Hello and welcome back to another episode of Only a Bag in Italy travel Podcast.

I'm Nathaniel Mellor.

And I'm Darcy Melton and.

Today we are wrapping up our miniseries on Naples with Naples Condensed 3.

We are at the long end of a line.

End of a long line.

Sure.

I'm kind of sad though.

I kind of.

I just want to almost make like a Naples only podcast now a little bit.

It's been a lot of fun because I think we, we came to this, we, we did some research here and there to kind of fill the gaps.

But we've been visiting Naples so much over the past year, just here and there for, well, I mean for you leaving, for you coming back for anything that might have to be done, like at the hospital and this and that.

So it's just like, oh, we've kind of not in a bad way, by the way.

No, no weird hospital stuff.

Just were the tests done.

And so I'm like, wow, we've really kind of come to know Naples, which is nice.

It's right down the street practically.

But it's been fun kind of like filling those gaps of like, what is that thing I keep saying?

Yeah, so we're.

Or what is underneath me that I've never seen?

Before it's someone's head, you know, if you haven't heard that episode, it's someone's head.

So in this episode, we're just going to we're going to basically end it with sites and day trips and that's and, and bid you all adieu.

But before we get started, I just want to say a big or both.

We just want to say a big massive thank you to everyone who's been listening along, following, who followed from this miniseries, who's been leaving a review.

If you haven't and you'd like to, you can do so on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

You can also go to our website onlybag.com, where you can find articles, you can bookmark them for a later reading.

A lot of them are kind of more helpful, I think, than informational in terms of how to get from here to there and us about in the information of something just because at a certain point it was just going to be copy and pasting Wikipedia.

And that's a little bit weird, you know?

So like, Nah, but we can tell you how to get somewhere or what to do when you're there.

We can give our opinion.

It's a very opinionated website.

You can also leave us a comment question or send us a comment or question.

If there's a question you have, if you're coming to Italy, if you have a question about your trip, anything like that, we'd be more than happy to answer them.

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And they help out the channel and help us buy new equipment as these microphones we've been using.

Thank you all so much to those of you been using the links and who have been donating as well as help like basically web hosting fees.

And then once we move off of Spotify to a different podcast host, but obviously you will still be able to find us on Spotify, it'll pay for that too, which will be a lot of fun.

Yeah, absolutely.

So let's hop into it.

Let's start, I guess, with maybe the sites of Naples.

Yeah, let's talk about some of the sites you wanna go first.

Perfect.

All right, so I think starting a fun starting point is the Opera House, just because in terms of the oldest operational Opera House in the world, older than Milan's La Scala and Venice's La Fenice, which are both famous opera houses that I learned just for this podcast because I've heard of La Scala, but I've heard a lot of restaurants called La Scala, which is obviously not what they're referencing or me in this episode, I'm referencing the famous Opera House in Milan.

But yeah, from mid, early to mid 1700s, this Opera House was invented, started apparently was awful.

And then in the early, I mean awful in terms of acoustics, great in terms of vibes, I think.

And then in the early 1800s, they renovated the whole thing, made it essentially all the gold and red it is today.

It is genuinely fascinating.

If this is essentially the first episode you're hearing about this really beautiful it's operation.

You can still go there during I mean, any time of the year for a tour.

However, in November, this month that you're listening to this in is when opera season starts.

So if you'd like to go for opera season, it goes until I think June.

Tickets are not cheap.

I want to throw that out there.

It is, it is.

I don't know what to opera tickets cost.

I thought they would be not that much.

They are a lot of hundreds of EUR minimum depending on like where you sit in box seats.

There are also a little little section devoted to listening only if you just, I mean, you pay like 30 or $40 by the way, to listen to the opera and not be able to see the opera.

Yeah, that's interesting.

I mean, I guess a major part of opera is the singing, obviously.

So yeah, if that's all you're into.

But I.

Also don't know where it is because it's it makes almost me think about is it behind the got pillar or something because is it?

I assume it's a different room and.

That's the other thing.

So I'm like, it's a different room.

You're not.

Listening live you're mate, let's be listening to that's the.

Thing or like I mean you're listening.

To the microphone.

Yeah.

But then it's not getting the, it's, it's like, what's the difference between that and recording at that point if you're in the room and hearing the acoustic?

So I am kind of curious what that would mean.

But that so that's the Opera House.

It's really, it's Teatro de Sangarlo Theatre de of Saint Charles.

It's in the Piazza de Plabucito, right next to, if you're actually just curious, the Cafe Grimbinos.

Grimbinos.

I'm definitely mispronouncing that.

But it's also happens to the oldest operational cafe in Italy.

So in case you by yourself, with your travel partner, with your family, wanted to just have a day or an evening where you feel like, let's just be fancy.

Let's rent tuxes and dresses and go to the Opera House and drink coffee afterwards.

I don't know the accent, I apologize.

And that is a fun way to do it, I think, because it's just, it's again, that little slice of real interesting old world luxury, I think right next to the rest of Naples, basically.

Yeah, absolutely.

Seems really cool.

After the theater, what about Speaking of underworld Naples?

That's just, I was going from Old World to underworld.

I don't know if.

That works.

Oh, OK, that's nice.

Naples What are the catacombs?

Yes.

So there is a lot of Naples underground.

We've talked about lots of different parts of the underground of Naples.

In our recent episode, we talked about two different catacombs.

There is the the Catacombs of San Gennaro and the catacombs of San Galdiosis.

