Norcia, the Town I Visited, Was Hit on Wednesday by a 6.6 Earthquake

You may recall my earlier post about visiting Norcia.  In today's Dispatch is an article on the earthquake which devastated Norcia and surroundings yesterday.  These images from the internet are the same ones I visited only a week ago.  (see: Norcia and the Steep Mountains of Eastern Italy)

Here is a link to news sources:  http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/30/europe/italy-earthquake/



I stood in this square with many locals listing to a "Drum Band" show, and then visited the local sausage shops, where I purchased some sausage for dinner that night and a Gelateria for a cone.

This was one of the roads I drove on that morning.

My memories were of a beautiful small town, with a proud heritage of  producing butchers, early surgeons, and marketing top quality sausages throughout Italy and Europe.  The people I met were a pleasure to talk to.  Now the town is forever changed.

Drive to Naples, Train to Rome, 2-Hr. Bus Tour

Since I leave early in the morning tomorrow, the idea was to come up to Rome and overnight at the Hilton Hotel that is attached to the Airport.  Well, the trip was fun.  My driver shows up in a relatively new big Mercedes, and he is the brother of the driver who took me from Naples to Amalfi last week.  They both like to drive fast, but this brother has a better car!  It's also a holiday, the Italian version of All Saints Day.  So, there is little traffic, and we sailed through the curves at mach 2.

He drops me off at the Naples train station, and I find that my reservation is on one of the "high speed" trains.  190 MPH, and we are passing every Italian driver in the left lane of the highways when we parallel them.  I feel like I felt on my first Tilt-a-Wheel ride!  The other thing is the quiet.  There is no clickety-clack on the Frecciarossa!

Now I'm in downtown Rome, and need to get to the airport.  In my best Italian, I approached a uniformed person and said, "airport."  With equal linguist dexterity, he said, "machine," and pointed to a row of red machines with computer screens.  I strode confidently to a machine, pushed "English"> Ticket> Airport,   It then asked me "After 12:00, After 12:20, After 12:40 etc.  I gave myself 20 minutes, and was rewarded with a blinking cash slot and an 14-Euro price tag.  Momentarily after inserting a 20-Euro bill, I was rewarded with a ticket, a 5-Euro bill and a 1-Euro coin.  Life is soooo good!

I got to the train with five minutes to spare, and it was packed.  I met a nice young couple going to Abu Dabi, so we sat on our suitcases in the vestibule, talked and reached the Airport in half an hour.  The Hilton has a very nice service for guests.  It runs a free shuttle bus downtown every two hours, which drops you off right in the middle of all the city tour busses.  How could I miss.  I snagged a seat in the front of the upper deck of the first tour bus, and shot a few pics through the glass as we scooted around the various fountains and monuments.  It's not great photography, but I can prove I was there.  Rome deserves more than a 1:45 hour tour, but that's for another time.

This is the first cathedral built in honor of Mary, Mother of Jesus.  Shot through the bus window, but not bad.  The architect who erected the obelisk in the middle of my shot, should be shot.

I'm not sure what they call this one, but it held 50,000 people and I think Spartacus was filmed there.  Or something like that.  It is a spectacular building, and bus glass does not do it justice.  It does put it in perspective, however, it's right in the middle of town.  How many gladiators got to say, "Those who are about to die, salute you."

This truly should be the end of the pictures before leaving in the morning.

Ciao, for now!

Jim

On the way home from Capri -Far, Closer and Close

The boat we came home on, stops at Positano, so I took a few from the deck of the boat.  My best critic said that I posted some "less than sharp" images of Positone earlier, so maybe (if I don't get to correct the earlier ones) I can get some sharpness into these.

Positano is the darling of all travelers to the Amalfi coast, and you can see why.  It is positioned in a beautiful cove, and bracketed  by wonderful mountains.  The downside is the horendous trffic jams which clog the single road passing

I did want to give you two shots a little closer, in case you inherit a lot of money, you might want to buy.

I would not recommend spending a night here because of the difficulty getting up and down the many steps to a rental unit.  I've heard of 100+ steps to get there.  However, spending a week or so would make sense.  If you are just visiting for a day, let me suggest you use the water taxi rather than the bus.  The taxi brings you down at beach level, while the bus is 2/3's up the mountain.

Packing tonight for Roma.

Ciao for now,