Written by: Danielle
Photos by: Alicia, Kari, Cori and Danielle
I know that I had you on tenterhooks for Day 4. In case you were concerned, we narrowly missed being buried by volcanic ash by about 2000 years. Maybe I did lead you a bit astray… (Or, maybe you figured out we went to Pompeii?)
Yep, that's Mount Vesuvius. Rick Steves told us that the two peaks that we see here would have come up to a single point--that's how much of the volcano blew away. It helps to understand how a town 5 miles away could be covered in volcanic ash!
It's just that Day 4 wasn't nearly as eventful as Days 1-3, so I'm digging for material here...
On Day 4, we had a schism within our group—but not a theological one. Kari was going to spend the day with her brother and sister-in-law, and Alicia, Cori and I were going to Napoli and Pompeii for the day. We would be reunited at the end of the day.
Kari had her heart set on running in Rome, so she went with us to the train station to find a park we’d seen the day before, proudly sporting her new Brasilia jersey that she’d bought during the trip.
Props to her for running on vacation. (I mean, we’d clearly walked at least twenty-seven miles in the course of our travels, so she obviously didn’t need the exercise…)
Alicia, Cori and I went to McDonald’s for breakfast while we waited for our train. In Europe, almost all the McDonald’s are fancy—they all have espresso machines and you can get croissants and pain au chocolat and other nice pastries. Yes, once again, I am defending our choice of McDonald’s. It's not that I have any great love for McDonald's. I'm just trying to shut down McDonald's Naysayers.
Just look how happy my fancy McDonald's coffee makes me. And how nice my scarf is. Oh, we weren't talking about my scarf?
After McDonald’s it was time to catch our train, so we found the right track, and our train and had no problems. It was about an hour and half ride. Naples is south of Rome; as we traveled, we got to see the more Mediterranean parts of Italy—sunny vineyards and olive groves and houses with terracotta tiled roofs and whitewashed walls. The trip was mostly pleasant—except for the person who sat behind me who kicked my chair in time to her music the entire time. For about an hour, I thought it was a child—until she answered her phone and revealed herself as an adult who should know better.
When we got off the train in Naples, Alicia informed us that Rick Steves informed her that Naples is the worst city in Italy for pickpockets, and she told us to “Trust no one!” Anyone could be a pickpocket, any thing could be a ploy, any commotion a distraction. Trust no one.
Alicia then proceeded to have drills with Cori and I, and attempted to pickpocket our bags, declaring herself head of security.
I passed the drill. Cori, I’m afraid, did not."Trust no one." (Not even Alicia)
As we waited in line to buy tickets to Pompeii, we had our second Rick Steves sighting (oh, I got my Rick Steves mixed up in the previous post—this was the British Rick Steves, not the one from Da Francesco’s). He was going to Pompeii, too, which excited us. And by us, I do mean Head of Security, Alicia.
And so, we rode the train to Pompeii—it was pretty crowded, and we had to stand most of the time, during which we watched everyone closely—men, women, children, youths, old ladies, old men—trust no one.
When we got to Pompeii, we had to use the restroom. I didn’t want to, being a bathroom snob, but nature was calling strongly. We found the train station bathroom, which was tended by this ancient Italian woman. As we stood in line, Cori suddenly started laughing and pointing at the wall. It was a dusty red metal sheet and written on the wall it said: “Leafs suck. A lot.”
Apparently, this was offensive to Alicia, who is from Toronto, and Cori was delighted since she’s from Edmonton.
I think it’s a Canada thing.
Then, we needed lunch. There are several sandwich stands along the road as you head towards the official ruins of Pompeii. We were hungry. We were caught in a what Rick Steves would call a tourist trap. He (the vendor, not Rick Steves) enticed us with freshly squeezed orange juice and sandwiches and by reducing the price significantly.
The sandwiches were good. The orange juice was disappointing because it was a little juice, lots of pulp, and seeds. When you have to chew your orange juice, it takes away from some of the magic.
I am looking askance at Alicia. Oh, check out the lemons behind Alicia's head. Lemons the size of grapefruit! Will such wonders ever cease?
A Cori Ibsen action shot.
