Today we had the opportunity for a sleep in so we took it, lazily checking out at 11am. We had another crazy travelling day ahead of us – so much more waiting to get through.
We started with a wait for train to Pompeii, arriving there around 12.30pm. We had about an hour and a half here which was perhaps a little squishy. We decided the best way to do this was to take a guided tour – hmmm, not so sure about this now. Our guide was a very quirky Italian who was fascinated with the little nuisances of the greek and latin language, preferring to focus on this instead of the broad history of the city. He also enjoyed wandering around touching everybody and saying ‘thank you very much’ after every tid bit he talked about.
We stuck with this guy for about an hour before needing to leave, taking a quick tour through the brothel which Andy remembered from last time he was here (this was amusing, lots of wall paintings of different sex positions – a menu as such) and of course a look at the famous mummified human bodies, frozen in their dying positions.
Overall Pompeii is very big indeed and typical of Roman Ruins that I have seen before. I think what makes these places interesting are the stories attached the ruins, rather than the ruins themselves so perhaps our slightly dodgy guide meant I was a little underwhelmed by the place – a good guide could have made it fantastic. I think I need to do some background reading to appreciate it more!
By now the weather had turned from sunny to thunder storm, in the space of about five minutes. I don’t think there is such thing as a ‘light shower’ here, the raindrops are big and heavy. And the thunder was loud – this was actually a little bit of a thrill, it could have almost been a volcano erupting.
For lunch we grabbed yet another pizza before catching a train and then a bus to the airport. We were just happy to be sitting relaxing somewhere dry. There was a bit of a funny moment checking in – the man behind the counter asked if we had any bombs and then proceeded to joke about how we shouldn’t be travelling to Venice without one. A bit strange to hear airport staff joking about that kind of thing!
And then a plane trip and then another bus. This bus had a short 15 minute wait, updated ETA times and airconditioned comfy seats! Luxury! And then finding our hotel was easy, the guy was super friendly and our room is not at all the dodgy room we expected. It was just the end to the trip we needed, after a crazy day of waiting around so much.
We dumped our bags and headed out into the streets (I should mention now that we have both been here before). Somehow, despite arriving around 9pm we still had some daylight left! We walked over the Rialto Bride, to St Mark’s Square and then back to a recommended place for dinner – more pasta for us! It was a lovely evening, much more than our exhausted selves earlier in the day could hope for. This is certainly a very touristy city and I feel that our short, less than 24 hours stay here will be enough… however it certainly has a beautiful charm, the famous canals, the gondolas, the masks everywhere. I am very glad we decided on a quick stopover!
We meandered back to our hotel, finding many pretty squares and restaurants that we wished we’d eaten in – oh well, no more nights here! We grabbed a gelato on the way instead, back around 11pm for a relatively early night!
On the move again tomorrow!
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