Today's Unintended Theme - Transportation. Or the Lack Thereof.

So as not to disillusion anyone, living in Naples has not been as glamorous as it may seem; I was sent here to work and I spend a majority of my time doing just that. Good thing I like my job (I’m basically doing the same work I did back in DC, except with a different audience – more about that later). Capo’s distance from the city center and my lack of personal transportation (e.g. rental car) also complicate things. I rely on the Alibus, which conveniently runs from the airport to two major piazzas in Naples proper, to get to fun places. However, it stops running comparatively early in the evening (flashbacks to the Purple line at Northwestern!) and once you get into the city, it’s an expensive cab ride back if there’s no more 3 euro Alibus. And watch out for the notorious Italian transportation strikes – this past Friday, Will and I had grand plans to get pizza in the city, but alas! The Alibus was only running during rush hours, so we ended up eating dinner…at the airport. To be fair, the pasta was decent and you can even buy an individual bottle of wine to go with it. Classy.

Not that I would want a rental car to drive myself around Naples anyway. The traffic here is not quite as bad as it was in Cairo, but the same principles apply – lines don’t mean anything, stop lights are a suggestion, and hey, let’s try and fit as many cars as we can into this narrow alley! At least the Neapolitan cars don’t have rusted through floorboards and are mostly from this century. Another difference is the scooters; I’ve never seen so many Vespas (and specialty Vespa paraphernalia stores), which seem to be the chosen mode of transport for many families here…yes, entire families on one scooter.

Although the transportation situation is not ideal, I have only myself to blame for falling into the routine of work, gym, cook, eat, on base and I am determined to get into the city more often. Plus, I saw these really fantastic boots in the city on Sunday that I want to buy...