After a nice relaxing night at the hostel in downtown Naples, I got up fairly early, around 9AM, had my shower, got my stuff all packed but since the light rail ride was only an hour to Pompeii, and since I had all day to get there, I left my luggage in the room and wandered over to the main drag that courses through downtown Naples. Again, there were the many street vendors all setup with their full tables of wares available, watches, leather goods, one was just toys for dogs and cats. Had an amusing time looking at the stuff. Found something for breakfast, enjoyed that. Than I was standing at the corner, this was on a Tuesday morning around 10AM, and noticed a taxi driver just sitting there sort of in the center of the causeway. Not impeding traffic mind you but in a place where I noticed that he seemed kind of resigned that he’d not found a big fair from amongst the train travelers that had arrived early in the morning. He was reading a newspaper not really looking like he’s trying to scare up any business. I passed by him 3-4 times while wandering up and down the street.
Finally, it occurred to me that I could see a lot more of Naples in the few hours I had left if I had the taxi driver take me around. So I walked over to him and offered him €20 to drive me around HIS Naples. It could be touristy or not, his choice. He gave me a scowl to begin with but using my charm and all, he warmed up to the idea and soon we were off on a taximan’s adventure. Zooming in and out of some tight streets as he mentioned short stories of things that had happened at certain places. We even went slowly by an ancient castle right on the waterfront that’s a tourist attraction. I had forgotten my camera so I didn’t get any pictures but I did think it would be pretty cool to come back here and maybe spend a 3-4 days to look around and catch up on the history of the city.
After the tour, which probably took 15-20 minutes, he got me back to my corner. I was so pleased with the trip that I gave him a €50 note instead of the €20 he was expecting. Wasn’t until 4-5 days later I thought better of giving that much. Ah, well. After another hour of wandering downtown, it was getting close to check out time at the hostel so I retrieved my bags and headed for the train station to catch the afternoon shuttle to Pompeii. No pictures because the windows were all steamed up on the train. Couldn’t make out much of anything. It was crowded too so I was doing my best to keep a watchful eye on my bags and stay off of locals toes.
When I arrived, I didn’t have much of an idea of where I wanted to go. I’d need to check my map on my tablet to get oriented. But I did notice this ticket office and went over to talk to them and they were selling tickets for a shuttle ride up to Vesuvius. Then a hike to the top of that famous volcano. Cool. Yeah, I want to do that. It was only around 1pm and the next tour left at 2pm so I had myself a nice cappuccino while waiting. There was a large restaurant right next to the ticket office that did have WiFi. I wanted to tour Pompeii of course, one of the things on my bucket list actually, so I grabbed a few brochures about the area and tours.
Off we go on a trip to Vesuvius. Who knew you could hike up there? I know I didn’t. Here’s an aerial photo of Vesuvius from the northern side. We hikers came up the southern side. Here you can see the roadway that the kiosks use to resupply. I didn’t even notice that roadway…or I have just forgotten it. Off in that direction is the old town of Pompeii situated on the flanks of the volcano. Off to the right side is another buried ancient town of Herculaneum were I’ll visit in a few days.
Anyway, the first half of the trip we rode in a nice shuttle bus and when we got halfway up the volcano, we pull into this private looking compound, disembark and then board a Mercedes all terrain vehicle. Cool. Adventure ahead! So up the steep mountain slope we go. You could tell that the road was many, many years old. Found out later that it had been a footpath since a couple hundred years after the volcano blew (in 79 CE) then widened, finally paved, to accommodate all the tourists. Pompeii the city was forgotten shortly after the eruption though a young boy who survived it later became a famous historian and wrote about it. But it was covered in billions of tons and several meters of ash with just a few of the taller buildings sticking up out of the ash. It was mostly forgotten until the 1700’s when there was a resurgence of scientific thought and research. During the dark ages, it was a crime with a possible death sentence to even suggest possibly researching an archaeological site. This is how stupid religions are. So what was done before the 1700’s was mostly done in secret by thieves. Nearly always items were dug up to satisfy curiosity or to sit on a rich persons mantel rather than for scholarship.
And on the trip up the volcano we passed this neat house…
We can see the modern city of Pompeii off in the distance. And than even further away, across the valley, more mountains. By now we’d climbed around 1500 feet. I took this shot to remind myself of the semi-tropical flora of the area. Pretty nice weather here most of the year, which is why Pompeii was such a popular place for rich Romans to have a vacation house.
Yes, all those people are on a flood plain very near sea level and if there’s ever a large offshore earthquake, look out.
Here’s the ocean. Smog is a little thick but certainly not as bad as back in the ’70’s (I only saw pictures of it though, and it looked nasty).
