Today we woke up very early. At about 6am, much to everyone’s disgust, we had to be out the door by 7am which was hard for some people. Breakfast was what we had bought at the supermarket the night before, so I had giant pretzels and ate them at the train station (they were pretty good).
We took a fast train to the city of Naples. We met our guide for the day, Nadia, on the bus. She guided us through some of the history of Pompeii and Herculaneum on the way up Mount Vesuvius. I actually can’t describe how big it was, like nothing in Australia. It was really mind blowing to see, and for a volcano that is due for an eruption it sure is cold on the crater. It was smoking inside the crater which was pretty scary and to think that in less than 5 years it could erupt again and destroy everything within a 400km radius.
Once we completed the treacherous walk up the mountain we met with our other guide, Antonio, and he explained the history in more detail. We all walked as far as we could go and stopped at a little souvenir shop and had a coke.
When we arrived back at the bottom of the mountain we took the bus to Pompeii and had lunch at a restaurant. We had pizza and it was literally the best pizza I’ve had in my life. Nadia told us that pizza was invented in Naples and was food for the servants.
Entering the once sprawling village of Pompeii was a pretty amazing experience. I underestimated how big it was as it looked super small from the outside but it just kept on going once on the inside. It scared me to think that around 2000 years ago the people of Pompeii were caught out from their daily activities because of the ash falling from Vesuvius. We saw the plaster cast bodies in some of the rooms in Pompeii. Some of them even had exposed bone remnants. It’s hard to fathom how many people and animals lost their lives due to the eruption.
When we left the ruins of Pompeii, we went outside and had a look around the markets for a while. One of the shop owners convinced me to buy and “I <3 Italia” shirt, they’re so convincing! Once we arrive back in Rome, we’ll be off to dinner and then hopefully straight to bed.
Chow! X
Sarah N
