Arrival in Naples
By the time we arrived at our port stop in Naples, we were feeling pretty good about the trip. Things were going well after the rocky start with the canceled flight and the lost phone in Barcelona and we had a relatively easy day planned logistically in Naples.
I remembered well my visit to Naples in 2000 when I was backpacking in Italy. It was noticeably poorer than Rome and Tuscany and I remembered well the pickpockets that stood in plain sight in the train stations ready to pilfer from the turned backs of anyone that didn’t know who they were and why they were there.
I also remembered walking outside of the Pompeii archaeological site and feeling a bit more unsettled than in any place I had been on the backpacking trip. I had a sense that if I walked down the wrong street or gave the wrong look to the wrong person, I might regret it.
I decided before we left to take the easy approach and just book an excursion with Viator. I felt the family should go to Pompeii and decided a guided tour of the ruins would be better than visiting it on our own. Pompeii is huge and finding the most interesting locations and really knowing what you are looking at is difficult without a guide.
Since combo tours were offered I chose Mount Vesuvius National Park for the second stop on the tour. With all of the time spent in archaeological zones, museums, and in cities I thought a little nature and hiking would be good. It would also link well with the Pompeii visit since it was an eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii.
The cruise port is right in the city which is convenient, but unlike at the other ports the second you exit the fenced port area you are met by an onslaught of pestering ‘tour guides’. We repeatedly told the swarm of tour guides that we were not interested and were already booked on a tour. I was also mindful to keep my backpack secure while amid the crowd.
Once we found our tour guide we waited while the rest of the group arrived before being led to waiting tour buses. The tour seemed to start a bit later than we hoped. But after a few extra stops in Naples to pick up more guests from hotels (which filled the bus) the tour was underway.
Because it was the height of tourist season, Pompeii was going to be unusually busy. The tour operators decided that we would be better off going to Mount Vesuvius first, then come back to Pompeii when the crowds were lighter in the afternoon.
Mount Vesuvius National Park
The drive up to Mount Vesuvius took us from the urban sprawl of Naples and into a more pleasant region of vineyards and pine forests. I have to admit that I find the city of Naples to be fairly dismal, with crumbling buildings and graffiti visible throughout the urban center. Even the historic castle near the port looks less stately than it’s royal past would indicate.
On the other hand, the city looked more lively and tourist friendly than when I visited in 2000. I didn’t get the eerie, unsafe vibes I got in 2000. There just seems to have been an effort to modernize and improve many of the cities and tourist sites. That was particularly obvious to me at Pompeii. In 2000 the area around Pompeii seemed rundown. Now it was developed with many restaurants.
In the countryside, on the road to the crater of Vesuvius, the surrounding views were rustic and vintage Italy. It also felt good to be away from the swarm of tour guides at the port and on our way to enjoy a late morning hike with views over the Bay of Naples.
The road itself became narrow enough that two tour buses could no longer always pass each other safely. When that happened, one tour bus would be forced to back up until it arrived at a wider section of the roadway. Then we would proceed to pass. Fortunately the game of chicken only occurred a couple times on our trip up the mountain.
Once we arrived at the parking area for the crater trail, we made sure we had some water with us for the short, but steep hike to the crater rim. It was a hot day (in the 90s F) and on Mount Vesuvius the foliage is limited to bushes and wildflowers that provide little shade. Make sure to put on sunscreen as well, since you will be exposed to direct sun for over an hour.
The hike up to the rim takes about 30 minutes. For Daniel and I it was an easy climb. Shelley and Evan also made it up to the crater relatively quickly, despite the heat.
The views into the crater and the wildflowers around the crater were enjoyable. Unfortunately it was a hazy day and we had limited views of the surrounding Bay of Naples.
After hiking back down as a family, we returned to the air-conditioned comfort of the tour bus. Well, actually the bus was more comfortable than the one that we rode in Tuscany, but the A/C still left something to be desired.
On our way back down the tour stopped for a limoncello tasting at a limoncello maker’s store.
Evan may not look thrilled to be holding this gigantic lemon, but these are the actual lemons that are grown on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. Monsters they are. And they make some delicious limoncello. We bought 6 small bottles of various flavors.
After enjoying the limoncello tasting, we continued down the road to Pompeii. Before entering the archaeological park, part of the day tour included a pizza lunch. Even if it didn’t, I wouldn’t go to Naples and not have pizza. Naples is the home of pizza.
The pizza was delicious and authentic. The tour took us to a pretty good restaurant near Pompeii at a place where you could watch the pizza be cooked in a wood fire from your table. Outside grapes were growing on a trellis overhead (still too immature and small to be the dark purple they will become).
Despite the nice lunch, we were all getting antsy about getting to Pompeii. We didn’t want to lose any of the promised two hours at the site. Fortunately, even though the lunch seemed to go a bit longer than any of us needed, they didn’t cheat us out of any time in Pompeii.
Pompeii
Visiting Pompeii is fascinating. Roman ruins in other areas of Italy have usually suffered the ravages of two millennia of weathering and looting and wars and the structures are only minimally reminiscent of their original form.
Pompeii lets you walk back in time in a way that can’t be matched (except in Herculaneum). The streets are intact. Many of the houses are intact. The art still adorns the walls. The life of the citizens is on display, in all of its often tawdry glory.
I highly recommend taking a guided tour as the guides will take you to some of the most interesting and best preserved areas of the city and offer an explanation of the ruins that would be hard to understand if you visited on your own. When I came in 2000 I walked the vast city on my own and missed everything that I saw on this visit. Last time I saw many of the homes, but the frescoes and details were nothing like I encountered on the tour.
We were led into the city at the Quadriportico and to the best preserved theater that we saw on the trip. That’s the difference between being buried in tons of pumice versus exposed to the open air.
Next we visited the homes of some wealthy residents and enjoyed the frescoes of hunting scenes and beautiful gods and goddesses and everyday Romans in daily life. We saw the mosaics and reliefs and the everyday items that survived the hellish, gaseous inferno. We even saw childrens’ scratches depicting gladiators on a wall. Never would have seen that on my own.
It soon becomes obvious that the residents of Pompeii enjoyed two past times in particular: gladiator fights and lovemaking. Yes, they were not prudes and frescoes depict what was on offer at a brothel and at the bath house. The same Romans that were amazing architects and engineers and scientists and philosophers and statesmen were also good at enjoying life. Except for the gladiators, who had to fight to retain theirs.
I had considered going to Herculaneum instead of Pompeii, but decided that my family should visit Pompeii first, even though the ruins of Herculaneum are even better preserved. The reason is that Pompeii has something that Herculaneum doesn’t: the eerie plaster casts of the deceased residents.
The casts are haunting and horrifying and fascinating at the same time. You can see the residents as they were, in their last moments. The tragedy really hits home when you see the casts of entire families that died together in the museum. Everyday citizens lived and died in Pompeii in AD 79.
After the tour we were ready to have some gelato before the drive back to the ship. We did get our gelato, but only after dealing with some very ride and pushy people that literally stepped in front of our child before he could order. We even said we were a family and were ordering together, but to no avail. They had to have their gelato before our child. We just encountered a lot of rude people throughout the trip.
Fortunately the gelato was cool and delicious and what we needed after a long hot day. We were happy even if we had to deal with some rudeness to end our day.
In the next blog post, I’ll tell about our visit to Sicily, from the port of Messina to the very beautiful town of Taormina.