Heading South

Day 1 - Pompeii

We left Rome very early on Wednesday and headed south. I have eagerly awaited this part of the trip for so long. It will be nice to be somewhat pampered after many days of "do-it-yourself" traveling.

We arrived in Naples around 10:30 am. I had been told that the Naples Centrale train station was a bit of a rough a tumble place but obviously reviewers had never been to Rifredi Stazione! Now that's rough and tumble. Naples was clean and organized but like most public Italian places not well-signed. We needed to find the

Circumvesuviana trains as those are the trains that service the Amalfi coastal towns and Pompeii was our first stop. It took us several tries to locate them (I remembered my Rick Steves travel guidebook telling me they were downstairs) but we did finally find them. We stood in a line to pay a real human being for our tickets which was quite different than using the many many "biglietti" machines in Florence and Rome. There was a man in front of us paying for his ticket when a huge shouting match broke out between him and the ticket seller. I don't know what the issue was but it was loud and hand gestures were flying!! I'm not gonna lie, it was fascinating and I kept wishing I could speak Italian! We bought our tickets and made our way to the train platform. Oh wow, rough and tumble indeed and oh so crowded!! We had to make sure our bags were close beside us and purses zipped up and strapped across our bodies. When the train stopped and we boarded it was like being stuffed in to a sardine can. And NO air conditioning!!!

The Circumvesuviana trains are much slower and they are very much like city buses in that they stop constantly. We reached Pompeii after about 40 minutes and disembarked. The train stop is literally 50 meters from the entrance to the ruins. We were able to store our bags for 3€ , freshen up in the bathroom, buy our tickets and head in to the ruins.

Entering in to Pompeii is surreal. I think that's truly the best description for it. It is not beautiful in the sense of well-kept buildings, gardens, etc. It's more like seeing time simply stand still. My feeling is that at night, without all the tourists around, it would be

eerie as hell. It reminds me of an ancient Chernobyl....and maybe that's what it really is...not a nuclear disaster but a volcanic one. Standing in what was once the forum and looking towards Vesuvius, we struggle to understand how a mountain seemingly far away could have destroyed SO COMPLETELY a large and beautiful city. I was moved by seeing the bodies of a man sitting, crouched, hiding his face in obvious despair and a little six year old girl, lying in a clear casket for all the world to see. It was fascinating and disrespectful all at once. It strikes you that ancient catastrophes are no different than the catastrophes of modern times. I kept thinking of 911, though of course Pompeii was not destroyed by terrorists, it was destroyed all the same. We walked and walked and walked....Pompeii was NOT

small. There were lots and lots of people visiting and it was VERY hot but I was so mesmerized that I just kept walking. After two hours in the mid-day sun and Leah's ankle swelling up like a baseball, we decided to get out of the heat and eat some lunch. Then back at it. I was shaking my head at people who told me that I'd only need a couple hours to "do" Pompeii. For me an entire day would not be enough. With the temps reaching close to 100, we finally decided to leave. The atmosphere of Pompeii was that of a graveyard, and I guess that's very much what it is now. A hauntingly beautiful and very somber graveyard.

We got on the next train and headed south. We arrived in Sorrento around 3:30 or 4:00 and the minute I stepped off the train I knew I had found my Italian home. I LOVE this city. It is clean, it is quaint, it is by the ocean, it is friendly and I love it!

We are staying at a bed and breakfast called Villa Monica. It is on a mountaintop overlooking Sorrento. Our host is a very charming man named Pascal. He and his wife own the Villa Monica (her name is Monica) and they have made us feel very at home. We are staying in the Napoli room and from the balcony you can see Mount Vesuvius, Sorrento and the Bay of Naples! The owners live in a home adjacent to the B & B with their children, cats, dogs, and chickens. I can see a garden full of veggies too. I am in love and I do not want to leave!!!

We hit the sack early because tomorrow is Positano!!!