Pompeii, Italy : Sept.27 - 29

Pompeii : Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2005

Hang on! Brian’s back in the driver’s seat for Italy. It was time to give Debbie’s fingers a break for a while, so if you notice a slight style change you’ll know why.

Our first day in Italy actually began in Greece. We boarded our ferry from Igoumenitsa in western Greece. It was a long wait but the terminal was clean and quiet. The ferry had only a light load when we boarded just before midnight and right on the stroke, the lines were thrown in and we pulled away. Our cabins (2) were large and perfect, and we were able to get a good night’s sleep in the bunk beds. The kids got the top, adults on the bottom. We were scheduled to arrive at 8:30 am in Bari (top of the heel), and our alarms were set for 7:00 am. We figured get a shower, have some breakfast, and relax before heading off for the trains.

Wrong! As we were just entering the showers (not communal, Debbie in hers and me in mine) the PA came on advising us we would be docking in 30 minutes. Well that put a bit of a cramp on the kids’ sleep. We had to boot it to get dressed and on deck with our bags. We seemed to make it with 10 min to spare, and were waiting on deck when the first of the inevitable questions began to arise. Is there a time change? How did we get here so early? Blah blah blah. Early morning questions that we had neither answers nor patience for. My sarcastic response that Greece and Italy moved closer overnight was not well received by either Debbie or the kids. Turns out it was calm seas and they normally arrive ahead of schedule.

Anyway we arrived around 45 minutes early, and hopped off the boat and into a cab. To the train station we yelled! 15 Euro and 10 minutes later we were dropped off. Seemed pretty pricey but there was no way we would have found it on our own. We also compared prices with other travelers that morning and found it was a pretty flat rate. That’s what captive audiences will do.

The first order of business was to register our Eurail pass that we purchased for Italy, Austria, and Hungary. We had debated various models and given the length of time we were spending in major centers in Italy the car rental option didn’t make much sense. Also as we doubted my ability to stay out of a car, the long term 3 month tickets didn’t seem that worthwhile either.

Forget everything you may have heard or read from Eurail regarding how universal it is accepted, and how every train station employee knows how to register it. I can tell you categorically that this is not the case. Shouting through a thick pane of glass in broken French (!!!), I had to walk the attendant through the registration process. It came back the first time incomplete so we had to push it back in for a second round. Sure hope we got it right.

Now we had our tickets (we think), so the next order of business would be to figure out how to get to Napoli ( Naples) and from there onto Pompeii. By the book we would have to wait till 1:50 (it was presently 9:00 am) and we would have arrived around 7:30 at our hotel. Italy just isn’t that wide.

Branching out on our own, we hopped a train to the town of Foggia (about half way) betting we could do better. After some uncertainty about which car we wanted to sit in (up, down, double decker, single decker … “just too many choices”, “just make up your damn mind!”), we had a pleasant trip.

We arrived in Foggia only to find out that the only train to Napoli was going to arrive the same time as our original scheduled option. Things were looking grim until we discovered that there was a bus option (leaving in 60 minutes) that would get us in several hours earlier. Not that it was faster, just departing sooner and more direct. A quick analysis suggested the extra 30 or so Euro for the 4 of us was well worth the 3.5 hours of extra travel time.

The bus left on time and arrived on time dropping us the central train station in Napoli. At this point we had to locate a small private railway located adjacent to the main lines. The Circumvesuviana does the run between Napoli and Sorrento accommodating Pompeii en route. We purchased our cheap tickets and headed for the platform with all the staff and signage indicating track 3 was where we wanted to be. Us and 300 other travelers, it seemed.

So when a train pulled in behind us on Track #2, it was all but forgotten. Just sitting there, until it was announced 2 minutes before departure time that it was going to Sorrento and Pompeii. The rush was on! We did manage to get seats but didn’t have time to get near the doors or the map so we could figure out where we were going or even if we were going in the right direction.

Twenty minutes later with all our gear we exited at the first Pompeii exit. In Debbie’s and my brain a little bell went off that this might be different from what we were supposed to do. Turns out we were right. In any event we strapped on the packs and headed for town. First stop was the information center which handed us two maps to our hotel. The English one which was wrong they said, and the Italian one which was right. Armed with two maps now and verbal instructions you would have thought we could get things right. At the first junction we realized that the absence of road signs might make things difficult. Brennan was absolutely certain we had to go left. As there were absolutely no grounds for his conclusion, his recommendation was ignored. After minutes of verbal protest on his side he was told to “just shut-up and walk. We don’t want to hear another peep.” Which he complied with ….sort of. Fifteen minutes and one conversation with a shop owner later we were forced to admit that maybe Brennan was onto something or just darn lucky.

Retracing or steps we finally got unlost and were able to locate our hotel. Our 1 km. trek turned out to be 2 or 3 km (in the heat with backpacks). During this whole time it was quite warm and we had been going non-stop. Because the distance was supposed to be short, Brian had re-adjusted the various packs and distributed the weight so he would carry more. He was also carrying Sierra’s backpack so she could stay focused on protecting her small day pack carrying her treasured bear. Enough to say that by the time we arrived at the hotel Brian was slightly damp. The clerk grimaced as Brian dripped on the counter and when asked to hand over the passports, he had to shake them off. Unfortunately it didn’t make a good first impression.

The room is great. We managed to cool down a bit then leaving the kids behind with homework we headed off in search of fluids. Finding a store was quite a challenge. We also saw that there was a band festival set for tonight. (Actually blaring as I am writing this at 9:50). Not sure what the occasion is. We will likely find out tomorrow as we explore the town a bit more.

Dinner was an adventure. We were all looking forward to our first Italian dinner. Tonight it was to be Pizza since we are in the Naples region which is the home of the magical pie. We found a small pizzeria near the hotel and sat down to order. Not put off by the lack of English (both spoken and written in the menu) we thought we would just take a shot. “One Green Salad and Pizza D and Pizza C please. Oh and don’t forget the wine.” How bad could it be? Pretty bad when your random order happens to include anchovies and your pizza is covered in fish oil. Not quite what we had in mind for our intro to Italian cuisine but we will do better next time. The wine was a treat however; only 1 Euro for a small carafe of red. It’s nice when you don’t have to think about some things.

That’s about it for today. Tomorrow it will be the ruins and some more walking. Should be fun. Ciao! ( NEXT PAGE )