San Galiosis is my favorite catacomb because because it has heads in the walls behind some interesting frescoes.

There are also heads above ground at the Fontanella Cemetery caves where a lot of the victims of the plague, their bodies were tossed and then a couple 100 years later people came around and were organizing the bodies and naming the the skulls and asking for wishes and having little chit chats with them.

Which is kind of, yeah, it's very kind of sweet little way of like reclaiming them, like reclaiming that bit of history.

And giving them some honor and some dignity that they didn't get in death is also the Super creepy weird statues of the Museo San Savero, which are the real human skeletons with metal and different sort of sculpture around them.

Yeah, those are those are more nightmare fuel.

They are.

They are, yes.

Beware, they are very scary looking.

I find them very cool.

Yes, awesome.

So that is that is some of Naples underground creepy Naples.

Yeah, if you have like if you basically think you made the comment, if you have like Atlas Obscura on your computer, like this little bookmark or you like to go to the website and check different things.

There's a lot in Naples that you can go to that's even not listed on Atlas Obscura.

But it's just kind of interesting and obscure and is weird and just definitely part of yesteryear kind of thing.

It's definitely a vibe of like, oh, that was, there was a time where that was in vogue and that people did this thing and like, I don't know, made antimatons of bodies with little weird things.

I don't like that.

And Speaking of weird and kind of creepy, Naples underground, there's also the Gallery of Boroponica or the, which are the Bourbon tunnels that you can visit and see.

Basically, these were used as air raid shelters in World War 2, during World War 2.

And they're still like motorcycles and cars and like people's belongings down there.

These people did leave.

It's not like, yeah, there was like didn't want.

To bring the car with them.

Exactly.

They just couldn't, didn't want to move everything out.

So it's really odd.

So you can go visit that as well.

Kind of Speaking of archaeology, because it's a bit like archaeology finding segues here as we go along.

The archaeological museum in Naples is probably one of the arguably the finest archaeological museums in in Italy.

I'm saying that, but also a lot of other people say that it is and, and it has predominantly filled with things found in Pompeii and Herculaneum as well as they have a little Egypt wing, which are things that are for sure stolen from Egypt.

There's no way they did not steal it.

And there's also the secret room, which is a room, the XXX rated room of all the things they found in Pompeii that were deemed a little bit too risque for the the general public and actually had added a long history of being open and closed and open and closed until fine.

It was opened permanently to the public in 2000 recent It's crazy.

So it's it is I think there's an age limit to enter.

I think it be 13 or 15 something that to enter.

There's a certain maybe 10.

I don't know, but they're like you can't be a kid in there, but it is it is a fun little room behind a cast iron gate in India, the archaeological museum, but the rest of the museum is fascinating as well.

If you are interested in just a just, I don't know, a day inside, if it's a hot day inside and you kind of want to get a bit of history.

It's also kind of interesting to go potentially before you go to Pompeii if you're planning on Pompeii Herculean as well, just to kind of get some free information, free knowledge in terms of just like things written on plaques.

Just kind of know what I'm expecting when he gets to Pompeii because as much as Pompeii is beautiful, and I think part of the reason it's beautiful is they don't have a lot of information on plaques.

Like they kind of left a lot of it as this untouched ancient city.

They uncovered kind of thing.

So it isn't like plaques and signs and this and that everywhere you go.

It's very much like if there's nobody on the road, you can easily see what this would have looked like thousands of years ago.

So I think that's a benefit, but also means without like a guide or anything like that, you can kind of feel lost.

So going to the museum ahead of time can help solve that.

I'm curious too.

It's, it's kind of my understanding or yes, it is my understanding that some of the restoration and preservation work that is done for Pompeii is actually done in Naples because there are so many.

I mean, there's so many restorers of art in Naples, but I think there are a lot of archaeologists, archaeological restorers who do things in facilities in Naples because they have that that equipment and things.

So I think that potentially at the Archaeological museum, they have stuff from Pompeii that has been restored, and I think that there's basically communication of that stuff going on.

There's a museum at Pompeii, but because they're able to do a lot of restoration in Naples, I think there's also a lot at the archaeological museum.

Museum as well, Yeah.

And moving kind of beyond if not beyond that, but moving kind of more into the past or the future, depending on the time period we're talking about here.

One thing Castle del Ovo is older much than than the Rediscover whatever Pompeii, but I think and yeah, I mean it's it the original island there was much older than Pompeii, obviously then I.

Hadn't thought about it that way.

I know right?

It's been there a minute.

Not the actual castle, obviously the castle is is very old, but I when it was built at Pompeii was already around in picking.

Interesting part.

Yeah, just for it's worth, there is Castle Nuovo.

Different castle.

We've mentioned that before, but interestingly, it was built in like 1297 and the gall to call something the New Castle still to this day that was built 700 and some odd years ago, 728 years ago, right.

Like I'm like, that's how crazy is that?

That's like the new it's, I don't know, I feel like sometimes when you have a.

Do you know how old Castle Santelmo is?

I think that.

Newer.

I believe it is newer, which is weird.

Yeah.

OK, so they just didn't, they were like, I know that name is stuck.

Yeah.

It's a 200 year old castle at that point, I think when Castle Santomo was built, because it was that originally sort of a fortified house villa.

And then they're like, well, it's not a castle.

And then it became a castle.

And like, well, it's not the new New Castle, the newer castle.

