Pompeii and Vesuvius (or) Did you bring the sunscreen?

When I first started planning our trip to Italy I found lots of information about taking a day trip to Pompeii. Mostly the information was about how to do it as cheaply as possible – but what I actually wanted was information about how to do it as easily as possible.

Taking some of the planning and organisation and handing it over to a tour guide just made sense to me. I know it seems a bit unadventurous to get on a tour bus, but it turned out to be a great idea, and if you’re planning on making Pompeii a day trip (Pompeii and climbing Mt Vesuvius in our case) then an air conditioned bus ride makes all that walking in the hot, hot sun much easier to cope with. Also you can leave stuff on the bus, which is a bonus for the weary (and lazy).

So, this is how it worked, we met our tour group in the Piazza del Popolo, (which seemed to be a meeting place for quite a lot of day-tours), then it’s a three and a half hour trip to Pompeii. You get on the bus, there’s a rest stop on the way, lunch is thrown in between Pompeii and the Vesuvius walk, and then you head home. It’s a long day but totally doable.

What an amazing place Pompeii is. I have to say, if it wasn’t for that pesky volcano, it would have been a pretty good place to live (especially if you had money). The houses were well designed; large rooms, vaulted ceilings, beautifully detailed frescoes, and they had gorgeous views from their courtyards, to lovely (dangerous) Vesuvius so prominent in the distance. The streets were wide, well paved, lined with shops (the shops had sliding shutters apparently, which made me think it isn’t dissimilar to Naples today). Things haven’t changed all that much in many ways. 

This was the bed in the brothel

As with so many tourist attractions, there are lots of people, but it didn’t really matter, everyone just wandered along, the guide was good, and the place is just so interesting that the crowds really didn’t matter. There were a couple of spots, where you had to wait for people to exit before you could go in, but it was nice just to wait, and look around anyway.

It’s hard to imagine, until you’re there, what a wonderful experience it is to brush up against the history of this ancient place. How differently we live now, how much has changed, but at the same time, how similar it is to all the things we do today. It’s so recognisable as a city, shops and cafes and bars (and a brothel). Nice houses for the rich people. An open-air amphitheatre for those necessary sporting events (maybe a little more violent than we’re used to), plenty of art, thermal baths and beauty treatments, in many ways, just how we live now.

The climb to Vesuvius was pretty cool too. The bus takes you most of the way up and then there’s a twenty minute walk to the top. One of our tour guides said people were often disappointed that there is no lava in the crater, so let me save you from that disappointment now – there is no lava in the crater. There are occasional wisps of steam though! It’s an easy walk, and a beautiful view across to the Bay of Naples, so it would be worth it just for that. But also I’d never climbed a volcano before and now I have. Another things ticked off the bucket list.