NAPOLI!!!

Dear friend,

I left Florence for Napoli yesterday and planned to spend three days there. But now I'm back in Florence again. You see, it's a long way between the two places (over 3.5 hours by the fastest train) and the train tickets are not cheap (over HKD300 for a one-way second-class). But Napoli simply SUCKS!

The place was dilapidated. The tourist office sucked. And also the hotel booking service. And the hotel itself was unbelievably unbearable. The whole experience was so awful that I decided to leave within two hours of arrival. I cancelled all my plans to the south of Italy and didn't know where to go. So I came back to Florence. At least this is a city that I know and like.

Can you imagine a hotel like this - there was no air-con, no fan, no window. There were a pair of french windows which opened to a small rooftop. Those windows faced directly with other people's and also the air-con of other people's. So I couldn't open them either. And it was HOT in Napoli. And also the sound of the TV set. It came on and off automatically. And even the electricity, sometimes you had it, sometimes not. And it was rated as a 2-star hotel. My God. How could I stay?

And when I checked out this morning, the janitor insisted that I should pay 80,000 Lire, but I knew that the outstanding charge should only be 40,000 Lire. But what could I do? He had locked the hotel entrance and I had to catch my train. Of course I paid.

I feel so at ease in Florence though I don't really have any plan. I would just walk around. (And the hotels here, even if they are spartan, they are fine.)

My next stops are Rome and Paris. Bye now.