So they're just, I think, left it as and yeah, named it after a beloved Sesame Street creature.

Yeah, as we all should do to everything.

So Castle Sing.

That's a joke, by the way.

It's obviously not named after Elmo.

Yes, sorry, just in case it's actually Rasmus became ermo became Elmo, but castle sent.

I keep castle sent Ovo.

Castle del Ovo is castle of the egg.

As legend has it, Virgil placed an egg in the fortifications or the dungeons or the deepest level and said this egg will keep the city of Naples as well as this castle intact if the egg would ever break the everything.

Disaster.

Horrible, horrible disaster for Naples as well As for the castle.

Kind of worked I think.

But in the 1400's, the archway, one of the stone archways on which this castle was built, actually collapsed.

Extensively crushed.

Crushed that egg.

Extensively crushed the egg and and Queen Joanna the first had to swear to the people of Naples that she had replaced the egg and that not to worry, it will it will continue.

This new egg is just as strong.

Yes, this new egg is just as strong.

And again, I assume to this day that there is an egg somewhere just there.

You.

Can't go see it, right?

You can't go see it.

I don't know.

I I, yeah, so I'm, I'm, I really want to see that egg.

Deeply curious about this egg.

And I'm also kind of curious like it was it I'm, I think we all naturally assume chicken egg, but I'm like, where there where are chickens even from?

I'm like, was it a pigeon egg?

Was it some other kind of egg?

Was it a duck egg?

I have no idea, right.

I was, I'm like, is a platypus egg?

Probably not, but it might have been egg snake egg.

So this is kind of the I think I defaulted a chicken egg.

I'm like, it might not have been a chicken.

So that that's Castle Santomo and it's also built on the site of the original.

The island is actually a separate island called Megaride or Mega Ride if you say it in a very American accent.

And it's the original site of essentially what became Naples, like the the original habitation started there named Parthenopaeon or Parthenopa.

As to the the siren who washed ashore after apparently failing to capture Odysseus, it's a very strange story.

I'm not sure like it was how or why.

It was just sort of like a they, nobody's, I don't know that that's was left to the footnotes of history kind of thing.

It's like, you know, was it like teasing from the sisters because you had two sisters or was it more of the like I, you know, there was an honor thing involved?

I don't know.

But anyway, she washed up on the shore of this island.

The Greeks found her and thought, you know what?

We'll name apparently recognized her and then we'll name this island after her, this town after her, which to this day people from Naples are called Parthenopes personal pale is a way of referring to as somebody from from Naples, which that was kind of fascinating.

So I think that's Castle del Ovo and I think that's pretty much the last of the major sites that we wanted to mention A.

Christmas Alley.

Oh my God, how can I forget?

The Magical Christmas Alley, which is only called that by English speakers and kind of like Western tourists.

That's not what it's actually called.

The nickname for it in Italian is Via de Precipe, which is the Road of the Precious Precious.

Yeah, Precipe.

I think pressepio is what it's called in Napolitano, or maybe that's a different Italian word for it.

But you might see prescipe or you might see prescipe for multiple presci precipio.

Anyways, we say Prescipe in Italian in Southern Italy, so this is the actual name of that street.

Is it via San Giorgio Armeno if you're looking for it on a map and along this, it's basically one block.

It's a pretty short St.

filled with makers of these precipe, which are crushes, which are nativity scenes.

And it's not just like probably what you think of as a nativity scene.

They are these what can be incredibly elaborate and massive scenes, which will very likely have, you know, Mary, baby Jesus and Joseph, the wise men, all the classics.

But also it's set in like AI don't know medieval urban setting of of Italy.

And so they have all these other characters that are classic Italian characters and they're little terracotta figurines.

All of it's made by hand.

It's incredible.

You can also get they've now like done modern day little statues.

They have like the English royal family.

They'll make is these little statues.

Not to put in the crash, but.

Specifically, the English royal family.

Yeah, there's a lot of the English.

I think maybe English tourists want them, or maybe I can see that.

I don't know, but there's a lot of them.

It's.

American tourists.

Honestly, those American tourists love the English royal family.

I remember seeing whenever we first went, several of Queen Elizabeth at the time.

Interesting.

In 2015, yeah, lots of the soccer players, they'll do little terracotta statues of the.

Soccer club, it's not going to be funny, but it's like the only European country that hasn't like ruled over Naples.

So they could just be like honestly, this one's for y'all.

I appreciate it Like the French, the Spanish, the Austrians, everybody else, the Germans, yeah, everyone else had a had a hand in it, but like on not the British.

We appreciate y'all.

So that's.

Interesting, I hadn't thought about it that way.

Probably definitely not that, but I'm wondering if they're just they don't have the same sort of animosity.

I have no idea.

So it's it's really cool and this happens, they're all, they're there all year round.

So obviously at Christmas time there's more festive along the street, but you can go all year to see these things and purchase things from the shops, local artisans.

It's very, I mean, even on Christmas, even not on Christmas, it's cool.

But on Christmas, it's like around that time, it's really kind of interesting because again, Italy, if you're we're going to talk about in some future episodes actually coming out soon as kind of Christmas stuff or winter stuff.

And it's not like I think like even if you're not interested too much in Christmas, like as a celebration, but just more of like Christmas markets, even the Pagan side of things like Germany, Austria does it really well.

Christmas markets spiced wine trees like lights, fires.

I love they put trees in.

Oh, you mean Christmas?

Trees.

Yes, that makes sense.

