Today was Pompeii day! We ate some breakfast at home and then set out around 10am. We headed for the train station, but all the 30 minute trains had been cancelled, so we had to take a super slow train that looks like it was from the 1920’s, and took almost an hour. Alas, we made it, but with the cancelled trains, we were going to be late to meet our guide at 11am (we got there at 11:45am), but she was super accommodating. We finally made it Pompeii and met our guide, who wasn’t a real guide, but got us in one of the rear gates, and then handed us our VR goggles! Yes, you read that right and are seeing the picture below correctly, we got VR goggles to show what Pompeii used to look like…
We stared off near that main amphitheater where the gladiators fought and tried to use the VR goggles. It was not really Dave’s thing, but Anna and Tsana enjoyed them, so they continued the tour with them. If you’ve ever played The Sims, then you’ll know the level of graphics. It was a little strange especially because the “aide” wasn’t supposed to be a guide, so we thought we’d get free reign of the place, but she took us to the highlights, until we sent her home (with the goggles of course). Below, see a picture of their amphitheater- pretty cool!
We walked around Pompeii for the next couple of hours and it was very cool, but also extremely hot (haha)! It was 94 degrees with very little shade. The tour was supposed to keep going, but we were all of us were hot and tired, and we kept her longer than originally thought, so we gave the goggles back to Imma (great lady!) and told her we were done, which we suspected she may have been grateful for considering the heat.
The cold water room of the bath house:
We then headed towards the other train station to try and get the faster train back home. This ended up being a big ordeal. There were 2 trains, the express, and the regular train, but both were delayed. The platform was absolutely packed and after about 20 minutes of waiting a train finally arrived, and completely passed us so we had to run further down the platform to only find out that this is the express train which was a more expensive ticket (we didn’t buy that one) and the other train would be here in “5 minutes.” Now, we put that in quotes for good reason - it was 5 minutes, a few times over before it arrived. What seemed like eons later, the other train arrived, and it was already pretty full, and the 100 people on the platform had to pack into the already-full-train like a can of sardines.
So, let’s give time here for a side note. Dave and Tsana are experienced Bostonians, and Anna, a well-traveled Boston visitor, and we are no strangers to crowded trains. Red Sox games, Celtics games, 4th of July, typical rush hour - you name it, we’ve been there and been squished with no personal space to speak of, but this, this was different. This was another level. There was no AC (which isn’t a big deal unless you are touching other humans in 94 degree weather), and this supposed “fast train” did end up going express back to Naples, BUT because of how many people there were on it and how slow it had to go through tunnels, it took well over 45 minutes. It was probably the worst train experience we have ever had. No stars. Would not recommend.
We finally made it back (!) and the girls headed back out to send ourselves our liquid purchases over the last two weeks via FedEx, and then we all took a much needed shower before heading out for dinner (I think we could have wrung out our clothing by this point). We tried to find a new pizza place, different from last night, but we were starving, needed AC, a place to sit (as opposed to stand in the street and eat) and the pizza place was amazing from last night (Antica Pizzeria Di Matteo), so we went there. You may ask yourself, did they all eat an entire pizza themselves? Why yes, yes we did (see before and after pics below).
BEFORE…
AFTER…
After pizza, we headed to get some fancy sandwiches for the flight the next day. After sandwiches, we had a final Italian drink at a very Neapolitan drink place. The saddest part of the evening was our last gelato of the trip, which was bittersweet (pun fully intended, although gelato is rarely bitter).
This whole trip has been such an amazing experience and we have been so happy to share this with you!