Rome, Italy: Day Four ---> POMPEII

A view of Mount Vesuvious.
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We're on the train back to Rome now. We got up really early this morning to get our tickets to Naples.

We found breakfast at the station. I had another 'donut' - delicious! Jeff had a muffin. The train left Rome at 8:30am. It was freezing inside the train! I slept for quite a bit after writing in this journal. The moutains on the way down were beautiful! I wish I could have taken a picture of them but that wasn't possible. We were in a car with 4 other people and were the furthest from the window. I was facing backwards which I didn't like too much. The ride was around 2 hours long.

I couldn't believe the size of the city! I thought it would be a small town.

Mount Vesuvious.
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It was chaos at Napoli Centrale. We had no idea where we were going. All we knew was that we wanted 2 tickets for the train to Pompeii.

Where to get them from - who knows?! A guy near the info booth asked us if we needed help and said to follow him. We did. He showed us to the ticket booth then to the train. He said that Pompeii was only a few stops away. He wanted money. We gave him 5 Euros and the guy complained. Too bad. That's all we had.

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We got on the wrong train at first and ended up one station back. We finally got on the correct train and took it all the way to Pompeii. I slept for a bit again. The ride was about an hour. The scenery was just astonishing. I wanted to get off the train so many times and go down to the water. There were mountains and white sand beaches and palm trees - just gorgeous!

We were hungry by the time we got off the train so we grabbed a slice of pizza before we went in. It was pretty good. I got a Pompeii book from a man in the station. It had information on all of the sites - it turned out to be very useful. Oh and we went and used the washrooms before entering the site. No toliet seat again! No toliet paper either! Lots of fun.

Jeff and Ashley (me) waiting for the train back to Naples.
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We walked around the different 'buildings' or what ever was left of them. The city had an earthquake in 6 AD. Mount Vesuvious, the volocano errupted in 79 AD destroying the whole city and preserving a lot of the remains.

I couldn't believe the size of the city! I thought it would be a small town. What sticks out in my mind the most are the baths, the theatres (3), and the Tower of Mercury. It was amazing to be able to see the ancient ruins. Most of the artifacts found were moved to a museum in Naples. Walking down the streets gives you a feel of how life was like back then.

We got some postcards and more water then headed back to Naples. It was quite a long ride back into the city. I had a nap once again. There were teenagers running back and forth and talking really loud - really annoying. That goes to show you that people are the same everywhere.

We got off the train and left the station in Naples in search of food: no such luck. The streets were very dirty with lots of peddlers. There were lots of stray dogs running around everywhere. Not a very nice picture. We walked down a street and decided to head back to the staion and had McDonald's! They charged us for ketchup and they don't put any toppings on their hamburgers unless asked. After 'dinner' we got our tickets back to Rome. I wish we had more time to look around but walking around in the dark in a strange city wouldn't have been fun.

Some Random Observations:

-doors on subways have to be manually opened from both the inside and outside of the tiian (same as in Paris)

-Italy has Metro cards (pay as you go) -Most washrooms have no toilet seats and/or toliet paper and you have to pay to use them! Go figure!

-Most people speak a little bit of english - you can usually get by - especially in big cities -Italians don't do breakfast! All they have in the mornings are pastries - not very filling!