This was the last day of our Italian holiday and since we hadn’t already gone and were so close by we decided to take a final family trip. This time we went to Pompeii, to see the ruins of the old city, and then visit Mount Vesuvius. Both were very impressive honestly. Pompeii is the kind of thing everyone should visit once, although maybe leave a little more time than we did – 2 hours isn’t enough to properly to take everything in.
Train Mishaps
First, we had to get to Pompeii from our Airbnb, we took the train from Sorrento to Pompeii, that was the plan anyway we somehow managed to not get off at the right station the first time and overshot by one station. This meant we had to wait around for the train in the other direction, although I didn’t mind because we were in a very nice, modern station.
We managed to catch the next train and got off at the right station this time, from there we could take a bus to the ruins
Pompeii
Pompeii is very impressive, although not particularly easy to photograph. Surrounded by lots of beautiful, historic, old buildings and the Italian countryside you get distracted in the aura of the place and forget to take photos – the massive crowds of people don’t help either
My particular highlight of this portion of the trip was the collection of very descriptive artworks in the brothel, it goes to shows how some jobs have been around for 1000s of years. According to our tour guide, these paintings would be used by sailors, merchants, and other visitors to the city, to communicate with the sex workers, you would point to the services you would like if you couldn’t speak Latin
Vesuvius
We didn’t have much time during the day, so we were only in Pompeii for a couple of hours before we went off to see Mount Vesuvius, the bus ride wasn’t particularly interesting, although the mountain slowly revealing itself as we wound up the tight roads was a nice bonus. During the bus ride, I got talking to some of the people I was sitting next to, a very nice American family here for their daughter’s graduation
The hike up to the top of the mountain was amazing, a zigzag path leading you to the very top and each time you turned a corner, you would see even more of the bay. Once you reached the top you could walk most of the way around the mouth of the crater, the view from the top was very special, you were above the clouds, and could just see the beautiful Italian coastline. The volcano is still an active one so there were several research stations scattered in and around the crater hole and you could even some steam coming from some of the vents
At this point we had to head back home as we had yet to pack up, ready to fly back home very early the next morning
– nikmaxott
