Author: Ward

On my way from Trani to Naples I had a change-over in trains at Caserta.  It was only happenstance that I even know about Reggia di Caserta let alone stopped to visit it today.  This morning my friend Dave and I took the train up from Trani to Foggia on Dave’s commute to work.  Along with us was his Italian colleague who inquired where I was headed.  I said Naples.  He mentioned I would be going through Caserta.  It was then that Dave and the gentleman both encouraged me to see the palace (reggia) situated right outside the train station.  At first I was hesitant to delay getting to Naples where I wanted to get a start on visiting Pompeii; but, the weather proved to be cooperative today as it is the first time since I have been in Italy that is rained. Which is to say I felt a bit of a stroll indoors was warranted.

I was also hesitant due to the fact that Dave compared Reggia di Caserta to Châteu de Versailles of France.  Dave did not know, but I was not overly impressed with Versailles when I visited it three years ago in late December.  It was very crowded.  The quality of the renovation seemed haphazard.  And overall, while one can certainly appreciate the opulence it once held, it seemed very much its glory days were well behind it.  A fact that is a bit saddening when one considers it to be a national treasure.  I am sure a second visit will remedy this; but for now, whereas Versailles disappoints, Caserta enthralls.  The quality of the architecture is breath-taking and the care to which the portion of the palace open to the public is mind-numbingly beautiful.  Room and room after room produces one intake of breath after the next.  And once you are done with the interior, the exterior garden that extends some two kilometers back to a natural spring is a marvel of engineering and craftsmanship.  I walked the entire thing with my pack from VeloTransit, which is to say I got my exercise for today.

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Today included a very busy morning planning the remainder of my six days in Italy.  We now have firm plans to see Naples, Pompeii, Florence, Siena and Bologna before I get a flight out of Rome to Athens next Saturday, November 13th.  Once that was all settled, me and the Piper family headed out to Castel del Monte to see the rather impressive 13th-century octagon castle that sits atop a hill above the tilled fields near to Corata.  While the castle contains little in terms of interior decorations, the architectural execution of the building is impressive.  It takes little imagination to remove the few modern embellishments of electric lights to step back and stand next to its creator, Frederick II, and envision one atop a rolling, lush greenery of bounty to serve as base for your gathering and hunting.

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Today Dave, his son Jay and I travelled a bit south to the town of Matera.  The area has been settled since Paleolithic times with peoples digging caves into the calcareous rock characteristic of the region.   The Romans allegedly founded what is now considered the city in third century BC.  Inhabitants to the area can lay claim to living in the same houses occupied over nine-thousand years ago. To say there is a few thousand years of history here is an understatement.  Over the many thousands of years the inhabitants of the area have dug and quarried and built upon the previous generations’ construction until now you discover a town of rock that seems more grown out of than built upon the hillside.  And for those who love trivia, many movies including maybe most famously Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ was filmed here due to its resemblance to ancient Jerusalem.

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I arrived in Trani, Italy last night by train.  My good friend Dave, who I am currently staying with, met me at Foggia where we traveled together to Trani.  Dave and I met at Boeing where we both worked as simultaneous Japanese interpreters. Dave has since moved on to work full-time as a lean facilitator with the company’s Lean Enterprise Office. In the years since he and his family have been able to live in Japan and now Italy with the company’s commercial suppliers.

Trani is a seaport city situated along the Adriatic Sea in the region known as both Apulia and Puglia.  It is a small city that is easily accessible by foot.  I was able to walk most of it in about 5-hours including a bit of watching the local Department of Transportation poor asphalt on a new road.  To be very specific, it was the road that connected the pier (which I was on) to the mainland and as such there was not much to do other than to wait.  I eventually decided to climb over the breaker rocks on either side of the pier when I finally realized I was not that Italian after-all and my American need to move-on overwhelmed me.

I found my way to the Cathedral of Trani where I was kindly “swindled” out of 5 euro by an elderly gentleman.  Upon arriving on the steps to the cathedral he came up to me speaking Italian.  In whatever Italian I do not speak I indicated I was an American. He then gesticulated for me to follow him into the cathedral where he introduced me to the catacombs, the two alters in the lower portion, counted out the number of pillars in each area, directed me to the various fresco and gave me appropriate dates, brought me up to the main area and again showed me various aspects of the cathedral in all its glory.  All of this spoken, of course, in what I can only surmise as a smattering of Italian, English and German.  At the very end he turned to me asked for enough money to buy a espresso, which in his economics, is 5 euro.  It may have been the most fun I have had in awhile and I must give credit for his enterprising tourist-oriented entrepreneurship.

Near to the cathedral is the Ghetto part of the town that dates back to well over 1000 years; much of the buildings remain unchanged from the medieval times.  It is a wonderful stroll through small streets shared by pedestrians and motorists alike.  However, nothing runs straight for long which makes navigating it a fun challenge.  Across town along the shoreline is a monastery dating back from the 14th century.  I enjoyed a bit of a rest in the shade of a building while teenagers blared an eclectic mix of Italian opera, Italian contemporary ballads, and American 80s music including Michael Jacksons’ Thriller.  Of the latter a teenager even went so far as to turn up the radio when the song began; some things are stranger than fiction.

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