A Retrospective: 10 of the more interesting places I've slept; part V

Everyone sleeps, and usually the hardest part about traveling is finding a good place to do it. Housing is expensive, and comfort is important. This series of posts shares some of my solutions to finding a cozy place to spend the night:

Sometimes the solutions aren't cozy.

-In my very first post, I relate the story of my travel back to the US from Italy, with all of its pitfalls and snags. I'd like to reference one of the aspects of that story: I've slept underneath a bush in Paris. It was a very uneasy sleep, not very restful, and only lasted a couple hours, before the train station re-opened. There is a long time between midnight and morning, though, and even 4am is very far away when you're cold and shelterless at midnight or 1am.

-As I left my study abroad program in Italy, leaving my luggage at a storage place, I had a 50+ lb pack on my back, and a sketchy plan to see Naples and Pompeii, then fly to England and walk across it. Simple. I take the train down to Naples with my Eurorail pass, and find myself in the Naples train station at 10pm. Not a good place to be. Busy, gritty, unsafe. So I scrap plans for sleeping in that train station (see previous posts, train stations are usually good places to sleep). I grab a slice of pizza (finally, thick crust pizza! I immediately comprehend the differences in pizza recipes that have been alluding me for 4 months) and catch a train heading around the Amalfi coast. A few stops in, Salermo. Quiet little town, it's on the map, so can't be too small. Perfect. I get off, and scope out a place to sleep. So much safer than Naples. Oops, the waiting room has been taken over by Rom. There's about 50 people in the small room, carpeting the floor, under plastic and cardboard, huddled together for warmth. I'll let them be. So I make my way to an out-of-service car (again, see previous posts, very good sleeping arrangements). Half an hour later, the cleaning crew comes through and kicks me out. So I head out into the night. It's pretty cold, but I have a sweater. I walk around for a few blocks, find the ocean (ok, small town indeed, it's about 3 blocks wide), and then find a nice patio/overhang that's the entrance to a bank. I stretch out my sleeping pad, climb into my sleeping bag (its first use, I just bought it for the trail across England), huddle my belongings close, and uneasily sleep for a few hours. I wake up to the dawn, pack up and catch the early morning sights over the Amalfi coast. Success! On to Pompeii.