I don't know, I'm big into arborists.

I mean, I love trees.

Trees are always good.

So what I think like Italy doesn't really do that.

They're like, we don't really need to do at Christmas time, like it's anything because again, it's more of a arguably, I know that Italy is a sort of a very Catholic place, but I almost think it's not their tradition that that that makes sense.

It's like it is a very dramatic sort of thing that became Catholic rather.

But I'm like, I don't they that Labafana is a January 7th witch.

That's a thing.

And that was a thing for a while, but I don't know, like, you know, and then Santo Stefano, which is the day after Christmas, the 26th of, of December is a huge holiday, arguably bigger than Christmas.

But I think it's like people are just like, yeah, Christmas is kind of like we're still open sometimes on Christmas.

It's a bit somber Christmas and which is odd because I feel like Germany, it's not a Germany podcast, but Germany does like the jolly side of Christmas and the very dark scary side of Christmas with like Krampus and all that.

But Italy is just in the middle.

It's just kind of like.

It's the cold side of Christmas.

It's like if you're bad enough, you get cold.

We can heat this house finally.

Yeah, I think that's that's usually the that's so sad, the vibe here in Italy.

Yeah.

So that's the Christmas market, Yeah.

All right.

So so if you do want some vested fun, you can go to the Christmas Alley via the the recipe in in Naples.

And I think moving just straight to day trips, yeah, let's say it works just to kind of move it, move in, move it in.

We've talked about this before.

I think those actually are probably the most recent episodes on day trips, but we just want to touch them again very, very quickly.

If you are just listening to condensed versions and you are staying near the train station like we've recommended or said that you might want to, there's essentially two types of day trips from Naples.

There's the ruins day trips, and then there's the islands and the sea day trips.

And I do think that people kind of split them.

Some people do obviously go to Pompeii because like, well, we're going to go to Pompeii for Naples, but then like mostly we're going to be Amalfi Coast, Sorrento, Positano, that kind of thing, Capri.

And then other people like, no, I'm here for the history and there is a lot of it.

So just like I guess starting with the the ruins, if you will.

Yeah, Pompeii, easiest one.

Classic, classic.

You should go.

I mean just really lump shells to say then you should really probably go.

And it will take about and it will take a full day.

If you're really going to see it, it takes a long time to walk around.

Even if you're running through it and you're skipping some villas and this and that, it's still going to take half a day.

Plus getting there takes about an hour or maybe 30 minutes from Naples, depending which train you take, Companion Express or Turkampo Saviana.

But still, it's a it's a bit of a distance away and it does take a decent amount of time before that is Herculanum and Erkolana.

It's a town called Erkolana, which is the Italian word for Herculanum.

It's actually a different town.

They in like the 90s actually voted to change their name to Herculanum in adopting this, this old school name I thought was interesting.

Yeah, it was, it was called something, I honestly can't remember what it's called, but it's just called like a different name.

And then in the 90s they held the referendum was like, should we name ourselves Erkolana in in honor of what we used to be called?

And they go to do it so at cool.

And it's actually quite a new name in the last 30 years.

But that is another place that's a much wealthier version of Pompeii originally.

Now, unfortunately, it's a little bit less preserved, a little more difficult to preserve.

And it's a little bit, it's quite a bit smaller.

It's not as popular.

But if you're interested in history, interested in ruins, if you want to just kind of see something new and interesting and different or Herculaneum should, it would probably be on that list.

Yeah, if that makes sense.

And if you, if I mean, I would again, it's it's terrible to say, but it's like if you had to see one, Pompeii kind of makes sense because there's a bit more of the feel of the city, of the town that you can kind of see.

And there's more that's been discovered, right?

I'm not, I can't remember exactly like the the what they believe the original sizes of these cities were if Herculaneum was.

Smaller resort resort town versus Pompeii, which is I think an actual like still, yeah, still have people there on like vacation, but it was still fundamentally people had were yeah living there lots to.

Of it's just, it's a whole town.

It's huge.

Yeah.

And so that's it's so it's definitely if you had to be one, that would be the one.

And so that's that's ruins going South from Naples.

If you went W from Naples instead, you hit Cumae CUMAE, that is the original Greek settlement in mainland Italy.

So it's the first ever Greek settlement during Magna Grecia of mainland Italy, which is just near Naples.

It's kind of fascinating in the sense of, I mean, although also Greeks obviously in Sicily already there were Greeks in Ischia, which is an island that you could swim to from Naples, from Kumay.

Like it's right there, it's right there.

But I love that it's not technically mainland, so they don't technically count it, but that one's fascinating.

If there's still archaeological museum there, it's in the Compy Flagre, which is this Cauldor that fill up and expand and contract and they make the ocean there rise and fall impulsively.

For example, in the 80s, overnight, quite literally overnight, the the culture expanded pretty abruptly, raising the water level or I guess lowering the water level, raising the sea floor, making a lot of boats all of a sudden are still to this day no longer are able to dock there.

Kind of basically a bit scary.

Everyone's like, oh, so the water level went from like 15 feet to like 6 feet and it's the whole thing like.

Instant terraforming.

Yeah, and near it is Baya, which is a partially underground underwater city, again, built halfway on a culture and that half the culture is sunk.

So half the city is sunk below the waves because it was known as a very much a town of vices.

I think people thought of it like as a, as a yeah, they were like, that was that was expected.

That was you, you godless people.

Or was it the sea saying we will take this for ourselves seems super fun.

