Naples, Italy - 08Feb2006

I've been working on other posts, but thought I should spend some time putting in some recent information. Our team has now split again into a true global event... Trey and I left Singapore and flew 13 1/2 hours to Rome. We arrived at about 7:20 in the morning to find out that flights from the US were delayed. Trey's wife (Romi) was supposed to be there at about 8:45a and one of our coworkers (Mike) was supposed to arrive at about 8:00a. Instead, Mike was scheduled to arrive at 9:20a and Romi was supposed to get in around 9:00. Trey and I ended up sitting in some very uncomfortable plastic chairs for a few hours until everyone arrived. Mike got in and learned that his bag had never made it on the plane from New York... even though they left and came back to the terminal and were delayed by over 1 hr. In true Amazing Race fashion, we made a dash from the airport and made our way to the Leonardo Express train to the central train station in downtown Rome (Roma Termini). Once we all arrived at Roma Termini, we had to lug all of our suit cases 1/2 way around the station to our train to Naples. As we were approaching the train, we realized we only had a few minutes to get to the far end of the train to board... in a mad dash, we made it with about 1 minute to spare. Fortunately we were able to relax for about 2 hours on the train.

Once we actually reached Naples (Napoli), a guy in the train station started loading all of our bags onto a cart… he proceeded to run full speed out of the station. I managed to keep up. He took us to his “friend” with a “taxi”. I don’t think it was a legal taxi. The bag guy wanted 10 Euro for his services… the “taxi” wanted 25 Euro to take us to the hotel. We later learned that there was a free shuttle to the hotel… and that the hotel was about 1.5 miles away, so 35 Euro ($40) as not really a good price to pay. It was quite a rip off! They like to charge “baggage fees” for each piece of luggage.

That first day we all had a rough time adjusting to the time differences… +6 hours from the east coast, +9 hours from the west coast, and -7 hours from Singapore. Mike and I went out for a walk and got some McDonald’s French fries as a snack… we were wearing short sleeve shirts and I was wearing sandals. We both got a lot of strange looks from all of the locals that were bundled up for the “cold” weather. It was in the 60’s that day. Our dinner the first night was at the Holiday Inn. They have a nightly buffet with fish, pasta, etc. The pasta that night was a lot like the rigatoni marsala at Maggiano’s. It was VERY yummy!

We spent the first week figuring out how to get around Naples without a car. We learned that the taxi drivers are open to negotiation… one night it cost us 20 Euro to go from the waterfront back to the hotel… the next night we negotiated 15 Euro. Once I learned enough Italian to ask properly, the price dropped to 12 Euro!

By the end of the first week, we all decided that we would try a different hotel. We all moved over to the Royal Continental. This was the hotel that was recommended by our client. It didn’t offer a shuttle to work, but we figured out the bus system. We also found a taxi driver that was willing to pick us up each morning for a fixed cost. This hotel is right across the street from the castle in the water… sometimes called the “Egg Castle” or “Castel d’ Uovo”. Anyway, there’s so much more… but no time to actually type it up. I will add more details about the second week when I can… including: Weekend in Capri, Driving in Naples, and a trip to 40 Mil.

Sun rising over Southern Italy	Galleria Umberto I
Castle Nuovo