Pompeii & Sorrento

We took an early morning train from Rome to Naples, stopped in Naples only to transfer to the Circumvesuviana local train that would take us to Pompeii. This second train was more like an NYC subway than any of the other posh Euro trains we had been on so far. Once in Pompeii, the train station was about a block up the street from the entrance to the ruins, so you have to run this gauntlet of water, panini, and lemon soda sellers before you get there. We stashed our bags at the entrance to the ruins & went back to the gauntlet for pizza and Italian beer, which I had grown quite fond of.

Pompeii was nothing - NOTHING - like Iwhat I was expecting. I always imagined a few ruins, maybe some people covered in ash, and that's about it. Just look at these pictures - the degree of preservation and the sheer size of the ruined city is utterly unbelievable. Complete streets, houses only missing their rooftops, beautifully preserved wall frescoes. We were left speechless. If you ever get a chance to visit Italy, you would be doing yourself a great disservice by not seeing this place with your own eyes.

Below right: an example of the color - color! I was never anticipating color! - of some of the frescoes and tile mosaics here. I took this photo through an open window of an otherwise inaccessible building. Much of the city is like this - you can wander the streets, peeking into windows, expecting to see ruins or broken walls, and get greeted by magnificent, perfectly preserved rooms from 79 AD.

(above) Jenny pretends to be a preserved Pompeiian statue - don't worry, it's allowed. Most of the city is open to touching and walking on, believe it or not. And it doesn't seem to be worn down at all by modern humans. (right) The House of the Faun, I think. This was a very large house, 2000 years ago, now without a roof.

Below (left & right) is the immense forum complex at the center of the city, on the roof of the world.

Some of the preservation at Pompeii is just mind-blowing - check out the 2000 year-old statues on the right, surviving without a roof over their heads for twenty centuries.

(Below) One of two perfectly preserved amphitheaters in Pompeii (left) which lies adjacent to the old gladiator barracks & ring, seen at right.

Now we come to the part everyone's been waiting for: the ash people. Two of the best preserved specimens are seen at right, in their glass caskets. Apparently, the ash from Vesuvius descended on the city so quickly, people were trapped under an avalanche in seconds. The "ash bodies" left behind are actually hardened ash left around their bodies, not the bodies themselves. Although, bone does survive inside.

Click on the image of the mosaic tilework on the right. The detail and degree of preservation on this is astounding - we found it inside a building, at the back, where a courtyard would have been. This, like everything else at Pompeii, was covered in ash for 2000 years - and it looks like its 50 years old.

From Pompeii, we got back on the train that circles the Bay of Napoli and headed south to Sorrento, a small fishing town on the Amalfi Coast. When we got there, we had to haul our packs through town to our rooms about 2K away - no small feat at the end of the day. But the walk down a quiet narrow street with a view of the bay at the far end was so perfect, it really didn't matter after awhile. Our hotel was actually a converted monastery, perched on the edge of the sea, called Porto Salvo. Hands down, the best place we stayed in over the whole trip. A beautiful offshore breeze, a great view of the bay...and I was able to take my shoes off as soon as I got there - what else could you ask for? We walked around the corner to check out the view - a very quiet, residential town - reminded me of Provincetown on the Cape a bit. The view - my god, the view. Granted, at this first sighting, it was evening, but we could see the twinkling lights of Naples on the far side of the bay, lights from cruise ships out on the water, and smell the sweet bouquet of salt air. Is this heaven? No, it's Sorrento.

After dinner (some of the best seafood I've ever had, of course), there was a fireworks display out over the water and Mark discovered that he could climb out through the window of the hotel, out onto the rooftop to watch. After that adventure, we watched the classic Gov. Schwarzenegger film, Predator in Italian before bed.

These pictures are all from the following day - we just walked all over the town, which is built into the side of the cliff face overlooking the bay. All the streets are narrow and are comprised of a series of switchbacks that lead down to the port itself. Sorrento is really an interesting mix of touristy art town and old world fishing village - quite balanced, actually. In the evening, we took the high speed hydrofoil ferry across the bay to Naples, where we would be spending our last night in Italy.

I have to tell the whole story of Naples, since I had always heard such great things about the city, all of which, we found to be complete bullshit. There are no more pictures, save one, so if that's what you came here for, you can skip to the end if you like.


The hydrofoil ride was great - it took about 30 minutes to cross the bay - and we were able to stand out on a series of steps on deck and watch the approach to Naples. (Normally, everyone stays inside, and there's no deck to stand on outside really.) Once in port, we decided that walking was overrated and that a cab to the hotel would be much better. Our cab driver claimed to have honeymooned in San Diego - in between what felt like driving on the wrong side of the road, or at least the median, and telling us over his shoulder that he was shocked we were only staying one night, but at least we were close to the historical center of the city. He then dropped us off on the dirtiest street in Europe, home of "Hotel Europa", our home for the evening.

