Tuesday: Not 1929 Years Ago. Naples is my kind of town. Somewhere south of Rome, when coming here, our train apparently left Europe! All the things you might have heard about this city are right. Naples is a little rough. One does take one's life in one's hands when crossing the street. The city center might not be a place to bring children but that's exactly why I like it. It reminds me slightly of a mix between the Middle East and Mumbai. It might be a bit rough but it's vibrant and full of life.
We were pleasantly surprised by the continental breakfast at our hotel. It was filling enough to get us off to a good start. We had to find the local rail lines which are located just on the other side of the main railway station. We bought tickets to go to the stop Ercolano. It's an easy place to find buses that shuttle visitors to Mt. Vesuvius. Although our guide books were from 2008 all prices are higher than published. The tickets to the park itself are Euros 6.50 and the combined bus trip right up to the main parking lot and access to the rim are another 10.00 Euros. It seemed like quite a ways. It definitely wouldn't have been possible to take public transit to the base as it's many kilometres up the hill to the place to start the little hike. The sky was blue and although the sun was hot down in Naples it was pretty cool up there. We had about an hour and a half to walk the last 1.5 kilometres to the crater. It really was up. The views were pretty stunning both towards the crater and the sea.
After, from the Ercolano station it's only about a half kilometer walk to Herculaneum. Both this city and Pompeii were covered in the big explosion of the mountain in 79 A.D. On the way we stopped for more pizza. (That food is beginning to be a habit.) We decided to forgo going into the excavations and save 11.00 Euros and focus just on Pompeii on another day. We might take three or four hours to see it.
With plenty of extra time, we boarded the Circumvesuviana train and continued further south. The line ended in Sorrento. That is the more polished resort for people who don't want to really get involved in the confusion of downtown Naples. Things were expensive. Tourists were aplenty. And we were not impressed.
Tomorrow we'll either visit Pompeii or the Isle of Capri depending on the weather. Let's hope it stays as nice as today has been.