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Published: August 28th 2007
Sweaty Trains and Funny Guides in Pompeii
An Early, Hot and Stinky Train Ride Our second full day in Italy was dedicated to a day trip to Pompeii just south of Naples. Because of the distance we had to be up and out pretty early to ensure that we actually had enough time to fully devote to the ruins of the ancient village. Thus I got out of bed a mere five hours after going to sleep. Rough!
Despite the fact that we were up early, not something I excel at, I was pretty cheery as we set off to the train station, less than a block away. We had no problems getting tickets and were waiting on the platform when the train arrived. Having not had experience with trains in Italy I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Most of our train rides to this point had been pretty nice so I was in for a bit of a rude awakening.
Italian trains are pretty dirty and Italians can, at times, be dirty themselves. This means that seats were dirty, cars had trash present in them and the people around us were
not always fond of deodorant. To make matters a bit more tricky, most of the rain didn’t have air conditioning which meant that windows stayed open for the whole ride. You can get used to the wind tunnel effect that is caused by open windows and a quick moving train but none of us got used to the ear splitting, sinus cavity popping noise fluctuations that occurred every time we entered a tunnel or another train passed us. But, even with these minor problems we were light hearted and proceeded to chat our way to Naples. Can it truly be an adventure if it doesn’t involve dirt, stink and heat? Really?
Naples truly isn’t worth visiting. I doubt it anytime someone tells me that about a place but in this case I learned that the guide books are right. Many guide books try to scare you with talk about crime be it violent of nor violent but that isn’t why you should steer clear. Stay away from Naples because - from what I saw - it is one giant low rent, run down tenement. What parts of the city that aren’t low rent housing, are high rise sky scrapers
that, too, are run down. Not a pretty place.
We spent only a few minutes transferring from one train to another before we departed Naples. I wasn’t really sorry that we didn’t get to see more. It looked kinda scary! Sadly, the train to Pompeii, the Circumvesuviana, is more of a commuter train than anything and therefore was kinda like a big metro train. Since the train actually started further into Naples it was already mostly full and we, therefore, had to stand for the forty minute trip. No biggie in the grand scheme of things.
Once again a moment for harsh honesty, I was expecting Pompeii to not be worth an early morning and two and a half hours of train rides. Once again I was wrong. Pompeii is truly spectacular. The ancient city was covered in 15 feet of ash during an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Since the city was buried in ash prior to the coming of hot gasses and other volcanic debris the city was perfectly preserved in an ash tomb. Its location was forgotten over time and it wasn’t until the last couple of hundred years that it was rediscovered
and excavated. Since the ash was relatively soft it made excavation easy and thus today much of the 164 acres have been opened for public viewing.
As I said in the last book, Sarah Willis is big into these ancient Roman sights due to her studies. She thought it was important to get a guide who could give us background of what we were seeing. Since she was the reigning expert, we gave her free reign to arrange a guide and get us into the ruins.
Our guide, Cosimo, turned out to be very knowledgeable about ancient Pompeii but not very good at English. What facts he did impart over our trip through the city were incredibly interesting but some of his spiel was, literally, lost in translation. The most uncomfortable part of his lack of English skills manifested themselves anytime we arrived at any place that had anything to due with sex or sexuality. Cosimo would point out something sexual, be it a brothel or painting of naked people, and would tell some sort of dirty joke. He would then proceed to laugh hysterically while we all looked uncomfortable and sort of edged away from him. Sadly,
despite Cosimo’s intelligence, he wasn’t the most socially gifted guide and thus was unable to perceive our sense of decency. In all fairness, Americans are very sensitive to nudity and sexual jokes while other cultures, such as Italians, are not sensitive at all. Thus we all knew that Cosimo wasn’t being a jerk, he was just being Italian while we were being prudish Americans. It was embarrassing but understandable.
The rest of the tour, meaning the non-sexual bits, was very interesting. The mosaics in particular are absolutely exquisite and, in my opinion, are worth the trip by themselves. Once you add in the plaster casts of people who actually died in the volcano, the fully preserved houses and stores and views of Mount Vesuvius you get a really interesting and beautiful look into antiquity. I can definitely say that I have never been to a place that rivals Pompeii’s accurate glimpse into the past. Well worth the trip.
