Blogs from Pompei, Campania, Italy, Europe - page 10

Sunday 31st August Naples…..well not really….Pompeii & Herculaneum We started our day early with the daily 1km walk to catch our bus. I know 1 km doesn’t seem long but at the end of a tiring day, that uphill winding 1 km stretch seems like a 10km marathon. Anyway, we were walking to the bus stop when Kurt turned and gave me that look! Family members recognise that look as why am I surrounded by idiots? He had been studying the bus times table and noticed that buses to Naples on Sunday only ran 3 times, 5.00am, 6.40am and 11.45am……it was 8.00am!! So we stopped assessed and Kurt said we could drive to Pompeii (although he’d been hoping for more time to psyche himself up for those roads.) Yeap, that’s what we did. Jumped in the ... read more

For our visit to Pompeii, we decided to stay in Naples and make a day trip to the excavated city. What we discovered about Naples, however, was that this is a city where you can never feel entirely safe or at ease. Maybe we were just staying in a dodgy part of town near the train station and Piazza Garibaldi, but there was definitely a heightened sense of awareness for your safety when wandering the streets. That being said, I did certainly feel alert and had a buzz whilst walking through such a tumultuous place. The aspect of Naples that I was particularly interested in was the pizza, as this is where that wonderful food was created. There is a strict code for making pizza in this city, which consists of it having to be tossed ... read more

It was a very hot day walking around the ruins! It took us 2 and a half hours to get from Rome to Pompei. Mt Vesuvius was the main feature from Naples on one side and the Italian coast on the other. It was dusty and alot to take in but nevertheless an experience! ... read more

79AD-- BANG-- Mt Vesuvius erupts. Pompeii is buried in volcanic material. 2008 AD -- BANG-- The Lukes arrive to assess the situation. We weren’t sure what to expect from Pompeii, but the ruins show an amazing insight as to what life would have been like in Pompeii 2000 years ago. The city itself was home to approximately 20,000 people and was a remarkably advanced society. We were able to walk through residential areas, amphitheatres, laundromat’s, and all the other components of a city. You had to remind yourself that it was all in existence 2000 years ago. We also saw the occasional body cast, pottery and fresco artwork on the walls of houses. All had been well preserved, and it was amazing to think it has all been excavated so successfully. We took a bus trip ... read more

It was the last full day of our awesome Italian trip. So today we were having a day trip in Pompeii. It was a 3 hour bus ride from Rome to Pompeii so everyone made sure that they had some sort of entertainment with them. We left the hotel at 10am. We traveled a good 1 1/2 hours before we stopped at a servo and got something to eat and went to the toilet. Another hour later we arrived at Pompeii. We got off the bus at the front of a market. We waited about 30 mins before finding the tour guide. The city was still in good tact from its chaotic disaster nearly 2000 years ago. It was a very well built town. It only had 4 main roads though. A north, east, south, and ... read more