Spending the 2nd day of my "vacanza italiana" in fabulous Pompeii

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On the second day of our trip we made our way to Pompeii, a buried Roman city excavated by archeologists. After a hearty breakfast in the hotel, we made our way to Naples Central Station. From the internet, I knew there's this Unico Campania day ticket which we can use for our trip between Naples and Pompeii. However, when we tried the buy the ticket from the station ticket office, we were told that there was no such thing as a day ticket, and we had to buy 2 single trip tickets for a return trip between Naples and Pompeii. To our further shock, the ticket staff tried to cheat our money by returning €2 less for our change. Luckily my friends calculated the change on the spot and realised the scam. The ticket staff, realising we were not stupid, exposed a €2 coin hidden in his palm and returned it to us... Such a disgusting act is a shame to the Italian tourism industry.

Luckily, we had a wonderful time in Pompeii and had a lot of fun exploring the place. The train ride to Pompeii was a scenic one, as we saw Mount Vesuvius and some pretty houses along the way. Pompeii itself was a pleasant delight. Buried by ashes during Mount Vesuvius' violent eruption in AD78, large parts of the Roman city was miraculously preserved. It was excavated in the 18th century and is now open to visitors. It was amazing to see 2000 years old streets, frescoes, mosaics, pottery and other everyday objects as we walked around the ancient town. Words won't do justice to the grandeur of the place. I'll let my photos do the talking...

In the afternoon we returned to Naples, hoping to find a place for dinner. During the train ride from Rome to Naples on the previous day, we met a local guy who recommended us to go to a restaurant in Mergellina. So we decided to go to Mergellina to have a look. To our dismay, when we arrived at Mergellina, we discovered that the restaurant was not open yet. (It only opens at 7pm and the time was only 5pm) We walked to other restaurants which were open, but all of them didn't have a menu and the prices were not indicated anywhere. Fearing a scam (especially after the unpleasant encounter with the railway ticket staff in the morning), we decided not to have our dinner in Mergellina, and headed back to our hotel. However, most eateries around our hotel were closed because it was a Sunday evening. In the end we walked around Piazza Garibaldi and Jack decided to go into a Tavola Calda (an eatery selling ready-made food... something like a café & fast-food hybrid...) The selection of food in the Tavola Calda was limited, so in the end only Jack, Elsa and I stayed and had our dinner, while my other friends went to other places to search for food. (Albert and Shuhui ended up buying kebab. Carine and Wanqin ended up buying pastries in a bakery.) Later, feeling still hungry, we went to the famous Pizzeria da Michele and ordered 2 magherite for take-away. Some of my friends went back to the same gelateria that we went the previous night. The gelateria owner recognised my friends as it was their 3rd visit, so he gave an extra cone to each of my friends. I still hadn't recovered from my cough (which was worsened by the gelato on the previous night), so I didn't eat anymore gelato.

At night, we took a train from Naples to Rome. Earlier in the day, we tried to buy the train tickets, but the train we planned to take was full and we were unable to get seat reservations for all the 7 of us. In the end we bought 3 tickets with seat reservation and 4 flexible tickets. As usual, the train was horribly late (for more than half an hour). When the train arrived, the 3 people with seat reservation fought their way to their seats, while the other 4 of us with flexible tickets had to sit along the corridor together with hundreds of bags and suitcases as well as many other passengers who didn't have seat reservations... When we arrived at Rome 2 hours later, I had leg cramp and buttock cramp... On the brighter side, after the tiring journey we had a really good sleep in our hotel in Rome. Haha.

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Photos

A surprisingly clean Circumvesuviana train
(I believe the train would be covered in graffiti sometime in the future... It's just a matter of time...)

Security video camera in action
One of them is lying below the sign...