HOW WE NAVIGATED IN NAPLES TO OUR FIRST AIRBNB WITHOUT INTERNET

Day 1

Rome

My dream came true that day. You must be aware by now that “Sitting in a train having a book in my hand and gazing into the scenes through the window was a dream sequence in my mind”. Well, I had that on the Rome to Naples train and all the subsequent trains in Italy during our trip.

Naples-Centrale

Our train came to final halt at Napoli Centrale or Naples Central Station at 8 p.m. According to the instructions which I had written in my phone, we were to exit the station, cross the road and head to the underground Garibaldi metro station which was just opposite where we exit. We exited and found ourselves amidst pacing cars on the road. We looked around and before we crossed the station I pointed the big “M” for metro opposite us to my husband. We have to go there I said.

Napoli Garibaldi

We crossed the road and climbed on the elevator which took us down to the Naples Garibaldi metro station. Once in the station I told Jerry, my husband that we have to buy tickets for the L2 line Metro from Garibaldi to Naples Montesanto. We stood there and looked for a ticket counter. It was nowhere in view but I saw a ticket machine.

We went to the machine and saw the instructions and tried buying our tickets. I don’t remember what went wrong but we couldn’t make our way to it. We took a step back after one try and let one other person buy his ticket. We again tried our luck and this time we were able to buy the tickets. It was not that difficult but we were just a bit confused during the first attempt. We had to change the language of the machine from Italian to ‘Inglese’, Italian for English and book two urban metro tickets for one journey.

We inserted one 5 euro note and the tickets came in from the slot below along with the change. One metro ticket cost 1.5 Euros which is valid for 90 minutes. A day pass costs 4.5 euros for as many journeys as you want.

Italian scripture is not difficult to read as they use the English Alphabet but to make your life a bit easy I’m writing a few words with meanings which will help you navigate through all of Italy trains.

• Stazione – Station

• Biglietti – Tickets

• Binari – Platforms

• Biglietto Orario – hourly ticket

• Giornaliero – daily

• Tabacheria - tobacco shops

Now you must be thinking what a tobacco shop has to do with trains. Train or Bus Tickets in Italy can also be bought at tobacco shops so look out for it.

Photo of Napoli Garibaldi, Naples, Metropolitan City of Naples, Italy by Preeti Singh

We then moved ahead and saw two L1, L2 , L6 etc. written on boards with directions. We straightaway headed towards the L2 direction. It took us underground through an elevator. Now we were two levels below the ground. At the end of the elevator were two signs boards on the left and the right. ←METRO GARIBALDI METRO PISCINOLA →. There was a map in view so we studied that a bit. The station we were headed to i.e. Montesanto was towards Piscinola. So we went in that direction and the train came in not very late and we boarded. People were dressed so elegantly on the train. Guys in proper suits with bags and girls in proper formals with make up on. We felt like two poor beings surrounded by some classy people all around. Hehe!

When our station arrived we got down and from there we were to take a funicular to Morghen. We asked around about it and a guy navigated us to the funicular door and told us that the funicular will come here and pointed us towards a glass door and went away. We stood there confused. We tried opening the door but it didn’t open. A guy standing nearby said that the door will open when the funicular arrives. I could see an elevated track on the other side of the door. We stood there for almost 5 mins when a yellow funicular soared down the elevated track and stopped near the door. The door opened and we exited the station. I say exited because we had left the station and were out in the open with just the funicular ahead of us.

A few others also boarded with us. The Narnia door closed again and the funicular lifted us backwards on the track. It stopped for two stations and kept moving backwards till we reached our station Morghen and the gates opened again and we headed out in the midst of nothingness.

It was dark outside the Morghen station and as per my directions we were only 100 metres away from the Airbnb. Outside the station we were apparently standing on a what-you-call a “chauraha” in India. I could see two cafes at the corner. Jerry asked a few about the address. They didn’t know. I switched on my maps as I had marked the location in it and wished for it to work. We moved ahead a bit when the map showed you have reached the destination but there was nothing around. Just buildings on both the side but no door. We came back to the cafe and saw a bakery nearby.

We asked the guy sitting inside. He said “oh it’s this way pointing in the left direction”. We moved in that direction when he came out of the bakery and showed us a large door next to his bakery and said “THIS!” Phew! Thank God.

We came near the door but couldn’t open it. He asked us to ring the bell of the apartment. But we didn’t know the exact number. We stood there for 5 mins when a woman arrived and unlocked the door and asked if we wanted to come inside. We said yes, still clueless where we would go even if we entered the building. We entered and told the lady we wanted to go to an apartment which hosts on Airbnb. She said “Oh that is Valeria I think”. The name of our host was Franscesco. Nevertheless, we listened to her and entered the lift with our luggage. She told us a key has to be inserted for the lift to work. That means we couldn’t have done it without her. Hell, we couldn’t have entered the building without her. She was our angel in disguise. We stopped at the 2nd floor and she pointed the door to us. There were two large doors on each side of the landing. Two large elegant doors. We thanked the lady immensely and rang the bell next to the door. No answer. We rang again after 5 minutes. No answer. I turned around thinking maybe it is the door on the opposite side and rang the bell there too. I was about to ring the bell on the first door a third time when the door clicked opened and a happy shadow peeped out and exclaimed, Preetiiiii, come in. And thus we entered our first international Airbnb.