Advertisement
Published: November 5th 2011
Edit Blog Post
It’s now Saturday evening, just after 5pm and we have just arrived back from a day at the ‘Isle of Capri’ and in Sorrento but more on that later.
Yesterday, Friday, we had pre-booked with our driver, Giovanni, to take us to see the buried town of Herculaneum at Ercolano (near Naples) and then to take us up Mount Vesuvius as far as possible by road so we could climb to the top.
We were picked up at the gate to our apartment at 9am and headed straight into Ercolano. This is a drive right back along the coast road past Positano, through Sorrento and all the other towns almost to Naples and takes about an hour and a half but it worth all the travel time (and euros) well and truly.
Herculaneum was one of the four major towns that existed in the Naples area thousands of years ago, one of the others and perhaps more well known was Pompei. Herc was hit by the big quake in 66AD, along with Pompei, and was rebuilding and repairing when Vesuvius erupted in 79AD (I think I’ve got those dates reasonably correct). Pompei was buried by ash while Herculaneum was buried by
the lava and mud flows from the mountain. At the time of the eruption it was right on the coast and appears to have been a resort type place for the rich and famous. It was much smaller than Pompei. When Pompei was discovered buried under the ash , Herculaneum was also discovered , somewhere in the mid 1700s, but Pompei was much easier to excavate as it was under metres of ash so it was uncovered and got the rep whereas Herculaneum was harder to dig out from under 1700 year old lava and mud and wasn’t a priority job. However after having visited both Pompei and Herc we both agree that Herc is by far the better place to see. Much more compact and just more interesting in the type of thing uncovered there.
Anyway we arrived and paid our entrance fee and were approached by an older guy offering a guided tour, in English, and we agreed on a price for an hour and a half. Just as we were about to set off he heard a group of ladies approaching speaking in English so they were asked to join our group ( which shared the cost
a bit as well). So there were 8 of us in the group and this guy was just fantastic. His knowledge of the site was great and we got to see and hear about things that I’m sure the very annoying audiophones wouldn’t have got to. His in depth description was well worth it and his sense of humour really made the day special. In the end he showed us around for nearly 2 and a half hours. If anyone is ever doing Italy and wants to visit ruins and only has time for one place, do Herculaneum. It is much easier than Pompei and we reckon more interesting.
The next part of the day was Vesuvius. We headed off across the towns and started up the narrow, winding road. This part of the drive confirmed our impression of the Naples area as a scruffy, dirty city. I have never seen so much rubbish outside a tip anywhere in the world. I know we haven’t been everywhere but believe me, it is terrible.
Anyway Giovanni stopped at a restaurant on the way up the hill and we had a drink and half a pizza each for lunch to get the
energy for our epic climb!!!! Off up the road where we eventually stopped in the car park area. We paid our fee ( nothings free in Italy, it even costs 1.50euro to use a public toilet, a bit different from the old ‘spending a penny’ days) and headed off on foot up the mountain trail. It is a well defined path of a cinder type material with a wooden railing fence on the downhill side. It is quite steep and you climb for about 40 minutes to the summit. The views of Naples and the surrounding countryside are breathtaking and were only spoiled a bit by the ‘heat haze’ ( I was assured it wasn’t smog) . We arrived at the top and were able to look right down into the huge crater which is still steaming away. Joy likened it to the Tarawera crater that some of you may have been to. We got some great photos of the crater and the surrounding views before heading back down (which was easier than going up) to the car and then heading back to the apartment. We got back about 5.15pm so it was a long day but packed with firsts
for us again. Some would say it was expensive in that Giovanni cost 220 euro for the day and there were entrance fees and the guide but it was certainly well worth every euro.
Today, Saturday, was going to be a walking day but Giovanni had offered to pick us up and take us to Sorrento to catch a ferry to Capri. We had wanted to go to the island but the boats from Positano had closed off for the season and they were only running from Sorrento and the buses aren’t running between Positano and Sorrento due to slips on the road so we had written the island off. However we took Giovanni up on his offer (and his price) and were picked up at the gate at 8.30am and headed to Sorrento to catch a 9.25am ferry. Weather today dawned a bit overcast and windy but not cold so it wasn’t too bad. The sea was a bit lumpy but not too bad.
Capri is another of the ‘rich and famous’ destinations in the summer season but a lot of it was closed for the season. Also the weather, wind and heavy seas’ had shut two of the
activities we really wanted to do. The ‘Blue Grotto’ is on the weather side of the island and we couldn’t get to it because of the rough seas and the chair lift up to the highest point was closed due to the wind BUT we didn’t let this detract from our visit. We rode the ‘Funicular’ (cable car) to the mid point of the town of Capri and then hired a local taxi to take us around for an hour to all the main sights. The cab was ‘special’. They make these slightly stretched convertible Fiats especially for Capri taxis and our one had bright lime green leather upholstery – really special!!!!! The driver was a young guy who was excellent as a guide and we got to see everything that was worth seeing on the island including the town of Anacapri and what they call their beaches, which again are a very poor excuse for the word compared to ours in NZ. He also showed us many of the ‘private villas’ (from the outside on the roadway) at one end of the island. You need many millions of euro to own one and they are just magnificent. Many are
very ‘Greek’ in style, very similar to villas we saw on Mykonos and Santorini 3 years ago.
After 3 and a half hours on Capri we caught a ferry back to Sorrento and wandered around that lovely town for nearly 3 hours. Unfortunately many of the shops were closed for either the season or because it was afternoon ‘siesta’ (true, they close from 1.30 – 4.30 for siesta) but it was great just to wander around and take in the ambience of this lovely little town. A couple of the town stray dogs adopted us for a while and sat with us while we waited in the towns main Piazza for Giovanni to arrive and take us back to Positano.
So another great day on the Amalfi Coast area and we got to do and see some things that we had written off so that was really extra special.
Tomorrow we are planning to walk to Praiana, the next town along the coast from Positano. It’s only 6 kms so should be a doddle. However we have been told that the weather is going to pack up and to expect rain so we will wait and see what happens. There has been devastating weather in the north of Italy around the Cinque Terre and Genoa. We have heard that Monteroso and Vernazza, 2 places we visited on the Cinque Terre 3 years ago, have all but been wiped off the map by floods and mud slides and many people have been killed which is very sad. They were both lovely places so we are hoping the weather here doesn’t get that bad.
Hopefully we’ve got internet so I’ll try to get this published with some more photos.
Bye ‘til next time. Ciao!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.033s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 22; dbt: 0.013s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Craig
non-member comment
more ruins
you would think in this day and age that they would use some municipal monies and get rid of all those old ruins or at least do them up a bit!! A little bit of paint and paper goes a long way. Sounds like you are having a great time and good to see that you had a home cooked meal of spaghetti? But enough of that foreign muck what about mince on toast? Hopefully the weather lasts for your last days there. I am guessing that the rain in Egypt won't be a problem? Take care and travel safe