Our Day 1 began at 3 am with catching a bus to the Stadstead airport. Travel tip for all of those who will be visiting me in London and traveling Europe with me (wink, wink), London has a great system to get to and from airports at any time of the day or night, conveniently and economically.
We arrived in Naples around 10 am, where our adventure began...We rented a car in advance, thinking that it would be the most efficient mode of transportation for us, given that we had to travel to several places: Vesuvius, Pompei, Positano and around the Amalfi Coast...only to quickly learn that driving is the worst thing one can do in Italy! There are either no signs for streets or attractions, or there are literally walls of signs with dozens of arrows on top of one another pointing to every corner; the streets provided by our trusty Google Map app do not exist; and lanes, signalling, giving the right of way, and any other typical driving rules are just suggestions...and I should also mention that you are driving in the mountains most of the time! The only way to make it there is to forget everything you learned in driving school! Mark did an amazing job driving to all of our destinations, with navigational help from me. Travel tip #2, just look at your GPS map and follow it - the street names that you see on it do not exist. One of the 'highways' we had to take was actually a 3 meter wide alleyway up the mountain hehe. Travel tip #3 - just ask the locals! :) We absolutely loved Italians - they are the friendliest, most helpful people! We concluded they are so nice because they have nothing to worry about, as they live in a beautiful place with beautiful weather and amazing food - what else does one need?!
Stop 1 - Vesuvius
This is the very volcano that I wanted to see since I was little, so I was very excited to finally step my foot on it! You have to drive up the volcano almost all the way to the top, and then walk the last 30 or so minutes up the mountain to the top to see the crater. The drive up the mountain was very pretty, with great views of Naples all around you. I thought the hike to the crater was quite fun, but maybe it was my excitement talking, because Mark and his calves seemed to disagree. I also wore my runners, like a pro keen tourist that I was, so that could've helped :) Little did we know, the hike up Vesuvius was a breeze compared to what we did the following day... It was very neat to see the crater, and you could even see part of it smoking a little. Here are some pix!
View from almost the top
Mark and I at the crater
Just me and the crater
Stop 2 - Pompei
Pompei is a 20 min drive from Vesuvius. It's actually a whole 'city within a city' - a pedestrian only area of Naples that stretches 60 hectares. It's truly a stunning place to visit, because you see history frozen in time. Ancient stadiums, temples, houses and streets...they even have skeletons of people and animals fossilized by ash...We were there at a great time, as it was later both in the year and in the day, so there were only a handful of other tourists. It was very neat to wander the ancient streets, just the two of us. Here are more pix before I move on to Day 2!
Hanging out at the Teatro Grande
Hopping a fence to the ancient house
Doing it like Appollo
On the Via delle Tombe
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