After spending a great time in Puglia region, we headed back to Naples area to return the car, and leave for Dubrovnik, Croatia. Since the drive was long, we decided to break it down, and visit a couple of places on the way: Castelmezzano and Caserta.

Castelmezzano is a village in the Basilicata region located in the Lucanian Dolomites, which have the characteristically jagged rocky peaks, similar to the Dolomites in the Northern Italy. Castelmezzano is one of the most beautiful villages in Italy, but still it is often overlooked by tourists. We stayed there for two nights, and fell in love with its beauty, and the warmth of its people. It’s such a small village that everyone knows each other, so much so that when you arrive as a tourist, everyone knows you are a tourist. Most of the action, and the best views are simply happening in the main square of the village (picture above was taken from the square). There, locals gather throughout the day, and chat with each other with their peculiar accent. We loved going to the main square for people watching, snapping photos, and letting our son play around with other kids, while the locals kept watching and smiling at him. He also did his first mini-hike (Graditana Normanna) on his own, climbing 130 steps with minimal help!

Caserta is half an hour north of Naples, and it was a perfect place to spend a couple of nights before our flight. There, we visited the Caserta Royal Palace, and old town of Caserta called Casertavecchia. The royal palace is the largest palace by volume in the world, and it was built by Bourbon kings in Naples in 18th century, mimicking the Versailles Palace. It features an elongated garden of around 3 km in length, going up a hill, with cascading fountains and a man-made waterfall in the end. The opulent interior has tall ceilings and is adorned with marble and gold, and paintings. I loved doing photography there (check out my Instagrams account below), as it provides excellent opportunities for architecture photography. It is indeed a work of art, but at the same time, it’s sad to see so much money and energy used to build a resident for a king. Imagine if they instead had spent that money for the people of Southern Italy. They would have been in a much better place today. I’m not sure how much of the downfall of Southern Italy in the 19th century could be attributed to such extravagances by the kings of Naples.

We are super happy that we took the time to visit these two places, but a small problem we had was the abundance of mosquitoes in both places. We’ve never been bitten so much before by near-silent ninja mosquitoes!

The Mishap

Our next destination was Dubrovnik, flying from Naples with EasyJet, but unfortunately we missed our flight! This is something that has never happened to me before in over 15 years of traveling on my own, and now it has to happen with a baby. Suffice to say, it was super stressful, but luckily there was another flight the day after that I had to book on my own for double the price of the first one. We also had to stay a night in Naples again, and we didn’t get to do much other than walking around in the historical center, and having dinner. This was a major bummer for us, as we had my cousin and his wife waiting for us in Dubrovnik, and we had to get there. 

When a major mishap like this happens at Amazon, we tend to write a doc called Cause Of Error, or COE. In this doc, we ask a few “why” questions to bottom out the reason, learn from it, and take actions so it doesn’t happen again. So here is my COE for the missed flight. 

Why did you miss the flight?

We had to get the flight from Naples airport at 13:00 with EasyJet, so we planned accordingly to return the car, and be there around 2 hours before. When we arrived at the airport, I got a notification on my phone from EasyJet app that the flight is being delayed, and will depart at 14:00. I checked the departure time board at the airport, and the flight was delayed, and there was no gate assigned yet. The app said the same, and it indicated that it will update when that information is available.

So after passing the security, we had like 2 hours until the departure, and since we have lounge access by our Capital One Venture X card, we decided to go there. We had food and drink, and relaxed a bit, while one of us was constantly trying to entertain our son. By around 13:30, there was still no update from the app, so I became concerned what is happening, and found a board, and low and behold, it said the flight is leaving at 1:35! We ran to the gate, but there was no one there. Meanwhile, there was this mega loud ear-piercing alarm going off in that area, so loud that our son started crying. I was running around to find an EasyJet representative, but there were none. That was the time I realized we have missed the flight.

Why did you only rely on the EasyJet app to check for the update?

I tend to rely on online sources for checking the updates of our flights, as (at least in the US), they are spot on, and even sometimes faster than the airport announcements. So it was natural for me to keep checking the app.

Why didn’t EasyJet help you to rebook?

Well, EasyJet, and other budget airlines are infamous for their cost-cutting measures, and that’s how they manage to lower the prices, and despite that, turn a profit. Their website says if you miss a flight, they will rebook you the next flight with a fee, but when you call them, no one answers, and their website does not have such an option. Overall, you get crappy customer experience for the comfort of flying direct from two not so popular destinations with a low cost.

What did you learn?

  1. Never trust an app, or website for the flight information, and instead only rely on the departure info board at the airport.
  2. Don’t kick back and relax at the airport, unless you know the gate and boarding time.
  3. Get to the airport 3-4 hours before when you have a baby. So here it was our five-week-long trip in Southern Italy. We visited Rome, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Matera, Puglia region, Castelmezzano, and Caserta. Italy has always been a perfect destination for us for multiple reasons, and this time it did not disappoint: We love the food, the people, the scenery, the culture, and history of Italy so much so that we will be coming back many many times!

Per usual, here is a link to my instagram account:

https://www.instagram.com/photopensieve/

Follow me to see the latest photos of the trip. I’ll end the post with an FAQ.

FAQ

Any updates on the traveling with a baby?

Well, it hasn’t been very easy lately, since our son has been unwell a bit. He hasn’t been eating well, and has been unusually cranky during the day and over night. After checking with a doctor, we realized that he might have contracted hand-foot-and-mouth disease — a mild, contagious viral infection common in young children. Poor little thing. It’s tough to have a sick baby, but even tougher when you are on the go. He is recovering though, and hopefully in a few days, he will be fully well.

How is photography going?

Pretty well! It’s not too hard to capture good photos in scenic places like the ones we have visited, and I have been enjoying it immensely. I’m also happy I have brought both cameras, the Sony A7R2 with three primes, and the Ricoh GR3. The Sony is indispensable when I want to do serious photography and I need ultrawide, normal and telephoto lenses. Ricoh, on the other hand, has been great to carry around on a given day, when the first goal is not photography. It is basically my pocket camera that allows me to capture high quality photos when needed.