Day 15- Caserta for Dessert-a!

Stairway up to the first floor of the Reggia

Woke up in my mini-stateroom  at the Tropicana B&B, brand new and totally anonymous, and went down to the coffee place to pay the bill and leave my bags while I went to see the Reggia. The Reggia Caserta was the royal palace built for the Bourbon king Charles VII (aka Carlos III of Spain) who was a descendent of the Farnese family. It was the largest palace of the time and is still the largest palace by volume in all of Europe, larger than Versailles. The tour of the interior that I took was a half of one of the floors, (of which there are 4) and it was 60 highly decorated state rooms. There are over 1,200 rooms in the Palace, though not all of them are decorated. The palace has never been abandoned, passing from the Bourbons to the Savoy family, and was used in WWII as the Italian Air Force Academy, later the Allied command HQ in Italy, and eventually served as the location where  Germany officially gave up on its control of the country. Today it still houses the Air Force, another school, and the museum

Ground level hallways at the Palace are absolutely enormous!

On entering, you come into these immense passages which served as carriage routes under the building. The scale is stunning- it's a bit like being under a modern bridge or a freeway. After a few passageways you come to the main staircase leading up to the piano noblile- the main floor- which is only one flight up, but what a flight! The stairs are set at a very regal pitch; somewhere around a 6" height with at least twice that in depth- a very relaxed climb so that you wouldn't break a sweat in your layers of crinoline and velvet. This was the stairway they used as a palace for Queen Amidala in Star Wars Episode One, and it is surreal- I'd say it's the biggest stairs I've ever been on- at least for one floor! Of course it's lined with marble carved with all sorts of ornamental trophies and statues.

Main staircase coming from the ground up to the First floor- cue Natalie Portman!

At the top of the stairs is a gigantic rotunda with triangular piers, followed by the entry to the first room of the tour: the Royal Chapel. Again lined with marble, it seems to be afflicted with some type of corrosive problem, with large chunks fallen out for inexplicable reasons. Then into the first of the decorated rooms, one of five reception rooms leading to the throne room, where one might hope for an audience with the powers that be. You can pretty easily imagine the bewigged and dressed up aristocrats making their way through these rooms along with the occasional bedazzled regular Giuseppe gawking (just like me) at the spectacular show of wealth and power. The whole palace is in the neoclassical style of ornament, with plaster, gilt, stone, murals, and unusual painted terra cotta floors that are in remarkable shape for their age. Although it is pretty consistent in style, it's actually decorated over a fairly long time frame- maybe 60 years or so, from the late 1700's to the middle of the 1800's. The rooms still contain quite a bit of furniture from the time, which adds to the time capsule effect.

Egyptian Neo-Classical clock and table, with chairs covered in needlepoint

There were some great models of the rooms that were done by architect Luigi Vanvitelli to show the King how the palace would look, and there are also models of what would be their equivalent of amusement park rides- some that would not look at all out of place in a modern park, other then being constructed out of wood! There was also an elevator, built in 1845, and a couple of drop-dead beautiful baby rockers that were tours de force of wood carving and inlay. As you round the sixth corner you catch sight of the full run of one side of the building, which seems to disappear into haze after about the 10th or 15th room. They must have needed livery just to get from one end of the house to another!

Model for an amusement park style ride with boats and towers that would probably have been built for a one-time spectacle and then dismantled. 

 There are 3 rooms of library in sequence, and I was drooling at the giant elephant portfolios of 19th century prints of Pompeii and elsewhere, all of them beautifully bound in leather and languishing unadored by me! Poor things! After taking as many pics of the place as I could (832, to be precise) I got some lunch in the very decent basement cafe, then headed out the back door to explore the gardens. Modeled on the Palace at Versailles, the gardens are on the same scale as the palace- i.e., absolutely immense! A series of very long fountains stretches along a central axis up to the nearby hills, terminating in an artificial cascade.

View from the top of the cascade looking back at the Reggia Caserta, way off in the haze. 