Thank you.

That's exactly.

What it was, I think this is a you guys created, We love your work you created here.

So those are all kind of around the same area.

You can visit the the Kumayan Sybil, which is the Sybil of Kumay, the the prophetess prophetess of Kumay.

You've heard of the Oracle Delphi.

This is the Oracle of Kumay, popularized and famousized, immortalized by by Virgil, sort of an interesting, just a woman who essentially had the held the ear of the entire Roman Empire at one point and and sort of was immortalized and it was just a fascinating thing.

She has a cave there you can visit.

And last but not least, there's the underground, the entrance, one of the many entrances to the underworld.

Averness is there just if you want to go and visit the underworld on your trip to Naples, you can do so.

Yeah, I mean, who doesn't?

Who?

That's what I'm asking.

Who would not?

It's incredible.

There's a lot of really fascinating things over there that that whole little section is just, there's like a cave with some gas that will knock you out.

It's a whole.

Just it's the whole.

Area that.

Cave, Yeah, that cave is a no.

And also just next to that kind of not really, but moving back towards Naples near Posilipo, kind of near that area, there is a long underground tunnel, one of the tunnels that is not mentioned at the Gallerubo Brunica, something like that.

It's just the the, I think it's just called the Galleria and Napolitano.

And it's essentially where just outside of that is where Virgil is entombed.

Yes, OK.

And if you want to visit Virgil's tomb, very famous for having put an egg under a castle as well As for basically being kind of an amazing writer, apparently, like that's his, that seems to be his thing.

And no, he's a he's a tomb there.

He was given these the rights of a of a Greek hero, basically a one parent being a God, one being a human and entombed there.

And now of course somebody apparently took his ashes in the Middle Ages to move them and lost them in route.

So he's not there anymore.

But the tomb still is absolutely wild.

That's ridiculous and you can still visit if you're curious.

Moving from there to the sea, do you want to talk about some of the trips that you can take by boat to some of the islands?

Happy with it.

OK, so there are three islands that you might visit off of the Napolitano coast, right?

Yeah, there is Capri Iskia and the one that I always say wrong.

Pro cheetah, pro cheetah, pro cheetah, that's I'm putting way too much emphasis on it.

Pro cheetah.

That's perfect.

So Capri, you've heard of Capri.

If you listen to that episode, I think I kind of pooed Capri.

But if you're if you're planning on going there, it really is awesome.

I think it just gets talked up so much that I don't, I don't want people to feel like they're missing out if they don't go.

It's lovely, you should go, it's cool.

If you don't go, it's fine.

You're not missing out on like what will change your life or something.

Very exactly.

Ischia is pretty famous for thermal baths and spas.

Very cool.

It's also much bigger than Copri.

So if you happen to, if you're thinking about spending the night there, it's it's not like Copri is kind of like the city of Copri on the island of Copri.

There's also the city area, Frazzione of Anna Capri on the island of Capri with Ischia.

There is a lot more like small towns and fractions.

Yeah.

And it's not also it's not like a walkable thing necessarily.

I mean, you can, but like, I wouldn't recommend it necessarily.

And it's so if you're staying there and you're looking for an island getaway, it has a similar but not quite the same vibe to to a Capri, That would be an option.

It's just a lot more space.

It's a little bit cheaper.

It's also a lot cheaper to get to Capri's 25 to €30.

It's like it starts at 6 euros to get to Iskia, yeah.

I find that fascinating.

Yeah, no, it's a it's a fascinating little place.

It's also, I think if I'm not mistaken, it's actually before the end of piracy in like the 1860s, eighteen 50s, eighteen 40's.

The last person kidnapped was from Iskia in Italy.

That's.

Really sad, I know.

Yeah.

Yeah, so apparently they just went through a horrific time.

Wow, after the fall of the Roman Empire, because the Roman Empires was protecting them.

And a lot of them, like, and a lot of like Naples, like I'm not protecting that island that's way out there.

That's ridiculous.

It's too far to get to.

So yeah, it was a kind of an interesting relationship with piracy, basically.

Wow, OK.

So Iskia come visit?

I think that's the new logo.

Now famous for piracy and Spas.

Yeah, I think the piracy thing, not so much.

They're just.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's, that's just sad.

Yeah.

So.

And then protina prot.

Protina what?

What is Protina about?

I remember from.

What is it about?

What's their deal?

What are they doing?

What's what's stuck in my mind from what we talked about on the episode is that if you're going to visit, you can.

So you can take a ferry to all of these places.

Obviously that's the way to get there.

You can take your car on the ferry during the summer months, but you cannot take your car there in the winter months.

Or the offseason in general.

So just not in the summer.

Yeah.

And I think, I don't know, Again, I really don't know if that's for Napolitano specifically, who are like, I'm going to bring the car and we're going to drive.

We have a house out there, We have a bit of land out there, something like that.

So we're going to drive to it.

I don't know if it's to kind of keep people.

If you live on the island, you know, that's who gets to have their car.

If you don't live in the island, you don't get your car in the alpha months kind of thing, which would make it almost feels like reversed like you can't bring a car in the summer because then it's just everybody who lives there just has a nightmare getting around.

But it's a fishing village town island that did have like, I think there were shipbuilders previously for for a while.

And then when shipbuilding moved, it's kind of they've they've gone through periods of wealth and then periods of just having bad luck essentially.

And they've sort of remodeled, revamped as a as a more accessible version of ISCHIA or coppery accessible incentive is much closer.

