Rome – day three – Naples

Huh? Indi loves here Latin and Sasha’s studying volcanoes – so there was no way that we wouldn’t be doing Pompeii. Sure Naples is about 300km from Rome – but the superfast Eurostar trains do the distance in about 90 minutes. It’s like riding a low flying areoplane. You get reserved, comfortable seating to and from the middle of the big cities. It’s THE way to go. (Of course it costs. A 20% ‘family’ fare for four to Naples cost about $250 one way).

Deposited in Napoli Centrale at about 10am, we made our way to the significantly sleazier train line to Sorrento, along which the Pompeii ruins are located. We’d been reading horror stories about pickpockets and such in both Naples and on this line in particular – and our day wasn’t brightened any by a very dodgy dude seemingly targeting us on the platform. He stood RIGHT behind me for a few seconds before I moved, then we all moved down the platform - and he followed us. They say, “don’t look like tourists”, but it’s near impossible not to when you’re travelling with kids. You can pick ‘em – and we were them. I spent a bit of time staring at old mate – just to let him know that we knew his game, but it didn’t help. No matter where we went on the platform, he followed or kept us in sight without looking directly at us – he even got on the same carriage as us. It was horribly crowded, but we fortunately got seats and were able to hunker down. Paranoia? Perhaps, but it’s a pretty gritty town.

After a 40 minute south through the very uninspiring outer suburbs of Naples, only moderated slightly be the odd view of the Bay of Naples out one graffiti splattered window, and Vesuvius out of the other – we finally arrived at the Pompeii station and made a bee-line for the sanctuary of the ruins (tickets please!).

Pompeii. For both the kids it was a major milestone in the trip. Indi’s been doing Latin for a couple of years now, and the Cambridge text that they use is based around the day-to-day life of one of Pompeii’s residents (to Indi’s disgust, I can never remember his name!). He was a banker, and when they unearthed his home along with the thousands of others buried when Vesuvius dumped ash over the hole ‘burb, they found wax tablets outlining his commercial transactions alongside the artworks, statues, columns and such. We targeted his house, at the far side of the area that’s been excavated – and we’re talking an area around that of say Civic. First, the ubiquitous Forum – the meeting place for all and sundry in those days – a place to do business and hold forth if the mood so took you. Behind that were various houses, some large and ornate, many small, lining the stone paved streets that criss cross the hill in a very neatly laid out manner. Many of the juicy bits of recovered art and statues had been relocated to the Naples Archeological Museum – and we get there in a paragraph or so – but there’s still enough to keep even the most jaded sore-footed tourist interested.

We did find Call… Cam… Callsecius’s house – but it was closed!! Bugger! (but very Italian) We did manage to get a camera through the fence and snap the odd shot, and did the same favour for an American who’d been studying the Cambridge text for a lot longer than Indi, on a similar pilgrimage. After lunch on the corner of Old and Aincent, we made our way out of the ruins via the theater district – having had to wave off the main amphitheatre, just too far away over those cobbled streets.

Back on the dodgy train – a revelation this time. Still gritty but with few passengers in mid afternoon (and no dodgy dude), the trip zipped past – we even had a slice of pizza on the Pompeii station, which we’ll claim as from Naples, the birthplace of that most elegant food!! Back in Central Naples, the Museum is a couple of km from the station, so rather than stuff around with a whole new metro train system we jumped in a cab. It was great. There are barely an road rules, traffic lights are more like suggestions and our cabbie played the Naples roads like the lead violin in an orchestra of traffic chaos. I think it was scarier than the rollercoaster at Disneyland! We ripped through the museum in record time, mindful of our return Eurostar ticket, but still saw all the Pompeii bits and pieces, alongside a hole heap of other aincent Roman gear - from GIANT MARBLE STATUES to cool gladiator garb – fascinating, and given all (most all) the plaques were in Italian, one needn’t hang around for too long.

Done with a little time to spare, we decided to risk the Naples Metro back to Centrale – got ripped off by the ticket seller and promptly got on the wrong train! The good thing about trains in busy cities is that they only go in two directions, so we got off at the next stop, reversed our error, got to Centrale and onto the supercomfort of the Eurostar with plenty of time to spare. Another relaxing rip through the mid-Italian countryside and it’s just as beautiful as all the literature suggests. Villages clinging to hillsides, and on top of mountains, snowcapped mountains at that, and lots and lots of greenery. Back in Rome a cab deposited us back at our apartment and it was back ‘home’ with only one final stop at the deli on the ground floor for dinner makings. Phew, I think we’re finding our pace now. We’ll see if the Vatican tests it tomorrow.