Guess what? An early start! Because the day was going to be warm, and we had read there could be quite big queues to get into Pompeii ruins, we decided to get there for opening at 9am. The night before, the lady who owned our accommodation asked about breakfast. You see, our original hotel was supposed to have a breakfast buffet, so now she had to provide us with something. We opted to have breakfast delivered at 8am so we could then eat and go to the site.
About 8.25am the breakfast finally rocked up. It was delivered by a man on a scooter, and he hand delivered a few cups and a bag. It was all quite confusing. We took the food outside and sorted out what we had been given. The coffee appeared to be in one cup, with two tiny cups on top, so I believe it was supposed to be the amount for 2 espressos. We also received juice, instead of fruit as we expected. In the end it was all ok - the espresso was delicious - I don't know what they put in it but it was equal parts bitter coffee and very sweet, and the croissants were quite massive. Not exactly a healthy way to load up for the day, but it was our only choice!
We set out for the ruins at about 9am. Some of the roads around the area had little to no footpath, so we had to dodge traffic a few times. We eventually fell into line with other people travelling in the same direction, so knew we must be going the right way! As we got closer, there were more and more vendors trying to sell skip the queue tickets - we decided we would see what the queue was like first and then come back if need be.
At the entrance, we simply walked in, sidestepping some enormous tour groups. To the left was a queue which Dan and I joined, but it didn't seem right - I heard someone say behind me "Are we all in the ladies toilet queue?"
Yes, yes we were.
There were two signed lines - one for online tickets, and one for group tickets. There was no by-now ticket signed line, so this had confused everyone. The ladies in the ticket booths were frantically trying to get people's attention and eventually the line moved over. I noticed another lady waving her hands around, and caught her eye. I motioned whether I could come forward, and she motioned that I could. Therefore, I skipped the entire queue because no one else was paying attention.
We purchased our two tickets - slightly cheaper than I realised they were, and picked up a map and an explanation booklet. Dan was in charge of the map, I was in charge of the explanations. He did a far better job than I!
We spent the next 4ish hours walking all over the ruins. It was incredible. As morbid as it may sound, the bit that fascinated me the most was the casts of the bodies of the people who had perished when Vesuvius erupted. It erupted in 79AD, blanketing the town in up to 6m of volcanic ash, as well as rising temperatures of up to 400C, killing everyone in the town, up to 20,000 people, within minutes. The casts are interesting because while this eruption happened almost 2000 years ago, their body shapes were preserved. Not their bodies, they had decomposed, but due to the dust settling around their bodies and turning to rock, the gap that was left showed their forms perfectly. Their facial expressions, the folds of what they were wearing.
Some were found embracing each other. Mothers protecting children. Shop owners sitting in a seat, clasping their bags of gold. The original casts weren't an exact science - but some of the later ones are truly amazing and often difficult to look at as you can see the fear on their faces and in their pose.
Near the entrance was a museum which had a recreation of Pompeii, and normally I don't go for these kind of things but this was very useful. It was a video pointing out everything, so that when we got there we could imagine it a little better. We obviously did Pompeii by ourselves however the place was overrun with tour groups of varying sizes. Sometimes we were able to eavesdrop what the guides were telling their groups.
The whole city, and it's actually quite huge, was rather well preserved - the ash had just blanketed it and it was only found in the 1800's. Roofs had collapsed, but many walls and paintings still remained, the baths were still standing, the cobbled streets and footpaths, speed bumps and carriage grooves were all still there. It was like walking down a normal street, except the houses had been reclaimed by nature, and the only other people there were tourists gawking like we were. In the background, Vesuvius loomed with a funny little white cloud over the top which looked like a tuft of smoke.
At one point we sat and had a bit of a snack to keep up the energy levels. It was a big area, and there was little shade. We essentially walked from one end to the other - one interesting thing we noticed was that many areas had signs that said "9.30am - 1.30pm", while others said "1.30pm - 7.30pm" - it seems they opened and closed different areas perhaps to stop too much footfall ruining the same places. However, all the good ones were only open in the morning! So we were very glad we were there early.
We popped out the other side and into the modern day town of Pompeii. We needed food desperately, and after grabbing some horribly overpriced postcards and magnets, we settled for a cheap panini place. The food was delicious and fresh, thankfully, and not very expensive. For pre-nibbles, our server gave us a giant bucket of unpeeled peanuts - I had never cracked peanuts before, so that was interesting. I don't even really like nuts, but I couldn't stop cracking and eating these, even though I really wasn't enjoying eating them. I was very hungry.
