Pompeii down under
After wandering around Pompeii for three hours, looking at ruins and fighting the crowds, I was hoping Vesuvius might erupt to put an end to my misery. The worst that happened was that we chose a cafe for lunch that served frozen pizza.
Catching the train to the ruins from Sorrento was an interesting exercise in logistics. I accidentally purchased fast train tickets, as I misunderstood the ticket seller. So we paid twice as much to save 5 minutes (according to the timetable). Also according to the timetable, the next fast train was 3 hours away. Fortunately, the earlier train was running late, but no one knew. There were no announcements and no signs as to what platform trains were departing from. We just stood around with a lot of other confused passengers until a train turned up. Happily there was actually a guard on the train who knew where they were going. So we managed to get a seat on the correct train. Not so lucky coming back. Oh well...
we arrived in Sorrento by catching a very fast and comfortable train to Naples (Thanks Cathy for not coming as we could use your seat to stack up our luggage. - Not really, we are so missing you). And then we walked through the decrepit streets of Naples down to the port, where we caught the hydrofoil. On arrival in Sorrento we were told to get a lifta, which we thought meant to catch a taxi, but was really a lift from the boat up the cliff to the town. We must have had train lag, because we stood in the lift for ages, and when we went to get out, we were still at the bottom of the cliff. Pressing the up button works!
Sorrento and its weather is bellisimo. So bellisimo that I went for a swim in the clear waters of the Mediterranean. No one else would come with me. Now I know how to escape the crowds - absolutely no one is swimming at the moment. It's not as cold as I feared. Our apartemento is molto Italiano. The owner is inspector Clouseau, it was hilarious when he was introducing us to all the appliances. We managed to blackout the building when I turned on the toaster, but we went out, and when we returned it was back on. And there was a mysterious queue in the foyer of our apartment. It turns out that a lawyer rents the adjacent apartment and clients were waiting right outside our door. At least I hope it was a lawyer...
Must go choose a restaurante for dinner, out of the 5000 that are here. We enjoyed the Buffalito inn on arrival, as it is just outside our building. Buffalo cheese buffalo pasta and buffalo hamburger were delicious.
The first of many arches in Pompeii. On the right is where many of the artefacts from the excavations are stored.
It must be pension day. The locals are everywhere.
Plaster reliefs, artworks and sculpture two thousand years old is de riguer in Pompeii.
Those ancient chariots must have had great suspension.
Me enhancing the look of the ampitheatre. Did not even know there was one.
This is part of the Pompeii equivalent of the AIS. The random lady in the picture was not in training.
Ciao for now
Brenda and him