It's still expensive to get to, still 20 to 25 years to get to via ferry.

Ischia is the cheapest 1 to get to.

Yeah, strangely OK.

And and I I mean, it's still lovely.

It's just again, the only thing is from the photos, we haven't actually been we should, we should go.

We've been to Coppery, haven't been to to Prochita, but from the photos, it looks like a lot of the photos are taking of this like waterfront pastel colored houses, but it looks like just beyond that is where that ends and it just becomes an Italian town again.

It's not like indicative of the entire.

Island exactly like, oh, I'm going to see all these colored houses everywhere.

It kind of seems like that's just their thing and they know, they're very clear.

They come on their website, their website is basically dedicated to tourism and they're very clear that like we're looking for ways to bring tourism because we we're this, I mean, in this, in this 21st century of what is industry anymore?

Like, you know, if you're not like working at a factory or you're making phones or something like that, like what are you, what are you doing?

And it's a place to approach you.

That's like nobody's making boats there anymore.

They're making them in, in, you know, some what I don't know, actually, I have little no idea.

I just know that I think Jeff Bezos's yacht was made somewhere in Netherlands and they had to take apart a bridge to get his yacht out.

I imagine it's a larger industry.

It's not like not as localized.

Exactly.

So I think that they're they're just like, yeah, it's tourism and honestly, let's just make a cute island.

So that would be the three islands that you can actually visit, but there are other seaside towns.

Yes, other coastal places.

So there is Sorrento and the Sorrento coast and then there's the Amalfi Coast, which I think often get lumped together in people's minds, which is fair, understandable.

So the closest to Naples is Sorrento.

And one of the things that we talked about, one of the positive things, I guess about Sorrento.

OK, here's the thing.

I love this already.

Sorrento and the towns along the Amalfi Coast in general have a similar vibe.

I'm not trying to lump all of them together, but if you're thinking of like I would like to visit this place and get a general idea of the place, they are fairly similar.

So some of the benefits of visiting Sorrento over parts of the Amalfi Coast for me is that I'm pretty sure it gets a bit more of the sunset, more of the year.

Obviously that changes depending on the time of the year, but just because of the the geography, specifically Amalfi and Positano will get the.

The sunset is a bit blocked because of the.

The mountains that are physically in the way.

Exactly.

So in the winter when it sets more to the South you can see it from Positano a bit better.

But in the summer where it's more likely you'll be visiting and swimming, it's not like don't especially in Positano and Amalfi and all those southern sort of towns.

Not but southern facing towns, I wouldn't necessarily count on being able to see the sunset with like you're, you're like a Campari spritz up or spritz in a sunset Sorrento in the summer.

You can because it does it while it faces N to the West of it is not like it's a high up on a hill and there's nothing to the West of it.

It's very much the point like the terminus practically of that peninsula.

So you can you can get a really gorgeous sunset and of course they capitalize on it.

There's a lot of outdoor things you can go and sit at and and that face that way where whereas Positano, I think, realize you cannot capitalize on it.

So it just kind of faces the water and it's, I mean, it's still really beautiful and still really lovely.

But yeah, it's just different, but different.

Exactly.

Another benefit of Sorrento is that so it's not an entirely flat town, it is a mountainous town.

It kind of goes up the mountain, but the sort of main part of town does have a fair amount of somewhat flat area for wandering around and shopping and eating and all that.

And even the hills are like specifically in that little part of town, like the Marina Grande and the meaner Pico.

I mean, the Marina Picolo, the little Marina is a little bit, it's down some stairs and up some stairs, still lovely.

But the Marina Grande's is a much more a gentle slope.

So even it's technically up a little bit, but it's not like, Oh my God, I can't believe we thought coming down here as an idea.

Yeah, absolutely.

So it's a little more chill.

And it is pretty touristy, just as a setting expectations, especially in the height of tourism season, you know, late spring to early fall, there's going to be lots of tourists.

Likewise in Positano and Amalfi, full of tourists.

Again, not a bad thing, just setting expectations.

Some of the smaller towns on the Amalfi Coast, especially as you go towards Salerno, will be a little bit less touristy.

But I mean, it's, it's the Amalfi Coast.

There's going to be tourists there.

Some of I guess I want to say my favorite town.

I think couple of my favorite towns on the Amalfi Coast are B through Sulmare.

They are famous for making ceramics.

Chitara is a sweet little town.

It's very small.

Famous for anchovies, Interestingly, yeah.

And I don't eat anchovies, but I love that for them, no.

You like the beaches, which are pretty.

Cool.

Yeah, Chitata has.

Cool beaches, anchovies also like the beach I assume because.

They live near, Yeah, me and Anchovies, we're just, we're just vibing together in the ocean.

I love that.

There's also, there are towns up in the mountains that we didn't like Ravelo.

Ravelo is a big, is a famous one.

Yeah, exactly.

There's also, if I may kind of jump in there real quickly from the Naples side, there's Castella Mara di Stabia, which is one of the stops you'll hit on both, I think the Chiricampo Suviana and the Campania Express.

We've talked about this before.

Companion Express really hits the tourism towns.

It's a fast train, quote UN quote fast mainly just because it doesn't hit the tourism of the the non tourism towns.

I believe it still goes to Castella Mara Distabia because in that town just up the hill from there's Graniano, which is super famous for making dried pasta.

