Pompeii

You know those days when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Well today, both Nicole and I did. Actually, it was the NOT waking up that put us in a bad mood. Our alarm was set for 5am (yes punk, 5am, but don't get any ideas) because of our early train. We had a ride from our campsite to the local metro station at 6am. However, something went wrong and I woke up at 6.

Our packing skills have truely improved, we were out the door in 8 minutes flat. Unfortunately, we were also grubby from not having time to shower that morning (and the evening before we ran all over Rome). So that set the tone for the day.

We had decided to spend the night in Solerno due to its affordability and proximity to Pompeii. We arrived and hunted down the hostel; since street signs are optional in Italy, we had some difficulty but not too much. The hostel was in uproar when we arrived, so we only had time to drop our packs and run out the door. (We had both been hoping for some grooming time.)

We ran to the station to hitch our ride to Pompeii and made it due to a delay only to find out the train only stops at Pompeii during weekends. So we rode into Napoli then caught a train that actually stopped in Pompeii. By this time it was nearly 1 and we were starving.

The ruins are quite extensive and even more so when you are speed walking across them to the cafeteria. We finally ate an overpriced, but long awaited meal and attempted to nurse our dampened spirits with the sites.

Maybe everyone has talked up Pompei too much, maybe it was the lack of cool dead bodies hanging about (we saw a total of 4), or maybe it was that the coolest parts of Pompeii were closed i.e. House of Vetti & 3 other big ones, but we really were let down by the sights. We tramped around in the very hot sun for 4 hours, visiting some very beautiful places and some less so. Next time I will invest in a tour guide or or least the audio tour.

The good news was the gelato afterwards. It was divine. Not to mention arriving back to the hostel and taking a nice long, hot shower (a feat not too common in a hostel). So now we are cleaned, fed and excited to head to the greek islands. Yes, Pompei was a bit of a let down, but next time we shall be more prepared. Ciao from Italia, our next update shall be from an island called Corfu!

With harmony,
Emilie