Near Napoli.

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July 17

Today we are travelling to a town called Bias, near Napoli (Naples in English). We couldn’t find a host in Naples either, so we posted on a Naples and suburbs group which a broad message asking if anyone could help us out, and a man named Doug replied. He was 40 years old living right outside of Naples. We decided to try it out. We arrived at around 4 pm in Bias and Doug picked us up in his convertible and took us to his house, which was right near the beach on top of a hill with magnificent views of the entire ocean and city. As soon as we met him, I felt right at home. He was such a nice, generous person; he was funny, and very easy to talk to. He made me feel so comfortable, I felt like we were instantly friends. Right away he took us to his private beach and showed us around. Later that night, we made a fabulous dinner together with Lia, another Couch Surfer who was staying at his place. I really liked her a lot. She was a 28 year old girl from California (everyone we meet is from there!) and she was a very bubbly, friendly, outgoing girl. We all got along very well and had good food, drinks, and talks.

July 18

Today we had to wake up very early because we had a full day planned. We (Ari, Lia, and I) were travelling to Naples, then to Pompeii. Since Doug lived outside the city, it took a while to get to Pompeii and we didn’t arrive until 11:30 am. Pompeii was another place that I really wanted to visit for the history and background that it had. It was another place that enticed me very much. Seeing the city was really cool. It was a huge city, filled with ruins of everything a city has. It was incredible to see all the things they had already developed in 79 AD. I couldn’t believe it. The most intense part was seeing the plaster casts of the victims. The excavators poured plaster over the skeletons of all the victims they found and some of them were on display. It was very sad because the bodies were still trapped in the position that they died in. There was a heartbreaking plaster cast of someone kneeled and praying, another one of a dog curled into a painful position, and another that looked like it was crawling somewhere…probably trying to escape an eminent death. It was quite a site to see. The city also had 3 amphitheaters and a brothel. The brothel was pretty funny to see. There was a penis statue on the wall outside the entrance, a penis on the sidewalk pointing towards the brothel, and there were paintings on the walls inside of sexual positions. Even the stone beds were still remaining inside the rooms.
After this, we headed straight to the thing that caused all of this damage - Mt. Vesuvius. Ari and I rode a bus up to the top and then hiked the rest of the way. At the top, you can see all of the city and its surroundings. The mountain itself was very interesting because it was covered with green and flowers up until a certain point, and then it’s just brown ash and such. Once you get to the very top, there is a huge crater. It was amazing. You could even see little spots on the crater that had steam coming up from the vents. That made me a little nervous. The volcano itself is still pretty active because the last eruption was in 1944. You could actually still see the hardened lava along parts of the mountain.

After this adventure, Ari went home and I went to go visit the other town affected by Vesuvius, Herculaneum. The people in Pompeii died from all the ash and soot that was in the air and they basically suffocated to death, while the people of Herculaneum died from massive mud flows following the eruption of 79 AD. The mud preserved Herculaneum better, so the city is more intact. However, it is much smaller than Pompeii and I went through the entire city in 1 hour. We went through Pompeii in 3 hours and still didn’t see everything. But walking through Herculaneum by myself was a much different experience. It was around 6 pm, so there was really no one else there, and it was a very eerie feeling. Like I was really walking through a ghost town. I loved it. In this city, I was able to walk all inside the buildings and see everything. It really gave me an insight on how life was like back then. It was such an incredible experience…I can’t even describe the feeling of walking through those streets, completely alone.
After all of this, there was another great dinner with Doug, Lia, and Ari.

July 19

Today was an even earlier day. We were meeting with Doug’s friends to take a ferry out to a nearby island, Ischia. The plan was to rent mopeds and go around the island. Well, the Italians were being douche bags and would not rent to us. Mainly, it was because were Americans. It was also because they didn’t believe that we knew how to ride an Italian scooter and they didn’t want to be liable for us. We thought it would be pretty easy to get them...but I guess not. So we let Doug and his friends, who were able to get mopeds for some reason, go off and Lia, Ari and I went to the beaches and hung out all day. It was a beautiful island, complete with clear, bright blue water, white and gray, piercing cliffs and green everywhere. Amazing. Another great dinner and another great day.

July 20

Today we got to sleep in (finally!) and we went to the private beach right down the street from Doug’s place. It was 10 Euro for each of us to get in, but it was totally worth it. It was that, or laying in a trash covered, super crowded beach. Plus, Doug’s beach had three thermal Jacuzzis that used the natural thermal water from the area, plus two massaging water benches, that had hot thermal water fall onto you and massage you, along with umbrellas and chairs to lie on the beach. Doug even let me borrow his snorkeling equipment to go into the water. I tried to search for a sunken city that he told me about, but I couldn’t find it. It was still pretty interesting to see the underwater atmosphere. There weren’t any pretty coral reefs or anything, but there were a lot of rocks with plants and marine life. The coolest thing was seeing random bubbles come up from the sand. The water was pretty cold, but then I realized I would get random bursts of warm air, and it was from those bubbles coming up - it was thermal bubbles and hot water! I had never seen anything like that before. And yes, the thermal Jacuzzis and massages were very nice. Another great dinner and another great day.

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