I'm back down south again. Just keeping you all on your toes.
Amalfi, Positano, Sorrento. As well as being generic Italian restaurants from my younger days, they're also hugely popular tourist destinations, close to each other on Italy's south-west coast. But I've had my fill of tourist destinations recently, so I skipped them all and came to Salerno instead.
I read up on a bit of history before embarking on this trip. Salerno was where Allied forces made their first landing, from Sicily, on the Italian mainland in 1943. It was then for a time in 1944 the official capital of free Italy, while the Germans were still occupying Rome. Switching sides mid-war left a lot of people high and dry, and the reprisals were terrible, not just from the Germans but between Italians themselves. In some cases the Nazi collaborators got what they deserved; in many others it was just opportunistic score-settling. It's hard to avoid drawing uncomfortable parallels with what must be going on in Syria right now.
A short way out of Salerno to the east, there's a cemetery which holds the graves of 1,851 soldiers from the UK and Commonwealth. The cemetery is directly managed by the UK government, specifically the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It's a lovely quiet spot, carefully maintained, with mountains to the north-east and the blue Tyrrhenian Sea rippling gently to the south-west. It's also rather isolated, with no built-up areas or train stations nearby, and getting there involves a rattly 40-minute bus ride. I had the cemetery entirely to myself for a protracted wander around on a sunny December morning. 1,742 of the headstones bear names and ages and regiments, but there are also 109 with an inscription noting only that the young man's name is 'known unto God'.
Obviously I spend most of my travels eating and drinking to excess, and making undiplomatic observations about the locals. But there are occasional serious moments too, and none more so than being here and seeing so many gravestones bearing the emblem of the Durham Light Infantry. It made me very contemplative indeed to imagine myself having been born just 50 years earlier than I was. Never forget.
The town of Salerno itself is perhaps a bit rough and ready, but I don't mind that, and anyway it's still a lot more civilised than Naples. Also most of the people seem to be actually Italian and that wouldn't have been the case in Amalfi or wherever.
My blog has been a bit behindhand of late, which is why the updates are now coming thick and fast while I get caught up. Only one more to go after this.
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| Looking east early in the morning. This looks like a panorama picture, but it isn't |
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| Rusting relics of seaside glory. Reminds me of home and makes me happy. |
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| Salerno's 11th century cathedral, at sunset |
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| Some corner of a foreign field |
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| Christmas procession in the old town |
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| Piazza Flavio Gioia |
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| Edd vs Food #147 Poke bowl at Hello Poke Sweet potatoes, purple cabbage, feta cheese, red onion, spicy mayo, crispy onion bits. Basmati rice underneath. |
