| Glenn's Pompeii Journals 5-20-02 Monday morning and we were up early to catch an 8:00 am bus from Amalfi to Pompeii. We arose around 6:30 am, showered, and were out of the hostel before 7:30 am. We had to hike back into Amalfi which was only a kilometer but included our backpacks. Hiking with backpacks before 8:00 am was definitely a way to get the heart pumping to start the day off with. We arrived at the bus station in time to buy tickets and find decent seats on the bus to Pompeii (the bus was actually going to Napoli but would stop in Pompeii if you asked, and we did). We even had time to grab some danish for breakfast before we headed out. The bus ride was uneventful but did provide some beautiful scenery of parts of the country that we had not seen as of yet. We arrived in Pompeii around 10:30 am and, as first things first goes, we went in search of information and a place to stay. Information was just around the corner from where the bus dropped us off and was actually more useful than most. They provided us many choices of hotels/hostels in town and off we were. They were some camp grounds nearby but we passed on those as we did not have the camping gear required. We found a great little hotel in town (I will have to verify the name) with bathroom and a balcony for only 39 Euros per night. Now were talking!!! We actually took a little nap before heading out for the day to check out the ruins. We first stopped into the large church on the main street in town. The intricate works inside churches around Italy continue to impress and amaze me. Beautiful!!! We then were off to the ruins of Pompeii. We spent the next 4+ hours wandering around the ruins. We were assisted by an audio guide that we had rented that provided a good amount of history about Pompeii. The city is amazing in the context that it is over 2000 years old and was buried by volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius in the year 79 AD. Archeologists are continuing to work to uncover more of the city and to understand more about the people of that time. They have uncovered over 35 acres and are allowing tourists to view over 12 acres of the present site. It is amazing how civilized they were back then. An impressive city especially if you are interested in ancient cultures and / or archeology. We left the park after 7:00 pm and were ready for dinner. We found a local supermarket, grabbed some drinks and snacks, and headed back to a restaurant we had seen earlier to order pizzas to go. Once we had those we went back to the room and relaxed while we enjoyed our meal. After dinner we read and relaxed the rest of the evening away as we had another travel day planned for tomorrow. We were on our way to Cinque Terre via Rome and Florence. |
| Glenn hanging around the streets of the Pompeii ruins |
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