Category Archives: Italy

Posts written about Italy, particularly Naples, and other posts written whilst in Italy.

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Ferry trip from Pozzuoli to Ischia and back

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A look back (first published 24 July 2015): the Bay of Naples is so crammed with history and legend it’s hard to know where to start – this is an attempt.

thephraser's avatarThe Phraser

Ferry to Ischia with Procida in the foreground Ferry to Ischia with Procida in the foreground

Islands are impossible to resist.   Sit for just one pizza on the seafront in the Bay of Naples and you’ll feel the pull. Capri is the big magnet but swing your eyes to the other side, away from the Sorrentine Peninsular to the opposite end of the bay, and you see Ischia with little Procida tucked between it and the mainland.

Our trip was to Ischia by ferry – a brief journey to join an afternoon sail.

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The Villa Comunale in Naples, Italy: and Carducci

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A look back (first published 16 July 2015): when we left Naples a fortnight ago there were still occasional purple flowers on the young jacaranda trees along the edge of the Villa Comunale, and the park’s lovely old bandstand was under wraps.

thephraser's avatarThe Phraser

The Villa Comunale in Naples The Villa Comunale in Naples

It was months before I noticed him.  I drove past him every day  … and yet I never looked left.  There were two reasons – the first was fear, new-to-the-road fear, and the second was the light of the early sun on the sea.

The fear of the drive into Naples has almost gone, and with it the bolts of shock that thumped through my heart each time I joined the traffic into the city.  Now, my spasmed eyeballs have relaxed and there’s time to enjoy the view.

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A ‘sagra’ on an old Roman road north of Naples, Italy

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A look back (first published 19 June 2015): many of the villages in the countryside around Naples, and up into the mountains behind, have ‘sagre’ in the summer – food festivals where fresh food is served close to the land it came from.

thephraser's avatarThe Phraser

Bees swarming at the 'Sagra delle antiche taverne' Bees swarming at the ‘Sagra delle antiche taverne’

‘Sagre‘, and this was our first, are the right-in-the-thick-of-it festival celebrations that usually revolve around food.

Originally the meaning was linked to churches and the Latin word sacrum – holy.  Now they are still about expectation and celebration, but often with a local speciality centre stage rather than the church.

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