Pompeii
Saturday, August 06, 2005
We got up nice and early as to get ourselves ready before the sun got to full intensity, so it was around 9:30 by the time we had got up and had breakfast. The first thing we noticed was that the streets were cleaner, so I started to feel bad about the bad review that I wrote yesterday (Only later to get back form Pompeii and see that its was right back to dirty!). The tickets to Pompeii were relatively easy to get and you couldn’t get it wrong it’s quite the tourist route. It took about three quarters of an hour to get there and once off the train we really didn’t have a clue what to do as we expected that it would be well signposted. I guess it was if you wanted to do a day tour but they were around 20 Euro each at the cheapest. But the Lonely Planet Guide had said that we had to catch a bus so we jumped onto the bus to ask if we were on the right track. This was really lucky really as if we would have walked just past the bus there was an entrance and if we had taken this entrance we would have had a hell of a long walk to get back rather than walking form the far end back towards the train station.
First impressions of Pompeii was awe at the size and detail that was still left in the paintings and buildings. This was much more what I thought that Rome would be like, so it was nice to see ruins that you could get an idea of what life would have been like then. We had no idea that there was so much to see, we arrived at the Piazza Anfiteatro entrance around 11 suddenly realising just how big this place was and that we couldn’t get out until we had seen it all, and the only hope for lunch was a little fork and knife marked on our map. In our usual style we looked at the map and decided the best route, only to find out ten minutes later that we got it completely wrong and had to back track a little. Nothing to major but going back a little meant that we had a better track around the main things to see.
There is far to much there to tell you what was there, but it really is a whole city, amphitheatre, theatre complex, gardens, town halls, baths as well as all the housing – the city was 600 years old at the time of the eruption being 79 A.D. It was around 1 when we got halfway, which was conveniently the restaurant and I was expecting to be way to expensive, but it turned out to be really nice and affordable. I have to say that the food here is much nicer than in Rome, they make a dam good pizza and pasta. So after a quick bite to eat we set off to investigate the last half of the city. It was much better on this side than the other, there was even more detail. It was amazing to see that they had a lot of modern day systems i.e. drainage, sidewalks, skylights, fountains, kitchens and even toilets. They basically had everything that a modern day city has today – and from the look of it they did it very well. They even had questionable and interesting sexual arts to decorate the city baths – using the same selling principals that we do today. Afterwards we decided to buy a book just to get a bit of a better understanding of the city, and how it worked. All in all it turned our stay in Naples around as we both enjoyed Pompeii so much. We would really recommend Pompeii to everyone – but make it a day trip from Rome it really isn’t too far.
Soon, as we are back in Naples now we hope to get out and see Naples for what it’s got as we have cut our time so short here leaving at 8:30 in the morning for Venice. It was just too much yesterday, but I’m glad that we stayed as we were tempted to go as soon as possible.
Right, I really don’t know what to say. We both wanted to change our view of this city so much that we went done to the reception and asked for directions to the most beautiful part of town. After we were given directions we started or journey to the edge of the harbour, deciding that walking would be a good idea as there might be something between here and there. It took about an hour to get to the point that was marked on the map, and would you believe it, it was more of the same. I have decided that I have to say at least one good thing about Naples so here goes… sorry still thinking… the best that we can come up with is that it’s close to Pompeii. There is just no public order, no one adheres to the road rules to the point that the trees have covered a lot the traffic-lights; no one stops for the crossings, so you really are putting your life into jeopardy when crossing the road even when you have a ‘green-man’. People just throw their trash into the streets, we actually saw them doing this as if there was nothing wrong at all – it’s just gross. That’s all I’m going to say on this and I guess that if you have been here email me and tell me I’m wrong because I just don’t get how that Lonely Planet can give such glowing reviews when it’s quite simply just not pleasant.
posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm,
1 Comments:
-
At Monday, 08 August, 2005,
said...
-
Sounds as though nothing has changed at Naples since we were there 25 years ago. Actually, I thik we bypassed Naples on the recommendation of fellow travellers, and you make me glad we did (and went to Pompei instead, and what a place that was. Enjoyed reading your description of your visit there as I enjoyed my time there 25 years ago