It was pretty hot out in the afternoon sun down the middle of the garden, so I quickly veered off to one side, where dense woods were penetrated by paths and clearings, with a few small fountains and some really lovely meadows of uncut hay that gave way onto long cross-cutting vistas that ended with a cypress tree or other feature. I paused for a bit to watch swallows swooping through the field, and I was the only person it that area. It was transcendent. I rejoined the main alleè at an English style fountain surrounded by roses, then walked up the first of several terraces that climb the hill, each one terminated by a variety of large fountains. There were sea gods, gods of wind, Venus and her coterie, and finally, two groups of statues portraying poor Acteon and the vengeful Diana, who, enraged at being spied (accidentally) at her bath, turned the hunter Acteon into a stag, whereupon he was ripped apart by his own hounds. Very sad!

Diana and her maidens prepare to destroy poor old Acteon just for spotting her in the bath!

Above that I climbed up to the top of the cascade, which gave a great view of the whole park and the surrounding area, including some other castles and stone quarries, and then I explored the English style garden, which had an awesome nymphaeum folly and all kinds of specimen trees. By the time I got back to the exit I figure I must have walked at least 3 or 4 miles, just in the park. Then I noticed the bikes I could have rented to explore the garden a bit quicker- oops! Got back to my room, retrieved my bags, hoofed on down to the station to find I'd missed the early train I'd hoped for and that my only real option was to backtrack to Naples and take a fast train from there, for twice as much money. I was a little irritated about that, but it turned out to be quite a ride on the bullet train, hitting 300 kph several times, and the trip that took us 3 hours plus on the regular train was just over and hour and a quarter. Got down to Darius and Erica's digs in Campo di Fiori again, and ended another fine day out in Italy.

Artificial ruin of a nymphaeum in the English garden at Caserta

Day 14- Ciao Ercolano Ciao Caserta

In Italian, ciao means both hello and goodbye, and is normally used in multiples of 3, especially when saying bye bye. 

Spent my last morning in Ercolano (Herculaneum) by taking a walk to the university the two chemists had recommended I look at. I hadn't realized that it was in the former Palazzo Portici, which was the first stop for all the best bits of Pompeian and Herculanean treasures, before they were transferred to the  museum in Naples. I've read that it's in pretty miserable shape, and the exterior would attest to that, though it looks like they're doing something about it now. I would have loved to take a look at it, but it was all locked up, I guess because of the holiday. 

Portici Palace getting a needed facelift.

So I kept on walking down to the center of Portici, which is next to Ercolano, and made my way down to the seafront to see what I could see. Made my way past a little boat harbor to the public beach, which was very colorful and didn't look too awful, though who knows what is in the water this close to the port of Napoli. 

The public beach at Portici didn't look too bad, though you might glow in the dark afterwards

Decided I'd see if I could hike along the breakwater back to the hotel, and I hiked along the big boulders by the water, in front of a lot of dilapidated commercial buildings and a closed water park. Then I saw a Lido (a private beach club) up ahead and hoped I wouldn't have to hike back to the beach, since I'd already come a ways. A guy sunning himself on the rocks said I could go through on the rocks below, but when I got there, I saw I'd have to exit through the club or turn back. So I hopped a little fence and walked through the sea of orange umbrellas to the entrance, hoping nobody would ask me for my entry ticket. 

The snooty private beach didn't look much better, just more exclusive.

They didn't, and I exited the front, walked a bit more along the rocks, then turned and passed under the train tracks and up to a street I hoped would lead back to where I was staying. I paralleled the water for a bit then saw what I thought was the backside of the ruins park and turned up the hill. It was exactly that, and as a bonus I caught a glimpse of the excavated part of the Villa di Papiri, which really is directly below the place I've been staying. And I don't mean down the hill, I mean underneath it, as in, if you dug through the plumbing far enough you'd end up in the peristyle!

My one and only view of the Villa di Papiri, from a farm entry just outside it.

Anyways, got back to the place paid up and said "Ciao, Ciao Ciao!" to my hosts, and the British couple, who were heading up to see Vesuvius up close, and then hit the train(s) to Caserta, arriving in the heat of the afternoon. Found the place without too much difficulty, and got the keys from the cafe cashier, while one of the baristas showed me up to a new, clean, commuter style room (for 40 Euros!) with private bath and wi-fi. Cleaned up and then to a walk after the heat calmed down, over to see the entry to the Reggia, which is the largest palace ever constructed in Europe. Then back into town for the passagiata; did some window shopping, got a gelato, sat in the park, walked all over looking for an open grocery store, didn't find one, so I bought a couple of fried croquettes from a street vendor and called it a night.

Kids enjoying a bit of music making on the lawn in front of the Reggia Caserta.