On the day that we were due to catch the 10.30am train to Milan, we awoke to the news that there was yet another train strike across Italy, so John rushed to Napoli Centrale to secure seats on the first available train, departing Naples 4.20pm and arriving Milan 9.15pm.
We checked out of our palace accommodation, secured our suitcases with the lady who lives downstairs, and then set out to make best use of our unscheduled additional time in Napoli. Straight to the Pio Monte della Misericordia. Initially a small church, built at the behest of seven young nobles who spent much of their time ministering to the sick and the poor, and consecrated in 1606, it was enlarged several decades later. The nobles sought out artworks for permanent display that “would give permanent visual expression to their sense of charitable mission”. The most significant painting, hung over the high altar, is Caravaggio’s “Seven Works of Mercy” (1st photo below). Our personal favourite of the seven large paintings on permanent display is Battistello’s 1615 portrayal of the “Liberation of St Peter” (2nd photo.).
We then spent a pleasant couple of hours wandering through the adjacent annex viewing the permanent and temporary exhibitions of renaissance and more modern art and furnishings, then to a nearby restaurant for a delicious pasta lunch, a slow walk back through the narrow streets and alleyways of the old town, bedecked with bunting, cardboard cut-outs and figurines of the Napoli football team and its players, a stop for afternoon tea, retrieved our luggage and back to Napoli Centrale to board our 4.15pm for an uneventful trip to Milan, Then a scramble to find the local train for the 50-minute journey to the airport and from there to our hotel for the night.
On Saturday we boarded our plane for the 12-hour flight to Singapore, arriving at 7am Sunday. We were able to book into our hotel, the Village Hotel Bugis, so we rested for much of the day in our room on the 19th floor, then a walk through the Bugis Markets and past the street stalls, noting that there were nowhere near the number of street stalls that we were used to seeing pre-Covid (one stall-holder simply told us “not so much money now”). Dinner at our favourite hawker centre then back to the hotel, shower and bed.
Over the next couple of days we generally took it easy, visiting the nearby mosque, doing a bit of shopping, catching the MRT to Chinatown, having a cold drink in the magnificent art-deco Park View Building – just enjoying Singapore.
Wednesday morning a very early start to the airport for our flight back to Sydney, overnight in the Great Southern Hotel then back home on the train Thursday morning.
And that’s it (for this time).
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