We pressed the intercom next to the Hotel Europa sign in the alley - "bzzzz". "Hotel Europa", came the response. "Yes, we have a res-bzzzzz-ervation", we said. OK...we're buzzed through the gate now. The office on the other side of the gate is actually a fake one - literally fake, like a diarama. "Is that a bullet hole in the glass?", someone asked. I wandered to the end of the alley and eventually found another buzzer and a door that read "Hotel Europa" and "Hotel Flowers". "Bzzzz", I pressed. "Hotel Europa", came the response. What did this guy think was going to happen when he buzzed us through the outer gate? Eventually we would wander down the alley to his next door, no? "Yeah, we -bzzzzzzzzz", I said, with the aid of the man's buzzer upstairs. Alright, we're buzzed into the building. 4th floor. I lost count of the floors and stopped when I saw a door marked "Hotel Europa". Knock, knock. No answer. Knock, knock. No answer. Then some guy pokes his head over the railing on the floor above - "Europa? Up!", he said, gesturing in the suggested direction.

After talking to this guy in the office that he lead us to, I'm not even sure that he speaks Italian. Is this possible? I think "Europa" may be his home planet. After much discussion in languages other than Italian & English, he showed us to our room. You have to use a key to turn the lights on. A key. Or really a metal rod on a keyfob. But once the lights are on - oh baby. The soft lighting reveals a magnificent wall mural of - my friend Barbara would've been horrified - penguins and polar bears frolicking amongst igloos and a frozen tundra. Because nothing says "Napoli!" like frozen tundra! The TV remote was only for performing feats of strength - it took all of my fingers to press the buttons to change channels. Hilarious. Mark's bed was this weird, collapsible bunk bed (collapsed, of course) that looked like a torture device. So, we aired our feet for a minute and stepped out into the Neopolotan night. (Well, Mark wanted to ask Mr. Crazyman at the desk for directions to the best pizza joint in the area first. All I wanted to do was stay the hell out of that office until I dropped the key off in the morning.)


All I know is, the Mastiffs rule Naples, man. The graffitti tags of these guys are everywhere. (You have to click on the image at right to fully appreciate my rendering.) Naples at night is the sketchiest city I've ever been to. It's really dark, too.

We did have some fabulous margherita pizza (since Naples is the famed home of the margherita) and enjoyed one last Italian beer and a pastry soaked in some sort of liquor that really reminded me of my Italian grandmother's house. We tried to walk around a bit - Mark and I smoked stale Italian cigars in an attempt to look tough - but it was so sketchy & dark that we ended up back in the well lit piazza near the Europa, where we sat & had cappuchinos. Although, like the other European cities we had seen, you can just stumble across magnificent architecture around any random corner. The difference with Naples is that there are no street lights and strange men lurking in all the doorways.

The following day marked the end of the road - pretty much. We took an early train to Rome, where we separated from Mark - he flew back home to Germany, while Jen & I went on to Paris for the evening. We ended up having a very, very long day of travel to Paris and by the time I got there, the last thing I wanted to do was carry anything, including my faithful Nikon. So the picture below is the last one from the trip - a self-portrait taken on the balcony of our Paris hotel - proof that I was finally in France.

We walked from the hotel on Rue de Claude Poillet in the 17eme down along Rue de Rocher, past the magnificent, gilded Opera House. I realized that I could not speak any French anymore - especially after such a long day. Zut alors! (This is a lie, the language came back just fine, I'm being dramatic.) We walked in the light rain down Rue l'Opera to le Palais Royale and the Louvre (which was closed - we'll be back for that.) I was floored by the sheer size of the Louvre - I think only the Dom in Cologne came close in scale. And I liked the pyramid. We crossed the Seine at Pont du Carousel and found a nice little restaurant in the area of St. Severin and Boulevard du Buchers. Way, way too touristy, but we were starving at this point. When the maitre d' asked, "Parlez-vous le francais?", I replied, "Oui, un peu". He then proceeded to speak to me only in English. Oh well.

After dinner, it was on to Shakespeare & Company, arguably the world's most famous independent bookstore. Actually, it reminded me a lot of DG Wills in La Jolla. Jen bought a book and I didn't - go figure. And then back over the river to gaze on the lit-up Notre Dame. Fantastique! We then walked back down along the Seine towards Place de Concord where we could look down the Champs Elysees at the Arch de Triomphe and at the spectacularly lit Eiffel Tower. We took the metro back to the hotel (I couldn't possibly say enough about how utterly awesome the Paris metro is) and slept in the softest, most comfortable bed we had slept in in 2 weeks. Et voila! J'ai vu Paris! We will be back soon to really see this city - obviously less than 24hrs is not ideal, but at least we were there.

The next day, we left Paris - not before I was able to order us some breakfast pastries completely in French! Mimi would have been so proud - and flew back to the dreaded States. We were big time hatin' on the US at the end of this perfect vacation. Going back was the only part we didn't like. To top it all off, Jen got sick travelling on a plane from Detroit to San Diego - we had some nasty old dude sitting next to us, snorting boogers back into his nose for like 3 hours. Its great to be home! I'm moving to Europe.

Thanks for reading and looking at all my pictures!