Pompei

It's easier to get around now that we spent some time asking questions at the Info office.  We hopped on a bus to Sorrento to make our way to the train to Pompei.  Our bus driver is another competitor for pole position in the Indianapolis 500, only this time he has an unwilling stomach on board and we have to make a pit stop to get their seats and floor cleaned up.  Blech.

We arrive at the station with time to spare, buy our tickets and get on the train.  It's a Naples train, more like a subway car than a train like we have been riding in to get from city to city.  This is evident by the amount of graffiti and writing on both the inside and the outside of the train.  It's a newer experience to us, and I think I might be grateful that most of the writing is in a language we neither speak nor understand.

We get off at Pompei with half the people on the train.  We are all ready to eat lunch now too, so we stop across the street and sit on a low wall to eat.  We walk down the street, past all of the booths of people hawking souvenirs and sunhats, and turn into the entrance.  The ticket line is long and while we are standing in line, we are approached for a tour in English.  Mike goes to talk to the guy and the Brazilian lady behind me tells me we should skip the tour, the reviews on TripAdvisor and other places say they are horrible.  A woman walks up and asks me if I would like her map and hands it to me.  Score!  When we get our tickets, we realize we will be waiting with the guide until they fill the tour and we back out while we rent audio guides for each of us.

We the phone looking audio guides and map and head down the ramp to the entrance.  There is no line to get in, so we come through the turnstile and start up the hill into the Porta Marina.  The uneven stones are slick and we slide around some on our way up the hill.  The map that comes with the audio guide is numbered different than the one that was handed to me.  We circle the things we want to see on the audio guide map so we'll know the number when we get there - only the roads on the audio guide map don't show which roads are open for walking and which are closed.

The site is huge!  As we start walking, I realize we are not going to be able to see everything we wanted because we didn't get on the early morning train and it's almost noon now.  I start down a road to get to something I want to see and get to the end.  When I turn there is a gate, we can't go that way and have to backtrack to a road that is open.  I'm getting a little frustrated with the other map as well, there's "doors" on the map and trying to find the Orto dei Fuggiaschi, I have to walk around all four walls to find the door at the other end of the wall I started on. Grrrr.

We sat in the Anfiteatro in the shade and listened to the

audio and had a snack.  It's pretty impressive, even after seeing the Colosseum in Rome.  The Colosseum was inaugurated in 80AD, the year after Pompei disappeared under 3m of ash and burning pumice stones.  Here they held gladiator fights and, although there were no underground tunnels, let wild animals fight people.

The Theatre was impressive too.  They have refurbished it and added lights and aisle numbers so they must use it for plays or performances of some kind.  It would be pretty cool to sit in this building and watch a play, I think.

We make our way back out of the site and head to Sorrento.  This is a cute town and we decide to wander around and look for dinner.  We stop at a restaurant on the pedestrian street.  The food is ok, but Meghan and I's bottle of water tastes weird.  Before we leave, I pour the bottled water into my waterbottle.  When I reopen it later, air escapes.  The waiter has served us flat sparkling water in a "naturale" bottle.

We hop the bus and head for home.  It's the first driver we've had that hasn't made me queezy and we return to our home by the sea without event.