Day 16: Saturday
After three hours of sleep, which felt like none, Elli and I reluctantly woke up and started getting ready. At 7:15am we made our way to the tram, then to a taxi stand because we didn’t want to talk to Termini Station. The taxi driver totally ripped us off too. Then we tried to find our platform, but apparently not all the screens have all the trains, so we asked a man and he told us. We walked down the train looking for empty seats, and we passed a car that had some, so we got on it and got situated. A little while later Dylan realized we were in first class, so we had to move to a different coach with yelling mothers and screaming babies (good thing they got off soon after). So strange how we managed to randomly pick the one car on the train that’s first class. After we moved and got resituated I tried to sleep but it wasn’t working so I just sat and listened to my music. I think I finally fell asleep for a little bit, but I woke up and got excited about looking out the window. I did a horrible job at reading any of Livy, but oh well. We arrived in Naples at about 11am, and stepped out into another new place. People had told me that Naples is kind of sketch, but so far I haven’t seen any of that. I think where they get this impression from is that Naples is definitely not as clean as Rome, and the buildings are not as well-kept. We started making our way toward our hostel, getting assaulted by men selling us iphones “for no money.” The other thing we noticed about Naples compared to Rome was that it seems like people actually live here, whereas in Rome you only see tourists or businessmen. Here you see children playing, laundry hanging everywhere, and people just hanging out. The drivers are almost even more crazy because they drive their vespas on the sidewalks and don’t wear helmets. It also seems to be the vehicle of choice for a family of three. The walk was longer than we would’ve liked, but we finally found the place. We rang the doorbell and called a billion times, but no one was answering. So we just waited outside until finally someone came and let us in. As he was checking us in, we started getting into a political discussion (of course we did, we’re Madison). He was also an American, so we updated him on the situation with the 2012 election and Obama and the lack of serious Republican candidates, and about the birther controversy and the Osama thing. We were getting so into it that we got yelled at twice by some bitchy Quebecois girls who were trying to sleep still, at noon. Finally we got to our room, which is shared with the guy who checked us in and another guy, both Americans with lots of tattoos. We put our stuff down and immediately got ready to head back to the train station to go to Pompeii. We stopped at a place for lunch where I had the most interesting meal I’ve had yet in Italy: A pizza with ham and corn. I definitely tried to order penne pasta, but I got this pizza instead, but oh well, it was good, just very strange to think of. After lunch we went to the train station, bought our tickets for Pompeii (4.50 euro round trip), then waited on the platform for the train. We weren’t 100 percent positive about what we were doing, so we watched the other group of American tourists and got on the train they did (it also said Pompeii, so it seemed promising). The train ride was about a half hour, and we were already exhausted. We finally made it to Pompeii though! Elli was lucky with her UK passport and only had to pay 5,50 euro, while the rest of us stupid Americans had to pay 11 euro. Oh well, it was totally worth it. I had pictured in my mind Pompeii to be as big as the Roman Forum; just a place to walk around and take pictures of for a couple hours, but I was completely wrong. First of all, you don’t just get to take pictures of the ruins, you actually walk on them and through them, just as Pompeians did. Another thing is that it slips your mind that Pompeii was an actual city. And not only was it a city, but most of it is still there. So we were amazed by how it just kept going and going in literally every direction. We walked around for hours taking pictures, and it was so awesome to walk through the streets and see the buildings that are so old. It is much easier to picture what it would’ve been like than the Roman Forum because the buildings are so well preserved. Another thing that struck me was the color. I had always imagined old Roman cities as being completely brick and marble with no color, but many walls in Pompeii had red or blue and pictures painted on them, as well as mosaics, which made me realize that it actually was more than bricks and marble. We were so happy when we found a functioning water fountain, and we stumbled into a big theater. I felt that we were able to appreciate the city a little more than other tourists because of our interest in and devotion to studying ancient Rome. We wandered back toward the front, where we bought postcards and realized there was a lot we hadn’t seen. Even though we were exhausted and just wanted to go home and go to bed, we decided to go back out and venture toward the giant amphitheater. It was cool, but not the Colosseum. Finally we made our way back to the train station, stopping for some slushies and sandwiches on the way. We had to stand on the ride home, which was unwelcoming since our feet hurt already, and of course I couldn’t reach the bars to hold onto. It was about 8pm when we finally wandered back into our hostel, where we collapsed, changed clothes, and went online. The host made a pasta dinner for everyone, so I wandered out to check that out, and there was the tattoo guys from our room, the bitchy Quebecois, a Brit, and a bunch of Asians. I had some pasta and started talking to some Asian girls, whom I found out were South Korean. We chatted about Italy, Asia, and America, and they were amused by the random Chinese sayings I know. After dinner I went back to the room, and now it is time to read some Livy until I fall asleep, very welcomingly. I’m exhausted.
