Thursday October 18, 2012

We woke up this morning in Naples, Italy for our last excursion day. Originally Jill & I were going to tour Naples and then take the train and tour Pompeii but after a long week we decided that we'd sleep in a little, eat breakfast and just go to Pompeii.

Upon exiting the boat Jill & I had to get through a bunch of pushy taxi drivers and peddlers trying to get all the tourists to purchase their nick-nacks. We eventually got to the metro-train that took us to the train station where we took a train to Pompeii.

While on the train the passengers were serenaded by two different accordion performances, one was a 12 yr old and the other was a teenager with his friend that played the accompanying radio and tambourine. Both groups would play a little and then walk through the train asking for money. Of all the ports we visited Naples felt the worst off. Once we got to Pompeii we were greeted with more vendors calling out to the tourists to buy their books, tours, food, souvenirs, etc. at this point I was getting annoyed and was looking forward to being back on the boat but we pressed on because we both really wanted to see the buried  city. Once we got inside the site things were finally calmer, we got our map and description booklet and started through the city. We got to the end of the first street and realized that we were trying to look at each individual house in the entire city. At that rate we'd never get through Pompeii, so we set a course of visiting the larger sites only (theaters, bath houses, Colosseum  temples, and larger houses) and just glance at the smaller houses as we walked by them. It was remarkable that as old as the city was that the tile flooring and painted walls in many houses was still intact, and it was incredible. The way the ancient people incorporated the ductwork within the walls of their bathhouse to heat rooms was great (Jill didn't appreciate it as much as I did though). The ancient theater was in great shape too and is still used today for open air concerts and performances. And Mount Vesuvius on the horizon was spectacular. We only spent about 5 hours in Pompeii but as with all the other stops on this trip, we could've easily spent more time there. Our train ride back to Naples seemed a lot faster and when we got back to the port all the vendors and taxi drivers were got. Between the port entrance and our boat there was a nice shopping area were we purchased two pashminas (almost all Europeans wore one, even the men. So we bought one for my mom and one for Jill, I was tempted to get one but I didn't want to be mistaken as an uppity architect back in the states.

Back on the boat Jill and I ended up taking a small nap before dinner. After dinner we decided to watch The Avengers in 3D. We then went to the top deck to watch the party the boat put on for everyone. After the band stopped playing and the bars closed around 1am Jill and I went to bed excited to sleep in the next morning but sad that that meant our trip was wrapping up. We both agreed we'd have to cruise some more.