So, now we had to figure out what to do with the rest of our day. It was about 2pm by this stage, and we had been talking about our next step. There were 2 other things we were interested in doing around this area, 1) Climbing Mt Vesuvius and 2) Visiting Herculaneum, another ruin site. Even though we really wanted to climb the volcano, we decided to opt out of this. Reasons being we were already completely stuffed from walking around Pompeii, and the buses/trains were irregular, and it was just going to be plain difficult.
Dan and I had both read that Herculaneum is just like Pompeii but even better preserved, and well worth a visit. It was hit by the lava flow after the mountain erupted, and apparently excavations found human remains all along the beach as the inhabitants had tried to run to the water to get away from it. You can't see any of that today though, not like at Pompeii.
The trains were of course running on "ish" time, but we finally caught a train and we were on there for almost half an hour before it was our stop. I fell asleep on Dan's shoulder. On arrival, we followed the signs towards the ruins, passing the Museum on the way which has a virtual tour of the ruins. At the entrance of the ruins, we went to buy tickets at €11 each, but we were directed down a long walkway saying the ticket office is at the end.
We started marching down the walkway when we realised - we were walking directly over the top of Herculaneum - we could see practically everything from up here. We slowed down, and started taking pictures. Upon arrival at the other end, we had walked almost the full length of the ruins, and we stopped to deliberate. €22 for walking around the ruins, after we had just spent all morning walking around ruins? €22 for looking at more paintings on the walls and ceramic tiling? In the end, we decided not to buy the ticket, and just walk back slowly, seeing what we could from up there. Pompeii was what we had come there to see, and we had seen it very well. We sat on a bench and soaked up the sun for a little while, watching other people walk down the board walk and then back up again.
Time to catch the train back to Pompeii. Thankfully again, Dan knew the rough train times because basically none of them said the direction on the front! We ended up sitting in the sun for about another half an hour, I think we got a little bit burnt but nothing that lasted. It wasn't long before we were back at the train station, and then walked to our accommodation.
Eventually we got a bit hungry, and I had been researching places to eat nearby. We were still very much on the outskirts of the city, and almost everything was a half hour walk away (if I could figure out their address at all!). I finally found a pizza joint 5 minutes away that sounded great so we headed there.
This pizza joint was an experience! Proper local, virtually no English spoken (although the menu had English). We got there and tentatively walked inside. A grumpy looking man who looked like John C Reilly stared at me while he was sitting in front of the TV. I waved my hands around in a "can we sit anywhere?" fashion, to which he smiled a bit and nodded gruffly. I think he looked grumpier than he actually was! I sat down, then jumped up again to return to him, brandishing my credit card as if to say "can we pay with this?" Another gruff nod, and so I sat down again.
A younger man then gave us some menus, and started setting the table for us. We chose 2 pizzas (we keep choosing one margarita, and then we choose one fancy one, this time it was an odd Dan choice with corn, sour cream and I think pancetta). Wine was a bit confusing - it simply said "WINE: €5" in the menu. We didn't know if this meant by the glass or by the bottle, so we just ordered 2 glasses of wine. In broken English, he replied "Bottle?" so we just went with that.
It was all very confusing but we got there in the end, and I'm so glad we did! The pizza was delicious, and the house red wine, when it was delivered, turned out to be a kind of sparkling red which was definitely unexpected. The meal was so tasty, and it was punctuated by us trying to work out what the hell was on the TV in the corner. It was some kind of weird Dancing with the Stars kind of mash, where someone seemed to get a crash course in dancing and then were blindfolded and had to dance, and then they were given a partner to dance with. Some were spectacular, some were horrible (closer to my dancing style). We still have no idea what the purpose was.
Also while we were here, we heard from the lady in our apartment about how to check out. Actually, we had tried to message her - her number was written on the fridge list, but neither of us could get the number to work. It started with 39 but when I tried to call, it said there wasn't enough digits. The country code for Italy is 39. I half jokingly said to Dan "Maybe it needs the +39 as well as the number starting with 39?" This was the case, and Dan's message got through. While at dinner, she replied that we just return the key to her in the morning, and breakfast would be delivered again.