After three hours of sleep, which felt like none, Elli and I reluctantly woke up and started getting ready. At 7:15am we made our way to the tram, then to a taxi stand because we didn’t want to talk to Termini Station. The taxi driver totally ripped us off too. Then we tried to find our platform, but apparently not all the screens have all the trains, so we asked a man and he told us. We walked down the train looking for empty seats, and we passed a car that had some, so we got on it and got situated. A little while later Dylan realized we were in first class, so we had to move to a different coach with yelling mothers and screaming babies (good thing they got off soon after). So strange how we managed to randomly pick the one car on the train that’s first class. After we moved and got resituated I tried to sleep but it wasn’t working so I just sat and listened to my music. I think I finally fell asleep for a little bit, but I woke up and got excited about looking out the window. I did a horrible job at reading any of Livy, but oh well. We arrived in Naples at about 11am, and stepped out into another new place. People had told me that Naples is kind of sketch, but so far I haven’t seen any of that. I think where they get this impression from is that Naples is definitely not as clean as Rome, and the buildings are not as well-kept. We started making our way toward our hostel, getting assaulted by men selling us iphones “for no money.” The other thing we noticed about Naples compared to Rome was that it seems like people actually live here, whereas in Rome you only see tourists or businessmen. Here you see children playing, laundry hanging everywhere, and people just hanging out. The drivers are almost even more crazy because they drive their vespas on the sidewalks and don’t wear helmets. It also seems to be the vehicle of choice for a family of three. The walk was longer than we would’ve liked, but we finally found the place. We rang the doorbell and called a billion times, but no one was answering. So we just waited outside until finally someone came and let us in. As he was checking us in, we started getting into a political discussion (of course we did, we’re Madison). He was also an American, so we updated him on the situation with the 2012 election and Obama and the lack of serious Republican candidates, and about the birther controversy and the Osama thing. We were getting so into it that we got yelled at twice by some bitchy Quebecois girls who were trying to sleep still, at noon. Finally we got to our room, which is shared with the guy who checked us in and another guy, both Americans with lots of tattoos. We put our stuff down and immediately got ready to head back to the train station to go to Pompeii. We stopped at a place for lunch where I had the most interesting meal I’ve had yet in Italy: A pizza with ham and corn. I definitely tried to order penne pasta, but I got this pizza instead, but oh well, it was good, just very strange to think of. After lunch we went to the train station, bought our tickets for Pompeii (4.50 euro round trip), then waited on the platform for the train. We weren’t 100 percent positive about what we were doing, so we watched the other group of American tourists and got on the train they did (it also said Pompeii, so it seemed promising). The train ride was about a half hour, and we were already exhausted. We finally made it to Pompeii though! Elli was lucky with her UK passport and only had to pay 5,50 euro, while the rest of us stupid Americans had to pay 11 euro. Oh well, it was totally worth it. I had pictured in my mind Pompeii to be as big as the Roman Forum; just a place to walk around and take pictures of for a couple hours, but I was completely wrong. First of all, you don’t just get to take pictures of the ruins, you actually walk on them and through them, just as Pompeians did. Another thing is that it slips your mind that Pompeii was an actual city. And not only was it a city, but most of it is still there. So we were amazed by how it just kept going and going in literally every direction. We walked around for hours taking pictures, and it was so awesome to walk through the streets and see the buildings that are so old. It is much easier to picture what it would’ve been like than the Roman Forum because the buildings are so well preserved. Another thing that struck me was the color. I had always imagined old Roman cities as being completely brick and marble with no color, but many walls in Pompeii had red or blue and pictures painted on them, as well as mosaics, which made me realize that it actually was more than bricks and marble. We were so happy when we found a functioning water fountain, and we stumbled into a big theater. I felt that we were able to appreciate the city a little more than other tourists because of our interest in and devotion to studying ancient Rome. We wandered back toward the front, where we bought postcards and realized there was a lot we hadn’t seen. Even though we were exhausted and just wanted to go home and go to bed, we decided to go back out and venture toward the giant amphitheater. It was cool, but not the Colosseum. Finally we made our way back to the train station, stopping for some slushies and sandwiches on the way. We had to stand on the ride home, which was unwelcoming since our feet hurt already, and of course I couldn’t reach the bars to hold onto. It was about 8pm when we finally wandered back into our hostel, where we collapsed, changed clothes, and went online. The host made a pasta dinner for everyone, so I wandered out to check that out, and there was the tattoo guys from our room, the bitchy Quebecois, a Brit, and a bunch of Asians. I had some pasta and started talking to some Asian girls, whom I found out were South Korean. We chatted about Italy, Asia, and America, and they were amused by the random Chinese sayings I know. After dinner I went back to the room, and now it is time to read some Livy until I fall asleep, very welcomingly. I’m exhausted.
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| Chillin in Pompeii |
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| Columns |
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| Elli and I |
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| Being statues |
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| The group in the Forum with Temple of Jupiter and Vesuvius in the background |
