Today we went to Pompeii and hiked up to the Mt.Vesuvius crater.
Our day started by taking the metro to Termini station. I have to admit I got turned around (nothing new here, me getting lost…sigh) and took me a while to figure out the train stuff. My kids said I was train-gry. Lol. But we made it. We took one of those high speed trains that travel at over 190mph. We were in Naples in about 1 hr.
We got to Naples with plenty of time to spare before they picked us up for the tour so we found a cute cafe to have breakfast. Italians have a light breakfast – cafe and a croissant – most of the time. My kids were not having it so we had paninis for breakfast. The cappuccino was just what I needed to get my day started.
We got picked up by our guide Maria at the Napoli Centrale piazza. She is a really cute Italian lady and was our guide for both tours.
Pompeii was as awesome as I remembered it. ❤
Pompeii was created between the 8-9 year BC. It was destroyed by Mt Vesuvius explosion in 79 AD. According to some websites, about 20 feet of ash and pumice covered the city. In Pompeii there is only 1 building that has the original ceiling and floors intact, the public baths. The ceiling has this beautiful mosaic and the walls have drawings and motifs in red color. Even the marble floor was preserved under that section of the baths.
Imagine being a Pompeiian living and working in the city and after your work you will go to the common spa to relax. Although i am not sure I will like to share my pool with so many people. 😦
Pompeii was a merchant town. It was pretty cool to see the streets and how the Pompeiians had designed a system for the carts to go thru avoiding the crosswalks.
Yes, those big rocks on the streets were used as crosswalks mostly to avoid the sewer waters freely running thru the streets.
The city had 2 ampitheaters, a large one that is in use today for concerts (Pink Floyd played there in jul’16) and a much smaller one that is just for show and tell.
The frescos at the lupanar -the brothel- are very funny. The lupanar at Pompeii was called Lupanare Grande. Since the prostitutes or lupas, spoke different languages it was easier to have a menu of sex positions for their clients to choose from. A Roman kama sutra ;).
The beds were made out of stone so the clients would not stay long. So the menu was like a fast food restaurant, quick and cheap. 🙂
Pompeiians had an obsession with the male phallus, displaying it everywhere, including using it as a signs on the street to point the way to the lupanar and in other signs on the walls across the city. I guess you can say Pompeii was a city full of dicks. 🙂
In the town of Pompei they also had this large meeting area at the center of town. On one end was the Temple of Jupiter who was like the king of the gods in roman mythology. If you notice on the pics, there are some.modern sculptures now in Pompeii. The govt has added those statues all over Pompeii. I do not like them because they don’t fit in Pompeii; it messes with its ambience and overall feel.
We ended our visit to Pompeii with lunch at a local restaurant. Guess what they had for lunch for us?? Yes, pizza Margherita.
Next was Mt. Vesuvius, nestled in the town Torre Del Greco. Mt Vesuvius is a stratovolcano. That means that it is a volcano built of alternate layers of lava and ash. I checked google and apparently they are one of the most deadly too as the people of Pompeii found out. It took 40 minutes from Torre del Greco to the Mt. Vesuvius National Park parking area where the hike started. It was raining and SUPER windy. It was a 1 mile steep climb to the crater and by the time we got there we were missing pieces of our cheap 1 euro ponchos and we were wet and cold.
It could have been worse I suppose; it could have been hot and humid.
The views from the crater are amazing. You can see Sorrento and the bay of Naples. I will post more pictures once I download them from the camera. The crater was cool for being just a huge hole. Lol
We ended the day back in Napoli Centrale. We found another cafe with wifi, of course, and relaxed with a yummy gelato until it was time to go back to Roma. It was a great day!
So until next post. Molto amore! Ana ❤
Adventuring and other travel musings... 
Que chevere!! Interesante lo de los pipis all over town. No vi los green towers en las fotos. Lo unico verde que vi fue tu camisa. Lol.
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Looks like another awesome day! And you look FABULOUS!
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