The area around Vesuvius is packed with a few million people. And it’s an active volcanic area, though Mt. Etna is even more dangerous.
And there is our all terrain bus. It’ll wait for us 1 hour as we climb the last bit to the summit. Off I go on a hike!
Yeah, it looks like a long way up, but it wasn’t really.
I spotted what appeared to be a forest fire down in the foothills. Never did find out what it was.
It’s not far and here we are at the volcano mouth. As you can see, there’s another peak over there. Trails up there too. But our group didn’t really have the time for that one. Plus I didn’t want to take that hike anyway.
Turn right around from the caldera and this is the view. That’s the Mediterranean right there. Capri over there too.
And there is Naples. Like I said, there are people living all around here, actually surrounding this volcano. Millions. 
Down in that area in the flatlands is another ancient site named Herculaneum that I wanted to tour too. It’s actually in better preservation than Pompeii. So I’ve read. We’ll see.
And then, further along that trail in the above shot is a souvenir mall. Several businesses selling trinkets. And a couple stalls selling food. I found a shot glass for a bartender friend in Rosamond who asked me to buy her shot glasses for her collection. At least I thought she said ‘glasses’. She told me after I showed up with 12 that she meant shot GLASS. Just one.
See those people way over there on the other side of the caldera? They are hiking on the trail back, eventually down, to the parking area. 
And a little better shot of our ATV. Comfy. 
And then we traveled back down the hill to the train station where I’d caught the bus to begin with. I thought it was pretty handy that they were right there, readily available. It was like 3pm so I stopped at that restaurant for a drink and to use their WiFi. While on my second beer the waiter wandered over and dropped a bread basket on my table while I’m engrossed in something online. Later, when he brought the bill, there was a charge for the bread. WTF. Damn that pisses me off. I didn’t even eat any and asked to have the bread taken off the bill (btw, two beers were pretty expensive, they weren’t losing anything). No, says the owner, who had now rushed over to back up the waiter, that’s a table charge not for the bread. I had the feeling that they got the complaint so often that they had a set routine on how to handle it. I did make sure that lots of people who had just gotten off the train and wandering by looking like tourists knew that the owner was/is a petty thief.
After that unpleasantness, I grab a taxi right across the street from the train station and the restaurant, and head on over to my rental room. It’s around 5pm, warm, sunshine, and calm.
The taxi driver seemed very pleased to be taking me to my hotel, I don’t really know why, it’s just one fare. Probably because the trip was longer than most of his fares who just end up going to one of the several hotels on the outskirts of Pompeii ruins. I didn’t know it at the time, I was disoriented, but the hotel I’d chosen to stay at was only a short walk from the train station. I knew that it was only like 2 miles from the Pompeii archaeological site, but didn’t realize the train station where I’d gotten off the train was right next to the Pompeii site. If I’d just walked up the road a hundred feet, I would have found the entrance to the city of Pompeii. The taxi drive took a different route to my motel, kind of northerly, than what I’d find to be the best walking route on subsequent trips. But the difference in mileage wasn’t at all that much.
The taxi dropped me right off in front of the hotel, drives off, and I find the door to the hotel is locked. Yikes! Oh, wait, a buzzer.
Pressed the buzzer, and soon the owner and her daughter are there to greet me. I had revs so they were expecting me. Ushered into what appeared to be a motel that had seen better days. Not that it wasn’t clean and all, it was, it was just the design was outmoded. Nineteen 50’s like. And there were parts that were sort of retired from service. Reminded me of Mexican motels…but not as open. But the owners daughter, what a charmer she was. After I got all signed in and paid what I owed for the week, she showed me the kitchen, my room, and the grounds. Flowers everywhere. She was the impetus for their web presence and their reason for being on Roomorama where I found them. She spoke enough English that I felt comfortable. Her mom though, not a word. She’s as bad with English as I am with Italian. But I liked them both and liked my room too. Saved lots of money over a more traditional ‘just outside of the Pompeii ruins’ place would have cost me. Cost me around half as much. The place was kind of a large motel/hotel but with only 2 stories. I was on the ground floor. I had a tiny kitchen but it was shut down and the refer turned off and unplugged, and the gas shut off to the stove. Darnit. I knew when I got here that I would be allowed to use the main kitchen so later I went out and found a small store and got some food. Cooked myself a chicken breast dinner, cleaned up, washed all the dishes in the sink, and went to my room for some TV via my tablet and the fairly good WiFi they had in the rooms.
So, that’s the first taste of Pompeii, we’ll visit the ancient city itself next time. Seeya!