Since we were pretty sweaty and tired by the end of the tour we decided to head back to Rome. The return journey wasn’t that different to the trip there. We did find ourselves in a cabin that had almost
zero air flow due to the fact that we bought our tickets less than five minutes prior to the trains departure. Once we all scrambled aboard and found a place to sit we realized that the cabin was vacant for a reason: it was HOT!!. Fifteen minutes later Anne and Sarah set out to find us a better cabin and actually got 6 places in a cabin with A/C. All the girls and Mike Willis and I headed for the A/C while Chris, Brian and Brian stayed behind to brave the heat. Approximately two hours later we made it to Rome and returned to our rooms to get a shower in before dinner.
During the train ride the ladies made an executive decision to let the boys have a night out on the town. So, after a quick dinner in our hotel, the guys set off for a local bar while the ladies stayed behind to chat about the world. A few drinks and many hours later we returned to the hotel only to find the ladies still having a grand time. They were actually a little sad to see us since they were having a good time without
us. But we all needed sleep, especially the other couples since they were planning on hitting the Vatican the next day.
Amido de Mais and Chilling on Via Veneto For our last full day in Rome Brian Schiller, Kel, and I decided to play it pretty cool. We spent the morning seeking out all the corn starch we could buy because Kel and I found that the eastern bloc countries were pretty dry when it came to corn starch. It seems that they only use potato starch so we needed to stock up for our next set of travels, about fifteen days or so. By the end of our shopping spree we had accumulated close to 20 days of cornstarch which came out to seventeen 250g boxes. Between the two of us we would be shouldering an extra 4.25 kg or about 9.5 pounds of cornstarch. Heavy! When people wonder why we have so much stuff, they should take this into account. Without corn starch we might actually be carrying less than the average backpacker.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with Brian in a couple of cafes on Via Veneto. Via Veneto is
the swanky area that we stayed in with my parents back in June and we knew for a fact that it had some nice places to hang out. Thus we got lunch, coffee, ice cream and then some drinks all on Via Veneto. After about three and a half hours of lounging we returned to the hotel to rest a bit before our final night out with the whole gang.
That night we returned to the pizzeria we had eaten at earlier in the week by the Spanish Steps. It was good enough that we figured it would be a great place to get our final dinner together. After dinner a few of us, namely me, Chris, Anne and Brian Starr, took a quick walk down to Piazza Navona. Anne and Brian wanted to pick up some souvenirs and I tagged along to guide the group in as quickly a fashion as possible. It took a little longer than we thought it would and we ended up having to catch a taxi back to meet the group at the Spanish Steps. They had gotten some drinks in a nearby bar and were patiently waiting for us when we returned.
Unamused Schiller
I don't think Cosimo amused Schiller at all.Owing to the fact that the Metro had shut down for the night, we ended up having to catch taxis back to the hotel. That also turned out to be an adventure for the members of our group who hadn’t gotten the thrill of an Italian taxi yet - always a fun time!
Before most of the gang called it quits for the night, we went up to the roof top bar of the hotel and got some pictures of everyone. It was a bit sad to say goodbye but everyone else had to leave pretty early for their flights. Since Brian Schiller and Kel and I weren’t leaving until later we actually had lunch together on the 19th before finally saying goodbye. With Schiller’s departure we were back on our own again which is always a bit sad for us. We miss the social interactions that we have when other people are around. While we are always more than happy to just be the two of us, we always love having other people to go to dinner with and have some fun with as well. It was sad to see everyone go, but we have a few more
cool places to visit before we call this grand adventure quits.
Hope everyone at home is happy and safe. We miss you all!
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Alexa
non-member comment
Great Time....Great Friends
Hey Guys! I love the write-up (and the honesty). The pictures are fantastic, as usual. I need to get copies of the group photos we took that night on the balcony. We had a great time and the trip was made even better by the friends (old and new). I wish you many great things in your last few months of travel and we can't wait to see you again stateside!