Mediterranean Cruise Day 4: Naples/Pompeii

Kristin and I were on our own again today--no paid tour or anything. When we got off the ship, we were harassed by several taxi drivers in what turned out to be a bidding war for us to choose them. This was funny as each driver would offer us a lower price than the previous driver's. We declined and walked to the train station, about 15 min. away (though it was a bit scary, because the sidewalks were very narrow and there were some sketchy people out and about).

Thank God I read out guidebook, which said most people mistakenly take the train to Pompei (one "I") instead of Pompeii/Scavi (two "I"s). So we were in line for tickets, and I asked the person if this was the correct train to get to Pompeii/Scavi, and he said we had to take the Circumvesuvian train downstairs. There, we bought tickets to Pompeii/Scavi instead of Pompei (yay book!). The driver told us to take the train at 9:40.

We looked at our tickets and it said "1 40 min." Kristin and I did not want to ride a train for 1 hour, 40 min. each way, but after asking a security guard, we found out it's only 40 min. (thus, I'm not sure what the "1" was for).

At the train stop, we took the 9:30 train, and that was a mistake. I was studying the routes on the wall of the train, and I noticed down the line the track splits, with one going to Pompeii/Scavi, the other going somewhere else. I said to Kristin that I bet the 9:40 was the one that actually goes to Pompeii/Scavi, and sure enough, I was right. So this train took us in the wrong direction at the split. We got off, waited 20 min. to catch a train back, then waited another 15 min. to catch the train in the right direction--what a waste of time!

Pompeii, an ancient city that was destroyed by a volcanic eruption from nearby Mt. Vesuvius, was fascinating. Some observations: The city was huge, and protected by a big wall. I can't imagine collecting all that stone! ... None of the dwellings had any doors. In fact, every building had a big opening as an entryway ... seeing the bodies that were trapped in the lava was pretty cool ... I was disappointed we couldn't get into the coliseum (known as the amphitheater) ... after a while, it got to be somewhat painful to keep walking on the stones (I'm sure many people have twisted ankles walking around) ... there were dogs everywhere, and I'm pretty sure they were dead.

After a few hours, we headed back to Naples. We walked around for a long time, mainly because there are so many unmarked sidestreets that didn't correspond with my map. I wanted to eat at Michel's, supposedly the BEST pizza in Italy, but like so many European businesses, it was closed for the last two weeks of August. Instead, I magically found this other pizza place that was highly recommended. I ordered a pizza with various toppings I for some reason can't remember, and Kristin had a pizza with anchovies (she didn't realize ahead of time). Total cost was 7.50 Euros, plus with my huge glass of wine for only 1.50, it made for a cheap lunch. In fact, we thought we were only getting a slice of pizza until they brought us each a big pizza. Man, the pizza was great! Plus, it only took five minutes as it was thin and the oven was obviously very hot.

We continued walking for a while but then headed back to the ship. Before we got back, we bought a bottle of wine.

That night, we didn't have any reservations at any restaurant, which was unfortunate because they were all at capacity. Consequently, we had to eat at the main dining area again, which we weren't thrilled about. So to prevent a repeat, we made reservations for Friday and Saturday. We turned in pretty early that night because of our early morning (6:45) the next day.