Mt. Vesuvio

My original thoughts for the day were to wander the city and see a few sights in more depth that I didn't get to on Friday--a few churches and some main piazzas. I skipped the morning shower knowing it would be ice cold like yesterday and planned to get one later in the morning. When I got out to the common room, Hannah mentioned she and Mu were going to hike Mount Vesuvio and probably be back by 5pm so Mu could work his shift at the hostel. If I wanted, I could join in the fun. After a very breif hesitation, because who really wants to pass up hiking their second volcano in life??, I decided to join them and knew I'd be seeing more churches throughout my trip.

We walked the 20 minutes to Stazione Centrale to pick up the same train heading to Pompei. The plan was, according to Mu's website, to get off at Ercolano Scavi (Ercolano excavations), walk to the base of the volcano and then hike up to the top. It seemed a bit lofty, but if we would be spending most of our time hiking up, then it should work out fine. After a few detours and turn arounds in the city trying to get to the volcano, we stopped at a gas station and asked for confirmation directions. Just as we were walking away, the next guy who pulled into the station asked the attendant what we were walking to see in town. Upon hearing that we were hiking to Mt. Vesuvius, he beckoned us back and offered to drive us nearer to the base as it was another good 10-15km away still and all uphill.

Grateful for the speedy assistance, Alessandro drove us to a fork in the road which gave us another 1700m to reach the top. He owns a restaurant in town called My House. From here we walked along the road until we found a path leading up the side. Most of the ground was covered in large, porous, volcanic rock with moss on them. Around them were small pine trees with needles easily a foot and a half long. We got up to the point where the rock became gravel and decided to head for a ridge where we saw some stairs/trail that looked safer. From here we made it up to the top and enjoyed the stunning views as we walked around the rim of the volcano.

On the way down we realized that the path ended at a parking lot with a ticket booth. When we checked into the busses that stopped there, we discovered that you had to buy a round trip ticket from wherever you originally got on the bus. Mu talked to the driver when the bus finally showed up (apparently it was 45 mins. late) and after a while he agreed to let the 3 of us on for a ride back to Pompei (no busses were returning to Ercolano). What should have cost each of us E17 ended up being free. Not too shabby. We also discovered the mysterious, disappearing station for Pompei Scavi--the one Rick Steves' was apparently trying to direct us to in the book. We had taken the green line yesterday and directed by the train station staff and Rick wanted us to take the blue line. Who knew?

After such a long walk, Hannah and I felt we deserved some gelato. We were hoping to hit one of the most famous shops in Napoli--Polar Nor. After a bit of searching, we found it all closed up for Sunday. Not to give up on our craving for gelato, we walked toward the hostel and happened across 3 stores still open. We ended up at the one we went to yesterday since it still had the largest selection of flavors. I chose banana (full flavor with a tinge of lemon), cookies (literally cookies with a vanilla flavor) and a very sweet white fluffy stuff with almonds. All 3 were extremely delicious. After this we crashed at the hostel. I got a much desired shower after 2 days and eventually started to prepare dinner.

We did a twist on last night's version by adding roasted red pepper (fresh from the hostel oven!) and eggplant. What a great day this turned out to be.

Frozen In Time

Today's excursion was south of Napoli to the infamous Pompei. Using our CampaniaArteCards, Hannah and I took the Metro to the main station and got on the Circumvesuviana train to Pompei. She has a Rick Steves' book that directed us to get off the train, take a right and then the first left. Seemed easy enough. We got off at Pompei, turned right, crossed the train tracks and saw more city--no ruins. Convinced that Rick Steves had led us astray, we returned to the train station where one of the staff told us to walk out straight, turn right and in about 5 mins. we would see the ruins. Sure enough, if you walk to the city center and turn right you come right to old Pompei.

Armed with our maps and information books which told us the historical significance of what we saw, we headed into Pompei and the adventure of the day. The ruins are absolutely fabulous. Every corner you turn leads to a new row of interesting rooms and buildings. The old streets are all still in tact. You can see ruts in the rock road where carts moved each day carrying goods. Stands where people stopped for snacks stood intact with the clay pots sitting in the stone counter top. Stairs to second floors led to nowhere. Imagine the technology they had to be able to build a second floor without it collapsing or to create a city where every inside wall is painted and floors are delicately built with square tiles the size of your pinky. For the people of Pompei life was an art form. Every part of their daily lives was carefully designed to be beautiful as well as functional. Even a storage room had a well tiled floor and painted walls. Why don't we do this more today? Why are we so quick to mass produce things that are the same for everyone? Where has the art of life gone?

One of the most interesting parts was seeing the plaster casts of the people caught in the volcano explosion. Some of them had looks of terror and others were seeking cover. There was even a dog plaster cast. We wandered around the city for 4 hours taking in the sights and photographing all we could. My battery died out about a half hour or so before we left, so I missed the gladiator arena. I'll have to get those shots from Hannah. After our return from Pompei we headed out to the market to grab some fresh veggies for dinner.

Hannah and I made the most delicious pasta tonight! Compliments of a Rachel Ray show Hannah saw a year ago, we combined fresh tomatoes with lots of garlic and fresh basil in a simmer on the stove. Mixing together the remains of the free pasta left from others, we had huge rings (the size of half dollars), rotini and penne. We also sliced up a green pepper (the sweetest one I've ever tasted) and some mozzarella cheese. Mu (one of the guys who works here at the hostel) cooked up some fraginelli (a local green to Napoli that's the leaves of a broccoli like plant) which looks like spinach, but has a peppery, spicy taste to it. As fortune would have it, the owner Jenny bought 8 pizzas in celebration of something good that happened in her day. I also had a quarter of a margarita pizza. As usual there was vino to go around for all, as much as you wished.

We took an evening walk to the corner near the hostel to grab some gelato which was well worth it. I tried the coconut (which had real flakes of it mixed in) and the hazelnut (it tasted just like the nutella I've been eating for breakfast).

No set plans for tomorrow, so we'll see what the day holds!