Italy Day 2- Pompeii's revenge

Today is the day we were headed to Naples to see Pompeii! Unless you knew me when I was in 4th or 5th grade, you probably don't know that there was a period where had I read just about everything that was ever written (in English) on Pompeii and Hurculaneum. It's possible that this had something to do with the May 1984 Nat Geo edition that detailed the Vesuvius eruption, but the timing feels off on that. Anyway, however it started, this was the trip I was finally going to see Pompeii in person.

Kris and I crashed fairly early last night and agreed that we'd need to get an early start to make it to the station on time. But the best laid plans...Cut to 7:08 am and us rushing out the door to realize we've missed our bus and if we don't super hustle to find a taxi, we're going to miss the train (and then our driver and guide in Naples.) Much pursing of lips and consulting of Google maps was done in the back of that taxi!

We arrive at Roma Termini with about 4 minutes to spare and then fought with the ticket machine.  Do we buy a return trip!? 1st class? 2nd class? WHO CARES! I need tickets!!! Kris' card was rejected! ARGH!! A deep breath and a different machine and we divide and conquer. I take another stab at buying the tickets (Card worked this time!) and Kris check the tote board to figure out the platform. Tickets in hand, I find Kris and we do the 100meter dash across the station to...stand in line at ticket control. We can SEE the darn train! Go go go!!!

We make it onto the platform and run down to the first car. We get the 'Crazy Americans' look from the conductor who asks 'Getting on?' Nope, just out for an expensive morning jog! Onto the train we go. We walk most of the length of the train before I find another conductor to ask where our tickets are for. She points us back up to the midway point. On the return trip, I finally took a look at the tickets and realized that in addition to class and fare, it actually prints out the car (carrozza) and seat (posti) that you've been assigned, but in our mad dash I was just looking to get on the train and sort out the details later. Anyway, we grab a seat (But not the right seat...) and sit there for another 3 minutes before the train moves. You know the saying...

The Roma-Napoli train is a high-speed line, so it's actually faster than taking a bus or car. They also give you a beverage and a snack, which was pretty good. The not so good was the guy across from me manspreading into my foot-area. He was there first, so I didn't feel as though I could get too uppity about it, but still it was a bit cramped. The trip was smooth and in what felt like no time, we made our first and only stop at the Stazione di Napoli Centrale.

Now, this may be our only trip to Italy (So many things to see! Places to go!) I wanted to make sure that we spent our time well, so I splurged for what I thought was a private guide around Pompeii. It turns out that I didn't read closely enough and I actually hired a private driver to take us to Pompeii. Totally bummed. However! Bright side! He basically says look, you hired me for half a day, I'll give you a rate if you want to do something for the rest of the day as well. Maybe go to Sorento? Maybe go shopping on the Amalfi cost? Maybe go so Ercolano? YES! That one!

So, with an updated game plan, we head to Pompeii. You would have thought in all of my reading I might have consulted a map, maybe gotten an idea of scale? Yeah, no. We go in, buy our tickets, get an audio guide and walk thru the gate of Pompeii to...Holy crow this place is HUGE! We quickly realized that even if we spent the entire day here, we'd never see the whole thing. Or even most of it! So, yet another game plan adjustment. I picked out a general area and we explored just along that one street.

And it was amazing. The grooves in the pavement where the wagon wheels had cut paths over years and years of wear. Frescos that were still vibrant and intact. Houses that I had read about but never really grasped the layout of. An understanding of how closely everyone lived and worked and how I would have been heads and shoulders above the crowd. We saw theaters and laundries and bakeries and an amphitheater and ancient graffiti and...I wanted to take pictures of it all and in the end, I took pictures of none of it because I didn't want to miss out on actually seeing things. So, apologies that there are no images for this one. In a flash, it was time for us to head back to the exit and meet our driver. We both agreed that even if we had gotten a guide, we still would have only seen a fraction of the site. Pompeii is not a day trip! And to do it justice, we'll just have to come back to Naples for a couple of days to see it again.

Feeling dusty and a bit defeated, we climbed into the van and headed to Herculaneum. Pompeii gets most of the press, but I've gotta say if you're trying to day trip Vesuvius, it's the place to be. This site is much easier to wrap your head around, and has many beautifully preserved frescos and buildings. It was just amazing. I recognized a number of the mosaics and buildings, which was just so neat. Kris snapped this shot of just an amazing wall painting. It just blows me away to think how long that has been standing and of the lives that were lived underneath it.

Partridge eating cherries 

After we finished with the ruins, the driver offered to drop us off at a place near the station to try the famous Napoli pizza. Because you can't come to Napoles and not have their pizza! All I can say is, yes, you can. Not that it isn't good; I just don't know that it's all that and being that close to the coast, I would hope there is some amazing seafood in town.

After a mediocre lunch, we headed back to the train station and caught the express return to Rome. After resting our heels for a bit, we opted for another quiet local dinner. We had spied La Salumeria during our walk the previous day and though it looked good. Getting the porchetta again as a board was a mistake, because it didn't hold even a dim candle to Angry Pig. However, the vegetables that came with hit the spot. A cute little spot that I would have been perfectly happy with if we hadn't walked around further and found the jackpot of cute, inhabited almost exclusively by locals restaurants in a cluster about three blocks away. D'oh! Every spot we looked at seemed wonderful! So I bookmarked a couple in case we're at loose ends again.

Oh, and why were we walking around? Gelato, of course! Now, I won't say we found the best gelato in Rome, but wow! There was another gelateria 4 doors down from the place we found that was complete empty. The Frigidarium? Line down the block of people waiting to order. And once we tasted their goods, we knew why. I'd say, if you're in Rome, it's worth a special trip. And get the Bacio. Or the Rum raisin. Or maybe the pistachio. Or all of them! Yum!

A final thought on Pompeii/Herculaneum. As mentioned above, don't try to do Pompeii as a day trip from somewhere else. It's just too much. Herculaneum would be a much better bet if that's your time frame. Pompeii is actually easily reachable via train, so a private driver is really not needed there. It's pretty unclear to me how you would get to Herculaneum without a driver or taxi, however. Don't let that stop you, just know that you'll need to do some research first. Oh, and skip the pizza maybe?