When I say famous, and I mean arguably dried pasta started there and they used to in the old days when they would dry the pasta, they'd bring out these racks of pasta onto the street and the wind would kind of come down the street and dry them or sometimes up the street and dry it.

And I think they even, they've claimed it would come up from the sea bringing in the salty air.

So it would dry it with salted basically.

I don't know how much of A legend this is or kind of a myth, but I think there are nearby towns who are also making pasta at a similar time.

But they didn't succeed because the air just didn't like the wind didn't move through the towns in the same way.

So it didn't dry it just the same.

And this was just the best way of doing it and.

I think some of it genuinely had trouble drying it because this is before like now obviously they're all like sort of industrially dried, but before that it was like, this is just, they're not drying, they're just kind of getting.

It's like putting laundry out on.

The line.

Yeah, exactly.

Put it in the right spot at the right time of day and.

Hope for the best kind of thing.

And so that is something if you are interested in dried pasta, it is famous for it and and I think, I don't know if Rumo is for Graniano, Graniano's from Graniano.

It's a pasta brand sold in it looks like Garganano in English and it's sold in United States.

It's like one of those sort of fancier brands.

But if you're interested in pasta in a way of like, I'd love to kind of just see where it comes from.

There are like little museums and and factories you can visit new taste tests and things like that.

If it's something, I mean, again, I know it's not the same as those like limoncello and things.

I think those are more fun because it's like sweet and alcohol and lemons.

But it's if you're, if you're somebody who's into food or getting into food or you're into pasta or anything like that, that is a that's just kind of a fun place.

It's literally right on the same train route.

Super cool.

Yeah, I wouldn't go there now.

It's kind of just, it's AI kind of want to try it out.

Just like it seems like a little, I don't know, it's in my head.

It's almost like the history of like, you know, where cereal was invented or something.

It's like I wouldn't want to.

It's, but it's like something so ubiquitous.

Yeah, exactly.

What that's?

Really cool.

And I think it's also something arguably I think I have now developed a pasta palate, but I think before I didn't, I was like all pasta taste the same.

So I'll probably have a 40 cent bag versus the dollar ten bag, whatever it is.

But now I have a very expensive tasting palate apparently.

So I'm like, oh, this is you got Divela.

I can taste that.

No, that's OK.

No, it's fine.

You just OK, That's fine.

So it's AI think it's an interesting Little Mix there.

Now actually part of mentioning too, because I know that there's a they're, they're going through a bit of a tumultuous time right now because in the United States is threatening to levy pasta tax on dried pasta not made in the United States of essentially 95%, I believe is the tariff.

That's the the number being floated and essentially it'll double the price of pasta.

So right now some of these brands do sell it for $3 a pound.

It'll be basically $6 a pound.

So they're essentially saying like our entire American market, which is about 20 to 40% of some of these pasta sales, like some of them have got much bigger.

Barilla obviously is massive in the United States and they are made in Italy.

Some of the ones Garofolo and and Graniano and Rumo, for example, are made in Italy.

They are slowly getting a larger market share in the United States, but not not to the point this is going to hurt them, but not to the point where that's ruined their company.

But it's interesting where where they're like, again, going back to the where can you make pasta?

Arguably anywhere it's pasta, but.

But we know people who who are small production people in Italy, but big enough that they can, I mean, still like family owned and fairly small, but big enough that they can just barely afford the fees, like the export fees and and things like that in order to sell their product in the US.

But they're still like very small production.

So they're not going to be able to afford to to do this.

I mean, they could barely afford to do it normally.

So with this, there's no way.

Well, that's the thing.

Yeah, exactly.

So I'd be interested.

I just want to bring that up.

And now I realize they got to a very unrelated point, but.

That's fascinating.

Yeah.

Pasta.

And so, of course, there are also the Amalfi Coast, which I'm sure is what we're coming to.

Yes.

Well, I was thinking, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, because we're talking about the Amalfi Coast in your favorite chance of the act to do some water.

And I was like, well, you know what?

And I completely went away from that, so I apologize.

So I, I, I'm like just papooing all over these famous places, famous places.

So Positano and Amalfi are lovely.

They are they're talked up a lot.

So I, you know, we, we have episodes on both of those places.

If you're planning on going though there, I highly recommend you listen to them because we're all about setting expectations.

We don't want you to come visit and have all of these like Instagram ideas in your mind and then get here and feel bummed out.

We want you to have a good vacation.

So yeah, they're highly Instagram, social media about if you are choosing Positano or Amalfi, if you argue, if you're, you know, making that choice for yourself.

Amalfi is very small.

I know it's Amalfi of the Amalfi Coast.

It's fairly small.

It's kind of a transportation hub, like, which is not cute.

I don't know, that sounds rude, but there's a lot of like traffic.

There's a lot of traffic.

It's a it's a bus exchange right near the water.

The, the so it's kind of like you don't really want to be the beach in Amalfi because it's essentially just right behind you.

There's a bunch of buses.

The ferry comes kind of right up to the water there.

So it's even worse.

I think arguably it's kind of, I don't mean this in a bad way of dink kind of town.

It's literally in the like crevice of two hills.

And again, like originally it was for protection.

It was like, and that's where you could easily get to your fishing boat.

But I think there are some places on the VHD, Sumata being one of them, even arguably Chitata, which is still kind of also in the, in the crevice.

But Sorrento is not Sorrento's got this really open beautiful thing.

You can, I mean, there's a very resort town feeling obviously in Sorrento.

