Yesterday, my second day in Italy, was overwhelming. All I can do is list my itinerary, especially since I have only a few minutes this morning before day 3 officially starts.

Yesterday I was in Naples. The day began with an an early walk in the area around my hotel, which is a few blocks from the Piazza del Plebescita. (All spellings approximate!) I went up the small alleys as the city was getting started. I wished I had brought a sound recorder just to capture 5 minutes of street sounds as the small stores cranked open and the children were walked to school. Then Derrick, my host, interviewed me for an hour for the U of Naples TV; it was a more philosophical interview than I’m used to, and was invigorating because of that.

Then Derrick dropped me at Herculaneum. When Vesuvius blew up, the wind carried the ash to Pompeii, but 50 feet of mud covered the much smaller town of Herculaneum. A third of the town has been excavated. I walked through it for 1.5 hours. You get a lively, and moving, sense of how humane and social life was there (well, slaves excepted). I won’t attempt to do justice to the experience of being a chronological voyeur.

Then, after an excellent lunch (pasta arrabiata and some excellent pizza), I gave a talk at the university, with non-simultaneous, interactive translation. I talked about – guess what? – how the miscellaneous, which traditionally is where the structure of knowledge fails, is becoming in the digital world where knowledge begins.

Then Derrick, eleven grad students and I took the 40 minute ferry ride to the isle of Capri, where we had a late (11pm) dinner at which I spent more time talking about Heidegger than I have in 20 years.

It was dark when we arrived so I had no sense of the place until this morning when I went on a short walk through Anacapri, where we’re staying. Anacapri is the “anti Capri,” although unfortunately not in the Opposite World sense…it’s just on the other side of the island. I’m not going to try to describe it because I’m too new here, and, besides, I have to go join Derrick for breakfast. What I saw this morning, though, was impossibly lovely, so lovely that I don’t yet trust my reaction.

Even I am envious of myself.

Categories: Uncategorized dw