Summary - more bad days than good days cos of computer problems and rain etc
- to escape the Easter crowds I first went to some Roman sites and sulphur field NW of Naples and then spent 3.5 days walking bits of the Appia Roman Road, which runs from Rome to Brindisi
- I came back from Benevento to Naples for the British Community Meetup LINKS Appian way book,Via Appia on Wikipediawhy-ride-a-bike-on-the-appian-way, biking after Benevento - I made the mistake in thinking that the Appian Way would be a popular walking trail like the Camino de Santiago in Spain. However it turns out except for the first section south of Rome, which is a national park where many people take a bus, see some catacombs and walk back into Rome, few people travel other parts .. just a few cyclists. Few Italians walk much anyway so The Appian Way is not commonly walked .. So none of the tourist information centres had any info about walking.. and continued their annoying practice of not stocking any material from other areas.. So commonly one reaches the neighbouring area during Chuiso time and one can't get info.
| Fri - moved to Pozzuoli| - From Pompei got organised and 90 minute train into the city then changed to get to Pozzuoli. It was 3.10pm when I arrived the tourist office was supposed to close at 3.45pm so I rushed down the hill.so I could find out about camping and get a map. It was a rush cos although the LP said it was 5 minutes it was more like 15... - The bloody tourist office closed just before I arrived, they passed in their car and said come back tommorow .. - So since I was in the bottom of town I started on a walking tour carrying all my stuff. I visited ruins, a large temple and passed some villas, the outside of the amphitheatre and then got into the sulphur fields for free cos there was an Easter procession. Instead of camping at the sulphur fields noisy campsite I camped nearby. All night there was suphur fumes in the air .. peope complain about manmade pollution, but nature is just as bad.
| Sat- moved onto Cuma | - Of course I went back all the way to the tourist office, but they were closed anyway on account of Easter BASTARDS.... It took me ages to figure out the bus to the ruined city of Cuma 4 Km away - very good site - whole Greek, Roman City entered by tunnel. - I walked onto Licore, cos there are supposed to be 3 campsites there, but afer 5Km of walking .. Nothing they were all closed ..so . Tried to get to Capua, but I got as far as XXX and had to camp out cos no train
| Sun - Start walking The Appian Way 
- Walk, bus, bus walk, hitch ...eventually got to Santa Maria de Capua at 1pm as an old guy dropped me right off at the ..Amphitheatre and museum ..walked West 4Km onto Capua a walled medieval fort town not mentioned in LP. It should be it's worth a visit..., 2 castles and 8 palaces,... but The museum was chuiso for repairs of course... I camped out in an orchard.
| Mon - First walked west | - to see if there were any interesting historical sites near Capua.. Unfortunately I don't think the old road exists anymore ..it seemed cos of so many new railways it has been diverted. In searching for the right road I first walked 6km out past some military bases and then along the new high speed railway north to find myself on the main Rome highway 10Km north of Capua, so bus back an train toward Napoli to get to Arpaia east of Caserta Arpaia.. a fair few Roman sites around the town, but rain started as I arrived - camping problems .. I tried to camp out at the old Roman tower, but broke my rule about not camping near where cars go.. Italian couples kept turning up .. why don't Italians have sex at home ?
| Tue - Walking in The Rain - Arpaia to Montesarchio, | - I panicked in the night cos it wouldn't stop raining ..and as a result got soaked as I moved back to the tower. I expected to get dry as continued to walk East, but it never really stoped raining,. By lunch I was at the castle town of Montesarchio Santo.. I rushed up in 25 minutes getting soaked in the wet grass ..and for once the museum was not chuiso. It was all in Italian so I didn't get the big picture on the history. - After lunch as it was still raining I decided to give up on the walking ..and bus the last 11Km into Benevento in time to get information, but I was unlucky I went into use the internet ..my phone screwed itself up so I was in the internet 2 hours then when I came out I waited and waited for a bus ..2 hours (Well damm if I had kept walking I would have go to Benevento before the bus anyway. typical) and then when I arrived in Benevento the tourist office was closed ..so I had to come back out back into the countryside to camp at Tufara . ... - I didn't want to make the same mistake as last night so I went right up to the mobile mast, but in going through the long grass my boots got soaked again.
