The Tar Pit

To be entirely honest, I'm not sure exactly where to start this, given that wherever I'd begin, and moreover whichever way I'd go, I'm sure that I'll leave out many details that otherwise hold (sentimental, if not some other sort of) value to me. This vacation was very intense and it involved processing a ton of information in a relatively brief period of time. So despite (or maybe exactly because) of the necessity to adhere to tight schedules, the hours of walking leaving us with the distinct impression that we haven't seen much yet, the lack of sleep and all the impediments imposed by a tight economy -- of time, first and foremost -- despite all these, the whole experience feels like a dream that has been imprinted into my memory, hopefully for a long time to come.

As draconic as this sounds, let me clarify that we didn't really set out detailed goals for this trip. We had eight days, one of which (the departure) involved a sleepless night due to the plane schedule. We did think about how to milk it best, but we didn't set too specific goals, because we expected the reality in the field to be perhaps different than the ones presented on the various websites. And boy, were we right!

For what it's worth, we chose the cheapest direct flight from Bucharest into Italy. With Tarom on life support, nowadays it's a hassle to book flights that aren't low cost. And from what I've heard on them nets, nowadays low cost companies will fuck up your schedule for no apparent reason and you've signed that agreement, so there's really not much you can do. So we reluctantly chose a low cost flight along with some extra luggage space and... well, at least Ryanair seems ok from this experience. By the way, Romanians still have the provincial habit of cheering the crew immediately after landing, as if the crew was there to put on a show.

Our journey started in Pescara, a small port town facing the Adriatic. We then branched out into Naples -- or more precisely, into the surrounding archaelogical sites -- and after another day in Pescara, we went straight to Rome, which takes about two hours and a half by bus. A trip by train would have been nicer maybe, but apparently there's no train from Pescara to Rome (nor to Naples), so we went the harder, more scenic route.

Our initial foray into Pescara was somewhat of a failure. During our first day we decided to visit the local nature reserve¹ but upon arriving there, we found it closed up with locks on all gates. This was disappointing, but on the other hand the Italians were celebrating their Republic Day the following day, so... I suppose we let this one pass. One could think of a way to publicly announce these things, say, on a website or some other such wonder of technology. But it looks like Pescara ain't at that level of "digitalization" yet and I don't expect them to get there too soon.

Still, we enjoyed a fine Republic Day with a bit of rain and some delicious treats from Vittorio's place². We also took a bit of time to enjoy the fine beach of Pescara. The beach:

Nothing happened on the beach for the most part. The weather didn't really get too hot until near the end of our time there, when the sea saw considerably more people. But regardless, the water was decent and we even stumbled upon a starfish and a few other fish in the shallow waters. This idleness didn't last too much though, as we soon went out to Naples to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum. All of these objectives sit around the great Vesuvius:

I haven't seen too much of Naples, so maybe it'd be ill advised to describe it using strong words. I have seen a bit of Ercolano and save for the beautiful beach infused with volcanic rock:

this little town looks just sad. I can't help but make a comparison between the ruins of Herculaneum, so well preserved through the passing of time by volcanic rock, and the decay of Campania, moving forward through some unseen inertia. Should I understand that Ercolano would be better off buried under petrified lava? Would Naples be better off sufferring the same fate? I don't know, to be honest, but it looks like Campania has seen better times. The little that we saw of Naples was stinky and overall trashy, even though the people were generally nice and helpful. So now what? I can't help but like what Bucharest has come to.

And just as I've said, the ruins were very well taken care of. I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

I can only imagine how those places must have looked back in the good old days!

If modern Naples was a sadness, the same can't be said about modern Rome. Rome is a living monument: not only it hosts a bunch of ancient ruins, but you can also find renaissance buildings which are very well kept up. But most importantly, Rome is very much alive, perhaps a bit too alive, what with the hordes of tourists invading it each day. The local authorities seem to have gone through great lengths to accommodate this state of affairs, but even so, sometimes it can be a challenge to find a place that isn't swarming with tourists.

In short, Rome was a ten-hour walk through the scorching heat of early June, with some breaks for water, food and photos. We tried out some local pasta and tiramisu at a trattoria³; we listened to budding guitarists/singers at the Giardino degli Aranci and on the stairsteps of Piazza di Spagna; we were quite impressed upon recalling the value that Dacia held in Roman memory, as can be seen on the monuments that lie scattered all throughout town; we measured the Italian old men, dressed in dark-blue suits, quite a few miles away from the drunkard in Ercolano; and we witnessed the change of atmosphere in the evening, as the crowds were replaced with smaller groups of civilians joined by various groups of carabinieri. It'd have been quite nice to explore further, but at this point we were quite tired on one hand, while on the other, our bus ride to back to Pescara was about an hour away.