At the conclusion of our meal, the waiter gave us a shot of Limoncello each, and I was stupidly excited. I love that stuff. Over the next few days there would be a little bit more of it - the Amalfi coast is the home of Limoncello!
And at that, we called it a night.
Til next time,
xx
About 8.25am the breakfast finally rocked up. It was delivered by a man on a scooter, and he hand delivered a few cups and a bag. It was all quite confusing. We took the food outside and sorted out what we had been given. The coffee appeared to be in one cup, with two tiny cups on top, so I believe it was supposed to be the amount for 2 espressos. We also received juice, instead of fruit as we expected. In the end it was all ok - the espresso was delicious - I don't know what they put in it but it was equal parts bitter coffee and very sweet, and the croissants were quite massive. Not exactly a healthy way to load up for the day, but it was our only choice!
We set out for the ruins at about 9am. Some of the roads around the area had little to no footpath, so we had to dodge traffic a few times. We eventually fell into line with other people travelling in the same direction, so knew we must be going the right way! As we got closer, there were more and more vendors trying to sell skip the queue tickets - we decided we would see what the queue was like first and then come back if need be.
At the entrance, we simply walked in, sidestepping some enormous tour groups. To the left was a queue which Dan and I joined, but it didn't seem right - I heard someone say behind me "Are we all in the ladies toilet queue?"
Yes, yes we were.
There were two signed lines - one for online tickets, and one for group tickets. There was no by-now ticket signed line, so this had confused everyone. The ladies in the ticket booths were frantically trying to get people's attention and eventually the line moved over. I noticed another lady waving her hands around, and caught her eye. I motioned whether I could come forward, and she motioned that I could. Therefore, I skipped the entire queue because no one else was paying attention.
We purchased our two tickets - slightly cheaper than I realised they were, and picked up a map and an explanation booklet. Dan was in charge of the map, I was in charge of the explanations. He did a far better job than I!
We spent the next 4ish hours walking all over the ruins. It was incredible. As morbid as it may sound, the bit that fascinated me the most was the casts of the bodies of the people who had perished when Vesuvius erupted. It erupted in 79AD, blanketing the town in up to 6m of volcanic ash, as well as rising temperatures of up to 400C, killing everyone in the town, up to 20,000 people, within minutes. The casts are interesting because while this eruption happened almost 2000 years ago, their body shapes were preserved. Not their bodies, they had decomposed, but due to the dust settling around their bodies and turning to rock, the gap that was left showed their forms perfectly. Their facial expressions, the folds of what they were wearing.
Some were found embracing each other. Mothers protecting children. Shop owners sitting in a seat, clasping their bags of gold. The original casts weren't an exact science - but some of the later ones are truly amazing and often difficult to look at as you can see the fear on their faces and in their pose.
Near the entrance was a museum which had a recreation of Pompeii, and normally I don't go for these kind of things but this was very useful. It was a video pointing out everything, so that when we got there we could imagine it a little better. We obviously did Pompeii by ourselves however the place was overrun with tour groups of varying sizes. Sometimes we were able to eavesdrop what the guides were telling their groups.
The whole city, and it's actually quite huge, was rather well preserved - the ash had just blanketed it and it was only found in the 1800's. Roofs had collapsed, but many walls and paintings still remained, the baths were still standing, the cobbled streets and footpaths, speed bumps and carriage grooves were all still there. It was like walking down a normal street, except the houses had been reclaimed by nature, and the only other people there were tourists gawking like we were. In the background, Vesuvius loomed with a funny little white cloud over the top which looked like a tuft of smoke.
At one point we sat and had a bit of a snack to keep up the energy levels. It was a big area, and there was little shade. We essentially walked from one end to the other - one interesting thing we noticed was that many areas had signs that said "9.30am - 1.30pm", while others said "1.30pm - 7.30pm" - it seems they opened and closed different areas perhaps to stop too much footfall ruining the same places. However, all the good ones were only open in the morning! So we were very glad we were there early.
We popped out the other side and into the modern day town of Pompeii. We needed food desperately, and after grabbing some horribly overpriced postcards and magnets, we settled for a cheap panini place. The food was delicious and fresh, thankfully, and not very expensive. For pre-nibbles, our server gave us a giant bucket of unpeeled peanuts - I had never cracked peanuts before, so that was interesting. I don't even really like nuts, but I couldn't stop cracking and eating these, even though I really wasn't enjoying eating them. I was very hungry.