| | | | | | | | Wed- back into Benevento | - Still raing a bit so waited in the train station .. Some guy in a suit was watching me ...My trousers covered in mud and carrying my wet boots. After walking back down into Tufara village I set off to explore and then suit guy and 2 cars of carabinieri police pulled up "documenti". .. they were OK once they saw my photos and realised I was a "mad foreigner". I took a bus into Benevento ..the tourist office was open, but didn't actually have any information at all anyway .. I tracked down a good map from a hotel and it turns out the tourist trail runs down the main street .. a Lombardi castle ..archaeological sculpture museum (as normal old style glass cases with little interpretation material), the huge Roman arch, and eventually to another Roman amphitheatre ..so then I was near the Metro station to Naples .. and I wanted to get back to Naples to network at the British society meetup. - Wednesday 27th Bye bye to my favourite long socks I left them drying in Hortus Conclusus the sculpture garden in Benevento
| Wed - Back in Naples - British Community Meetup Was disappointing | - Although the people were OK, it was not a good enviroment for culture exchange or networking was a noisy bar-room atmosphere and very similar in style to the Catania meetup with English speakers speaking to each other in one corner and most Italians speaking Italian to each other as student boys tried to pick up student girls .. When I went to the Spanish meetup in Graz no one thought to speak in German or English people took it much more seriously.. The biggest problem I think is the room it was an Irish basement pub. It's brick wall and hard floor cause the sound to bounce around. A big carpeted room would be much better or even outside. They didn't charge, but the cheapest drinks were Euro 4 with no food.It wasn't particularly British. A young British teacher organises it and a few modern language student girls came, then a mixed bunch of loud expats. I met a South African trader facilitating publicity materials for NGOs to Africa and a couple of American reporters working for the US Armed forces new website. - FB British Community Naples, website http://www.britishcommunity.it/
| COMPUTER PROBLEMS DRIVING ME NUTS .... I like to listen to BBC podcasts.. but first my HTC phone has problems with the touchscreen and audio socket so OK I'll use my Glofiish phone, but then in Modica and computer virus corrupted my SD card, OK I'll just use my MP3 player , but then the cybercafe in Palermo corrupted the MP3 player so it doesn't work
.. So I have been transferring podcasts to my Glofiish phone by finding free wifi in the street, but then last week it too seemed to get a strange memory corruption problem, first some files could not be deleted then Opera browser stopped working. Then on Tuesday I read "one way to solve memory problems is to delete the files in the Temp folder, as they are not used", So then I wasted 2 hours, cos when I tried this it turned out the Glofiish phone had stored all it's systems settings in the Temp folder so it went into reinstallation mode and lost half it's programs.
... Then yesterday instead of normally rebooting properly it just hangs
.. So now I just patched up my old phone with sticky tape and can hear a a podcast through one earphone ..
......I knew the price of Tablet PCs would fall after Christmas 2010 I have always been planning to buy a tablet PC to replace my phone and mp3 player, but it's best to buy them through the UK or UK Ebay.
| SORTING OUT WORKING AND EARNING SOME MONEY - I'd like to make contact with some English teachers in small towns and do some guest lectures for them.and I need to check out things like volunteering at science festivals etc
| FREE CAMPING AND WALKING TRAVEL- Just met Jurga from Czech Republic yesterday I met another Polish man and they are both travelling like me. Saying "Italy is so expensive, walking and freecamping is the way to go". This is so refreshing to see people confirming what I think after speaking to Italians who don't seem to understand travel and think the only way to go is by spending a lot of money.
| Thu - BACK IN POMPEI FOR PLANNING - I just came back to Pompei camping Site after spending Easter walking the Ancient Roman road the Appian Way from Capua to Benevento and getting all my stuff wet in the rain .so I can wash all my stuff, do some planning and computer stuff about getting a job, and I can start to resolve all the problems I have with my 2 smartphones, memory card and MP3 player.
| Sun - Back in pompei Ruins ..Yesterday I went for a walk .. I wanted to make a circuit around the back of the ruins.. After a while I asked a woman "este curso hay una salida", "si, il passa por il scavi archaelogico", wink, wink (is this road a dead end ?..no it goes to the ruins) ..and so I found myself at a low gate into the ruins site.. so I spent another 3 hours at the site ..and it is amazing for the quality of the pictures and buildings and they have survived 2000 years
| Mon - Vesuvius Observatory | - Jurga had walked up to Vesuvius yesterday, tried all he could to get in free, but no you have to pay the ticket..He said the main thing was to look into the big dry crator ..he had passed the Vesuvius Observatory Museum on the way down so he wanted to go back to visit .... The road being a tourist scam for buses we had to walk and hitch... to me the museum wasn't that great I coul have got the same by reading Wikipedia. - I'm still spending countless hours researching jobs, festivals and volunteer opportunities on the internet ..50% of the time it's raining these days.
| Plans- Been sifting through a lot of Info .. but can't find inspiration for place, festival, or job so I'll keep travelling north and maybe bump into something.. want to avoid Rome ..cos it's too busy for me
| Ironic that Armani Italians Look down on me| - When I say I am walking and camping many Italians seem to look down at me "you are nothing, I have a house, car and Armmani suit", but an interesting thing most of these people are in debt cos they borrowed money for those things from the bank .... And who owns those banks they borrow from ? .... I have always had no debts In fact I am a shareholder in a few banks !
Is it a Mafia country ?.. I seem to get ripped off everyday ..and the people are afraid
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