoor ambience. Ambience might not be the correct word for Naples! Naples is frenetic, noisy, chaotic with a pinch of scary thrown in.
Views from our little balconies.
We walked 110 metres to a mini mart for a few essentials ... and had to use Google Maps to find our way home! Crazy shop was entered on one street and the check out and exit was on another.
Huge pizzas for dinner at a little place that proudly displayed on their table mats that the shop was owned by former street urchins who had a passion for pizza. Well done them!
So big it was off the plate and off the table. Guess what is for lunch today?
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