And that's obviously when kind of more or less it was created.

But Amalfi just has this sort of like, oh, it's just, I don't know, there's a, there's a, it's not as it's not as evocative as I thought before I went there.

I had this all these, again, Instagram pictures of it.

And I was like, Oh, you have to be in a very specific spot to kind of get this feeling.

And I realize you can get that feeling so much easier in a very like a large amount of other places leaving along that coast, but even in Sorento and Positano.

So I would recommend if you're thinking Amalfate, maybe it's not worth it.

It could be worth it from Salerno just to check it out.

But for the difficulty of reaching it from Naples, which is essentially a train down a Salerno, a bus over or a train to Sorrento and a bus to like over to Positano and or down to Amalfate.

It's such a pain to get to and I don't think it's worth it necessarily.

I agree, yeah.

What are your feelings on Positano I?

Think it's kind of the same, honestly.

I mean, it's beautiful.

Worth it, I guess my thoughts like if I had to encapsulate it in a in a tidy thing.

Especially because I'm already my little my little thing about Traniano put a whale over.

It was great.

Though is if you were just looking for what is the vibe?

I just want to, I'm here for the vibe, for the aesthetics.

I just want to, I want to know what people are talking about and then I want to leave Sorrento is your is the, is the place, right?

It has a very similar vibe to the rest of it.

It is more touristy, I think than a lot of people expect Anything that's something that I've seen on Reddit.

A lot of people like, I didn't realize how touristy would be.

Like I really thought there would be some authentic restaurants and not really.

We actually have a friend who lives in Sorrento and he often basically like it's difficult to going out to eat as a, as a Sorrentinian.

He's like, there's not really places I want to go eat because there's a lot of it is for tourism, even like lower end tourism.

So you have these like plastic menus with a bunch of pages and pictures or higher end tourism where it's just expensive and he's.

And lower end tourism, to be fair, is still very expensive.

Yes.

It's not like it's not what I would consider cheap eats.

No, not at all.

That's the thing.

And there's still, I mean, because it's still, it looks cute.

You're outside, you're in the sun, you got this umbrella over you.

They bring you, you know, bread for the table, which is obviously not a thing inside the Italy.

It's like bread and oil for the table.

It's not really a thing, but they'll do it because that's what people expect, so I think.

But also at the same time has some really beautiful walks through some of the lemon Groves that are like public, all these little walking paths.

It's got the small Marina and the large Marina especially kind of, again, I've used this for evocative, but if you're a photographer or paint or anything like that, it's very much the small Marina especially has this kind of still old world vibe.

There's still people who make remain fishing Nets there and will do so inside or outside you kind of thing.

So and not like for photos, it's just that's their job.

Their job?

Yeah.

Exactly.

So there's definitely more of an authenticity happening there, whereas Positano, I'd say is very much catering to the the 19 yachts they have docked offshore.

Well, and they're all of the towns on the Amalfi Coast, if they're on the actual coastline, not necessarily in the mountain, they're physically bound by where they can have a living space like houses and things.

So some of the, the towns that I, the towns that I like, I feel are closer to Salerno and they just don't have as much tourism.

They're tiny.

They're still limited by how many people they can actually live in that town, but they're a bit less touristed, where Positano and Amalfi are very much bound by the landscape and are heavily touristed.

So they just don't have the room necessarily to have like regular jobs like mending fishing Nets and things like that.

And if I may like with one one last thought, I realized I gave a lot of thoughts and I should give one last thought.

Please don't obviously let any of this dissuade you from visiting the Amalfi Coast if you would so like to.

Yes, but one thought is looking at the Amalfi Coast.

If anything is east of the Amalfi, the actual town, I would highly recommend taking a train from Salerno or from Naples down to Salerno and then a bus over.

It'll be a lot easier to do.

It'll be a lot easier to see those.

If anything is West of Amalfi, it'll probably be easier to take the train from Naples to Sorrento and then the bus over because you you're forced to switch in Nate in Amalfi.

It can make switching Amalfi very arduous if you're trying to go beyond that telling V3 Sumara, especially with how close that town is to Salerno.

Again, this is also if you're not taking the ferry, there are ferries from Naples to Sorrento to Positano to Amalfi and obviously go all the way around to Salerno.

Likewise Salerno all along up and down the Amalfi coast, Capri and and Sorrento.

So it kind of depends.

But if you're just looking for one day, I need AI, need the vibe.

It's also, I think we've we've done this before.

It's a lovely to go to Pompeii in the day and then in the afternoon go out to Sorrento, have a drink, watch the sunset and just, you know, yeah, it's a lovely thing.

And then go back into the city for dinner kind of thing.

Yeah.

That's the way to really pack in a lot of experience into one day.

Absolutely.

And I think that's everything I.

Think that's everything?

Well y'all, this has been a fun miniseries on Naples.

I've been fully enjoyed it.

I feel like I've learned a lot and I hope that you have all learned a lot.

And if this is your first sort of, I guess, introduction to Onlybag, if you have not heard us before and you'd like to follow along, you can do so if you liked what you listened to.

And we do encourage you to also listen to the previous episodes where we really go in depth more for sure.

This was just kind of a little just like if you had, if you're just about to go, if you're on the plane and you're just like, I need to listen to something.

This is this is the this would be the maybe the airport.

This is the the thing you should listen to.

Yeah, absolutely.

So we hope that you found this helpful and feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

And Tanti Abraci.