So, now we had to figure out what to do with the rest of our day. It was about 2pm by this stage, and we had been talking about our next step. There were 2 other things we were interested in doing around this area, 1) Climbing Mt Vesuvius and 2) Visiting Herculaneum, another ruin site. Even though we really wanted to climb the volcano, we decided to opt out of this. Reasons being we were already completely stuffed from walking around Pompeii, and the buses/trains were irregular, and it was just going to be plain difficult.
Dan and I had both read that Herculaneum is just like Pompeii but even better preserved, and well worth a visit. It was hit by the lava flow after the mountain erupted, and apparently excavations found human remains all along the beach as the inhabitants had tried to run to the water to get away from it. You can't see any of that today though, not like at Pompeii.
The trains were of course running on "ish" time, but we finally caught a train and we were on there for almost half an hour before it was our stop. I fell asleep on Dan's shoulder. On arrival, we followed the signs towards the ruins, passing the Museum on the way which has a virtual tour of the ruins. At the entrance of the ruins, we went to buy tickets at €11 each, but we were directed down a long walkway saying the ticket office is at the end.
We started marching down the walkway when we realised - we were walking directly over the top of Herculaneum - we could see practically everything from up here. We slowed down, and started taking pictures. Upon arrival at the other end, we had walked almost the full length of the ruins, and we stopped to deliberate. €22 for walking around the ruins, after we had just spent all morning walking around ruins? €22 for looking at more paintings on the walls and ceramic tiling? In the end, we decided not to buy the ticket, and just walk back slowly, seeing what we could from up there. Pompeii was what we had come there to see, and we had seen it very well. We sat on a bench and soaked up the sun for a little while, watching other people walk down the board walk and then back up again.
Time to catch the train back to Pompeii. Thankfully again, Dan knew the rough train times because basically none of them said the direction on the front! We ended up sitting in the sun for about another half an hour, I think we got a little bit burnt but nothing that lasted. It wasn't long before we were back at the train station, and then walked to our accommodation.
Eventually we got a bit hungry, and I had been researching places to eat nearby. We were still very much on the outskirts of the city, and almost everything was a half hour walk away (if I could figure out their address at all!). I finally found a pizza joint 5 minutes away that sounded great so we headed there.
This pizza joint was an experience! Proper local, virtually no English spoken (although the menu had English). We got there and tentatively walked inside. A grumpy looking man who looked like John C Reilly stared at me while he was sitting in front of the TV. I waved my hands around in a "can we sit anywhere?" fashion, to which he smiled a bit and nodded gruffly. I think he looked grumpier than he actually was! I sat down, then jumped up again to return to him, brandishing my credit card as if to say "can we pay with this?" Another gruff nod, and so I sat down again.
A younger man then gave us some menus, and started setting the table for us. We chose 2 pizzas (we keep choosing one margarita, and then we choose one fancy one, this time it was an odd Dan choice with corn, sour cream and I think pancetta). Wine was a bit confusing - it simply said "WINE: €5" in the menu. We didn't know if this meant by the glass or by the bottle, so we just ordered 2 glasses of wine. In broken English, he replied "Bottle?" so we just went with that.
It was all very confusing but we got there in the end, and I'm so glad we did! The pizza was delicious, and the house red wine, when it was delivered, turned out to be a kind of sparkling red which was definitely unexpected. The meal was so tasty, and it was punctuated by us trying to work out what the hell was on the TV in the corner. It was some kind of weird Dancing with the Stars kind of mash, where someone seemed to get a crash course in dancing and then were blindfolded and had to dance, and then they were given a partner to dance with. Some were spectacular, some were horrible (closer to my dancing style). We still have no idea what the purpose was.
Also while we were here, we heard from the lady in our apartment about how to check out. Actually, we had tried to message her - her number was written on the fridge list, but neither of us could get the number to work. It started with 39 but when I tried to call, it said there wasn't enough digits. The country code for Italy is 39. I half jokingly said to Dan "Maybe it needs the +39 as well as the number starting with 39?" This was the case, and Dan's message got through. While at dinner, she replied that we just return the key to her in the morning, and breakfast would be delivered again.
At the conclusion of our meal, the waiter gave us a shot of Limoncello each, and I was stupidly excited. I love that stuff. Over the next few days there would be a little bit more of it - the Amalfi coast is the home of Limoncello!
And at that, we called it a night.
Til next time,
xx
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