Our first destination will be Pompei. Pompei was a bustling city back in 79 AD, when Mt. Vesuvius erupted and buried the city under 8 meters of volcanic lava and ash! No warning, no sirens, no "volcano shelters", the people of the city were all caught doing whatever they were doing at that moment and killed instantly by the molten rock! The ruins were supposed to be fairly amazing, so we thought it would be a good day for us.
To get to Pompei, we trained it to Naples....but were unsure of how to get from Naples to Pompei. We were directed to a little store that supposedly sold tickets to the train connector to Pompei, where we bought both the outgoing and the return (and spent a whole 6 bucks on them!) and proceeded out to find our train. Funny...we couldn't find any info about our train. Finally we found a couple of official looking guys...who at least understood "Pompei" and "train" and directed us down a stairwell. So we went. The station was in a state of disrepair downstairs, and fairly abandonned....but there did seem to be limited train traffic.
We noticed a nice Asian kid and his girlfriend were following us, so we must be going the right way.
We waited...and finally a train came to the platform we had been directed to. We got on, but got several curious looks. People just kept staring at us. At the first stop, a lady started to get on our car on the train, looked at us, and practically ran the other way. Everyone seemed.....well....dressed differently than even the normal casual Italian commuter. The area around this station was dirty and all the buildings were in various states of falling down. It wasn't the good side of the tracks, for sure.
Right after the woman went rushing off, a train employee came rushing toward us, from that same direction. He jumped on the train and asked us where we were going. When we replied Pompei...he shook his head and grabbed at us...."wrong train....WRONG TRAIN!!". He hustled us off the train and pointed us toward the ONLY other platform...."That train" he said. So, we climbed down, crossed under the tracks and back to the right platform, where we waited for 20 minutes for another train.....which we got on. We were happy when we thought we heard the conductor call out Pompei Scavi as one of the future stops.
Well, not long after getting on, the conductor came by to look at our tickets. Though he spoke not a word of English....something was obviously wrong! He ranted in Italian a while...shook his head...and stormed off, leaving mom and I to sit there and wonder where in the world we were going. We got a bad case of the giggles, but finally I became composed enough to go asked some studenty looking kids if they were headed to the ruins. Yes, they were. We were okay.
In a while, the conductor came back, and ranted at us some more, but also motioned for us to get up and get off the train. Luckily, the students were getting off here too, so we figured we were at Pompei....and we were!!!!
As soon as we walked out of the train station we were in love with Pompei. It is a lovely little town, not affected adversely by the tourist industry....as a matter of fact it seemed like most of the tourism was by Italians. We wanderred around.....but of course, kind of needed a bathroom. Since most toilets we'd found cost at least $1 Euro to use, we thought we'd stop and have a Coke and use the cafe bathroom.
We found a cute little spot to stop.....Mom headed on to the ladies room, and while explaining (in REALLY bad Italian that we just wanted one Coke) somehow the young man thought we wanted a snack as well! Well, he brought out our Coke....and the most wonderful fried bread with fresh tomatoes, garlic and olive oil on it. We were in heaven......and it only cost us 3 Euros....barely more than just a potty break!
After our surprise snack...we walked on toward the ruins, which were, by the way, about a mile and a half from the train station. Once there, we were surprised at how natural everything was. A "rustic" tour adventure, for sure. Additionally, everything was in Italian...and we opted not to have a guide. So....as a disclaimer....any captions you may read on the photos that we posted on facebook, may or may not be based in fact....they just could be great stories that we decided SHOULD be true!
The ruins were great. We walked and talked and imagined how it would have been to be living there then. And after we read online that Mt. Vesuvius is still a very active volcano, with an eruption as recent last century, how it must be to live in Pompei now, knowing the history and knowing that bubbling mountain is still above you.
What most people might find fascinating were the fossils of the bodies that were excavated. What Mom and I both found most fascinating was the fact that they were still excavating!
After a wonderful day in Pompei and having walked several miles, we headed back to the train. We wanted to make a special stop in Naples and so thought we better not let time get away from us.
When we got on the train, we again had some "conductor" issues. It would seem, that what caused such a stir earlier on our trip, was that we had actually bought a BUS ticket...but had gotten ourselves onto the train. And because they couldn't make us understand that....they just let us ride! Bless their hearts!
Our Alexa.....who most of you probably know is a shining light in our family.....has roots in Naples. Her maternal grandfather was raised in the area. Tony was with the Italian Air Force, working in the states I believe, when he met Alexa's grandmother. Since Alexa hasn't been able to spend a lot of time with them, we thought it was important that she know as much as we can share about that part of her heritage. We thought that photos and stories from Naples would add to that.
We got off the train in Naples, anxious to hit the streets and do some exploring. We were immediately shocked and saddened. The Naples that is visible to the casual visitor is not the place we hoped it would be. It was crowded and dirty. There were literally thousands of people in the streets just standing.....loitering. There were tables set up everywhere selling all kinds of goods....bad goods.....fake things. And the people we saw were so obviously NOT Italian. We walked and walked....at least 10 city blocks away from the train station....hoping to find the Naples we had wanted to see....but everywhere we went it was the same thing. People yelling at each other...at us. It was the most unpleasant experience I've had in Europe!
We bought some postcards.....took some photos...and went back to the station. Hopefully, we can find out from the Abagnaros a little more about Tony's heritage so that someday we can bring Alexa back with a more pleasant experience!
Finally back in Rome, just as it was getting dark, we still decided to walk back to the hotel. It was cool and crisp. We found a little trattoria and had a nice dinner of simple Italian comfort food, lasagna and spaghetti carbonara.
By the time we got back to the hotel, we were beat. But somehow a day with several misteps ended up being another good day.
Tomorrow....our last day in Rome.....off to Orvieto!
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