During the remainder of our trip to Italy we went back to the Pescaran beach a couple more times -- once to bathe in the by now warm waters of the Adriatic; and once in the evening to try out some nighttime photography. We also visited a local museum hosting various pottery items, along with an edition of Goya's Caprices⁴. And finally, after a few other walks, we went to their airport and back to Bucharest.

I guess this'd be a good point to talk about the general atmosphere in Italy. We can begin with these guys:

Italy had its round of europarliamentaries just as we left. It was somewhat amusing to watch the Italians stop by these ads and throw some comment that direction, but all in all it seems they take these more seriously than Romanians do. Their politicians made a big deal about opening up their campaign headquarters and about rallying on the street and overall people seemed more involved than I'd expected. One politician held a speech on the same street where just one night before we witnessed some kids trying to steal a van -- good thing they didn't succeed, huh? -- and she talked as if the kids and the van didn't exist. They all talked about the power of Italy within the EU, but they all seemed to ignore a few important aspects, such as the trash filling up Italian towns, at least those that I saw. Rome was clean though, how could Rome be clean? just because of the tourist season? Or is it that Rome is a kind of Bucharest while Naples is a sort of Vaslui?

And just to be clear, I've had it with their self-absorbed anti-immigration speech as well. I quite clearly recall the moment when I stepped in Paris only to see it filled with soldiers; just as well as I remember the continuing madness; and just as well as I remember saying quite recently that Europe is badly fucked. So now, what precisely do those impotent fuckers want to do about immigration? There's nothing they can do, those immigrant boys and girls (especially the former) are quite literally speaking "de-ai noștri" by now. The waiter and the shop guard in Rome, the beach janitors in Pescara, the carjackers mentioned above, the good folks who started a fire in an abandoned house a few nights before -- all these people are Italian now, do you hear me? They're the one who seem to keep things running, as some of the mind-bogglingly stupid "italieni pur-sânge" won't even talk to you if you approach them in anything besides Italian.

So dear impotent fuckers, why else do you guys think your political adversaries facilitated mass migration with Italy (or France, Germany and so on and so forth) as a destination point? Well, lemme tell you, in case you're so preposterously stupid that you don't get it: someone had to keep things running while your locals got dumber, fatter and overall ineffectual. That for some reason -- don't ask me why, ask yourselves instead -- those burdened folks had to be people from the colonies makes no difference whatsoever, it could just as well have been the Chinese or the Mongols all over again. The point is that this space can't possibly remain a void while you're marching your ex-civilization towards its inevitable demise. Someone has to keep things running, and while I was visiting Italy as a tourist and throwing some money here and there, I felt like I'd rather converse with the Senegalese, the Indian and the Chinese than with some of the obnoxious locals -- some of them; a whole lot of people that we stumbled upon were genuinely cool folks. Anyway, sorry.

So then it's no surprise that we walked among soldiers in both Rome and Naples, some of them querying people about who-knows-what, others just standing with their fingers on some triggers, I'm not sure if merely to intimidate folks or with their minds on their next shot. The overall atmosphere looks eerily late '30s-early '40s -- the ones in the last century, mmkay? -- which got me thinking that oh boy, I don't know exactly when and I don't know how, but we are going to go through war sooner rather than later. And I know quite well that e.g. the good folks of Ercolano are thinking exactly what I'm thinking, I guess they just prefer not to think too much nowadays. The heaps of trash surrounding them certainly seemed to indicate that much.

So while I thoroughly enjoy Italy with all its syncopes, I'm sad to report that the overall situation of "civilized" Europe has only gotten progressively worse in the last decade. Maybe they'll get their shit sorted in this new electoral cycle, although I'm not getting my hopes up. Regardless, I'm happy to say that one can find actual people in Italy, and sometimes in the most unexpected places. For everything else you've got Mastercard, I suppose.

Anyways, in case it's not obvious from the painstaking labour involved in triaging and editing the photos, nor from the torrent of words that I've poured into this article, I really enjoyed this one.

Filed under: in the flesh.
RSS 2.0 feed. Comment. Send trackback.