When we reached Pompeii, our private tour guide met us, and we were ready to go, just the three of us. Perfect. No one to slow us down, and we’d have all the full attention of the guide for our questions (not that we wouldn’t hog that anyway). No less than two minutes into the tour, there was a burst of thunder and boom, it started monsooning. Luckily my friend and I had brought our ponchos (the ones we bought at the ABBA museum in Stockholm), however rain this hard wasn’t going to be easy to avoid. We all starting running toward a shelter, but it was still about five minutes away. Our feet got totally soaked, but nothing else got wet thanks to those ponchos. Money we’ll spent in Stockholm. Sure, it was annoying to get so wet, but on the plus side, it cooled everything down and it stopped after about eight minutes or so and then we continued on the tour.
I had some prior knowledge of what Pompeii was from elementary school, but I kind of thought the whole town was buried by lava that hardened from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, but it wasn’t just that. We got some of the history and walked the streets and saw into homes. We saw a lot of similarities of this with the ruins we saw in Ephesus last year and even the ruins that we saw in Crete, which our guide actually referenced quite often.
As the guide began to gauge our personalities, she asked us if we wanted to see the whore house in the town. Well that was an easy question. Of course we did! Duh. We got to see inside at the graphic sexual paintings on the wall as well as the cement beds they did their business on. What we found the most humorous was that there were two secret signs leading people to the whore house. One was a cement penis on a wall and another was an even bigger cement penis on the stone walkway. We thoroughly enjoyed that and think we even embarrassed the guide a little with what we were saying.
Another thing that we found interesting there were the petrified/mummified people (and dog), and even some human remains. These were of people that couldn’t get out of the town on time and died there during the eruption. One was a pregnant woman, one was a child, and a bunch were of slaves that were told to stay behind and protect the property but weren’t able to leave once they realized how serious the eruption was.
Volcanoes have always fascinated me, but inna very terrifying way. I used to love the movie Dante’s Peak growing up about a volcano erupting in very picturesque mountain town and all the damage it did. If you haven’t see it, check it out and thank me later.
After the tour, we had a bunch of extra time so our driver told us he’d take us to get pizza in Naples. After all, pizza was pretty much invented there. The first place he took us, which apparently won best pizza in all of Italy, was closed because it’s Sunday. But then he took us down by the water to a different restaurant and we ate there. It was quite windy out and the waves were huge. The water also didn’t look as blue as it had anywhere else and I’m wondering if that was because it was being churned up by the wind so much.
I know a lot of people go and visit Naples, and it was pretty by the water, but the rest of the town looks very dirty and run down. I was shocked how filthy it seemed and was glad we didn’t choose to spend much time in that city and had all the others on our original list.
After lunch, it was off to the train station to catch our train to Rome. We figured this would be the most stress-free of all our train rides since it was only one train. However, when we got to the station, we didn’t see our train number on the board and started to panic a little. Our train time was on there and the number with it was very close to what our ticket said, but it wasn’t on there. This hasn’t happened to us yet. Yes, the trains have been delayed, but the train numbers and final destinations have all been correct. We had plenty of time to wait in the customer service line to speak to someone to clarify that this was basically the same train and if we could use these tickets even though the number and final destination were different. She assured us that we could use our tickets and this train still stopped in Rome first. We were relieved, but as we started to wait for our track to be posted, we got more and more nervous when it wasn’t. Thankfully it did and we made our way to our train and got comfy for the first class ride to Rome.
We got into Rome at 4:35 as expected and had to make the ten minute walk to the hotel. We didn’t have a map and our phones don’t have service so we had to keep asking people if we were going the right way, and luckily, we were. Once at the hotel, we dropped off our stuff, got a map, and immediately got moving. We have so little time in Rome and my friend has never been here and I was here so long ago (six years ago for my first Europe trip ever) that we wanted to hit up all the famous spots all at once and in the short period of time before it gets dark.
We decided to buy a 24-hr train pass, which was more of a struggle than expected. The station by our hotel wouldn’t take cash or cards and no one would help us, so we booked it to the next station and had to buy from a market in there and were finally on our way to Vatican City to see St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican, from the outside. The last time I was here I learned that Vatican City is actually its own country. Who knew?!?
When we got off the train we headed toward the Basilica hoping to get some good pics. We knew we wouldn’t be able to get in because it was past six and it closed then. We also knew we had no chance of getting into the Vatican since you need tickets way earlier. We also weren’t dressed appropriate anyway because our shoulders and knees were out. We walked around the piazza there and just took it all in. There were also some nuns walking around, which is always just kind of weird for me to see.
After walking the grounds a bit, we headed back to the train to head to the Colosseum. The metro system in Rome is super easy to figure out and there was no problem navigating at all. When we arrived at the Colosseum stopped and got off outside, we both looked up and just gasped. The Colosseum was right there, in all its magnificence. When I first visited it, I was totally in awe with its structure, the history, and just it’s general incredibleness. Today was no different. It was just as awesome as I remember. We walked around and just stared at it (and took some pics). But we took our time doing a lap and were both just totally blown away. We spent about a solid hour there and then hopped back on the train to head to the Spanish Steps. I don’t really understand the allure of them or why they are such an attraction, but we had to go. They were full of people and again, just meh to see. From there, we headed to the Trevi Fountain. We had even taken out some coins so we could toss them in for good luck. I remember doing that last time I was there. When we got to the fountain, we were once again blown away by its sheer size. I don’t remember it being so big, but I remember being so impressed. It was also a mob scene, but we managed to get our way up close. However, there was yellow caution tape around it by the bottom steps so people couldn’t get too close or toss in coins. I’m not quite sure why that was there, but whatever.
From there it was off to the Pantheon, which we knew would be closed, but still wanted to see it. We walked through, and then finally it was time to make our way to Piazza Novana for dinner. As soon as we approached the piazza, I remember being there. It’s also so beautiful with fountains and giant structures and just the perfect place to have our last dinner in Italy. We sat at a table outside and ordered our food, and just finally took a breath since landing in Rome. I ordered penne carbonara that was absolutely delicious and a solid way to end all the big carb-heavy meals here.
After going and going since we got to Rome, it was time to make our way back to the train by the Spanish steps to head to the hotel. In our very short time of being in Rome, we sure covered a lot of ground. It’s really a great city and there’s so much to do, that even though we don’t have nearly enough time here, we sure made the best of it, as per usual.
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