After the tourist trap lunch, we headed to the sight of the Pompeii ruins. It’s a fascinating place—very well preserved. The volcano didn’t cover the city in lava, or anything (Vesuvius is 5 miles away from the city)—the volcanic ash and flying rocks caused the damage. Rick Steves also informed us that there were 20,000 people who lived in Pompeii, and that of the 20,000, only 2000 died—not the entire town (I was always under the impression that everyone was caught unaware, and died). The city is in good shape, and gives a clear picture of what life in ancient Roman times might have been like. If you ever go to Italy, I recommend Pompeii—it’s worth it.
One of the first things I noticed was a dog lying on the side of the road. I took a picture of it, because I thought it looked well preserved. Then there were many more “well preserved dogs” all around the entire site (we probably saw ten or more different dogs) so I took pictures of them, too, because I thought my joke was funny. It’s always important to find yourself funny, because that guarantees at least one person will laugh at you.
Ruins as you walk up the steep hill into the city. Apparently the water used to come right up to the city gates ("according to Rick Steves.")
A temple, I think.
I thought the stone work of this wall was beautiful.
Alicia tour guides, Cori listens.
Alicia took some time off from tour guiding to be a statue. I don't really know.
McDonald's of Pompeii--this would have been the fast food stands of the city (and in fact, all over the Roman empire)--the holes were for clay pots that kept food cold or hot. Most people didn't have kitchens, so they ate "out" a lot. I think they could take bread to be baked in the bakery, or take meat somewhere to be cooked, as well.
This is the interior of one of the houses--someone wealthy lived here.
Alicia pretending to be like the tour guides we saw, who held up a flag or an umbrella to herd their tours. Except, apparently Cori's the only one in the group...
After Pompeii, we had a few hours before our train, so we decided to find a restaurant in Naples recommended by Rick Steves. It was pretty close to the train station, and we set off into Napoli (trusting no one, of course). I didn’t love Naples, or at least the part that we saw. It was crowded and grungy. A strange thing happened—all of the sudden, there was a deafening noise that sounded like gunfire (but we later identified as fireworks) going off in the middle of the city. Cori, Alicia and I all looked around in dismay and concern, but no one else reacted at all. It was rather peculiar.
A scary dark street in Naples.
As we walked down the road that we thought that the restaurant was on, we sensed that we were lost. It was getting dark, there were many, many people, and it was cold. We walked for several blocks, looking at each cross street, trying to find the right street. In Italy, they don’t have street signs like in North America—all the names of the streets are posted on marble plaques on the sides of the building. Sometimes they get covered by scaffolding, or laundry, or trees. This makes finding places…challenging. Finally, we thought we were lost, we were ready to turn around, and, there we were, just like that.
The pizzeria we had selected was called Da Michele. It felt authentic…but it was very touristic, actually. They had 2 options: Margarita, and Marinara. Nothing else.
The menu, wood oven, and the pizza makers themselves.
We ordered Margarita Pizzas, and settled down to wait, enjoying watching the waiters interact with the clientele. Alicia pulled out her Kindle to do some more reading on Naples, and the waiters were all impressed with her fancy technology. When we took out our cameras, one of them jumped in the picture with us.
Delicious brick oven baked pizza!
Now, I was feeling a bit miffed because there were pictures on the wall of Julia Roberts with the whole wait staff, and a picture of her eating the pizza, a lot like Alicia’s picture below.
Here is why I felt miffed: my middle name is Marguerite, and I didn’t think it was right that Julia Roberts had her picture on the wall (you can see it over Cori's shoulder in the first pizzeria pic) when surely she didn’t share her name with the national pizza of Italy. Cori started calling her Julia Marguerite Roberts.
It turns out that Da Michele is the same pizzeria from Eat, Pray, Love, a book I've never read and movie I’ve never seen—but Julia Roberts stars in the movie, and they filmed the scene on location. I guess that’s a good enough excuse to have her picture on the wall, but I’m still skeptical and a bit hurt.
We headed back to the train station (and saw a lot of Senegalese vendors along the way), had some gelato for dessert while we waited for our train, made our connection, dozed most of the way back to Rome, found the right bus eventually (I had taken a picture of the bus sign near our flat so that we could figure out our connection), and made our way home. Kari wasn’t home yet, and she had the keys, so we stopped at the gelato stand near our flat and Alicia had more gelato while we waited.
Eventually Kari came home, we headed back upstairs, and some of us went to bed. I, however, did not, because I had far too much caffeine, and this kept me up to past 3:00 AM. This did not make me happy at all (but at least I had a good book to read!).
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