Day 23 - This Was Pompeii

Today we traveled 6 arduous stops up the Circumvesuviana, and 2000+ years back in time, to visit the ancient city of Pompeii. As with most touring in Italy, getting there was half the battle (the other half, curiously, not battle).

After a heartening breakfast, we headed out to catch the train. You may recall that we found the train to be a bit slow the previous night. There were also some issues with obtaining passes. You see, Handler 1 had secured us passess that would get us into most of the archeological sites in the area, as well as allow us to use local public transport. But, because we had gotten in to Naples so late the previous evening, the tourist location where we were supposed to pick up the passes was already closed. So the Handlers had to buy us tickets from Naples to Sorrento, and then from Sorrento to Pompeii. Handler 1 knew she could pick up the passess at Pompeii, but it was still annoying.

We arrived at the train station to find the train waiting with its doors open, already fairly full of commuters. Figuring that it would soon be pulling out of the station, we raced aboard and found ourselves a spot to stand near a handrail (as all the seats were taken). And we waited.

And more people got on. And we waited.

And an American woman traveling with her elderly parents began to get worried because she wasn't sure they could stand for 30+ minutes like they had been and then have to stand throughout the entire train trip as well.

And more people got on. And we waited. And finally the train began moving.

Only to stop at another station less than 3 minutes later.

Did I mention this train was full? Like, people standing hip to hip full? And the air conditioning wasn't on?

Well, I've heard a lot about the rudeness of tourists in foreign countries, but we were not the ones to complain. The English family of 4 squished up against us did not complain. Nor did the worried American or her elderly parents. Nor did the apparently Greek parents traveling with their little girl (who luckily had a seat). No, it was some local guy who marched out of the train at the next stop and started an angry "discussion" in Italian with the conductor.

The a/c got turned on.

After a seemingly interminable time, we arrived at Pompeii Scavi and the mass exodus from the train began. It was rather late in the morning and the Handlers were worried about there being a big line at the site. Luckily it was still manageable, but it turned out that you could not get the passes Handler 1 had reserved at the ticket counter. Rather we were directed to the gift shop (of course there's a gift shop, you have to exit through something). There, the clerk was on the phone for 15 minutes or so trying to figure out what he was supposed to do with us, before he finally handed us our passes.

By this time the line for tickets was extremely long.

Being practical, Handler 1 decided to ignore the line completely and go straight to the teller she had spoken with before. Apparently, this was the right thing to do, as she was immediately served and provided with tickets to Pompeii.

Finally, our visit could begin.

2000 year old 'Welcome' mat.

Here we are in the forum. Yes, that is a giant, town destroying volcano in the background.

It was already getting crowded, so Handler 2 implemented her plan to head directly to the back of the excavated city, to those portions which aren't viewed on most organized tours. This took some time as the Handlers couldn't quite pass by the open doorways to homes and shops without peaking in, but eventually we found our way to the most remote corner of the archaeological park and began our own personal tour. Starting with, the stadium...
The Not Particularly Large House.

Gladiators lived and trained in this complex nearby.

These grapevines, growing in the shadow of Vesuvius, were planted along the lines where casts revealed ancient grape roots had been planted.

This was the larger of 2 amphitheatres.

At one point our wanderings took us "backstage" a bit. We swear there was a trail there and a map that seemed to show that you were allowed to walk there, but it was more than a little off the beaten track. Eventually, we found a staicase and a (closed but unlocked) gate leading back into the main city area, but we're still not sure it was entirely kosher for us to be there. Anyways, it gave us an elevated view of Pompeii that most folks don't get to see.

It should be noted that, especially during our first few hours of touring, Handler 2 was uncharacteristically silent. He basically didn't speak to Handler 1 or anyone else for 2 hours straight. That has to be some sort of record,at least for Roman archaeological sites. Needless to say, he was impressed.

We took about 300 photos just of Ponpeii, and giving any sort of detailed overview of these would greatly exceed my bandwidth. As such, I'm just going to throw out some of the better shots and let them (for the most part) speak for themselves.

2000 year old graffiti.

This was the 79AD equivalent of a McDonald's.

This next photo shows one of the rooms in the famous House of the Mysteries. It's not on your average tour and you have to walk about 500 yards past what appears to be a gate out of Pompeii (but which actually isn't) to get to it. The pictures here were covered over with some sort of wax base when they were unearthed and, as such, have survived much better than some of the other house paintings. The scene depicted is believed to represent the beginning stages of the initiaition rites into the cult of Bacchus.

The aptly named House of the Faun

Hey, LYA? Whoever you are? You suck.



This next photo is possibly Handler 1's favorite of the entire trip.

Although we saw miuch of Pompeii, it turns out that a full day of touring is not, in fact, enough to see it all. In particular, Handler 1 was unhappy to find that the famous House of the Vetti was closed, and we never did find the other baths. Oh well, we'll just have to go back!


Afterwards, we returned to the modern world, found a nice (but expensive, as was the rule in Italy) restaurant, and did a little shopping in downtown Sorrento. Handler 1 was hoping to be able to show Handler 2 some of the rocky shoreline of the Amalfi coast, but we were unable to find any sea accessible streets. Instead, we contented ourselves with buying some limoncello from a place where it was distilled right in the back room of the shop. You can't get much more authentic than that!

Tomorrow, we see yet more volcano destroyed/preservedurbn centers!