Ever since
Frankie Howard shimmied onto the TV screen of my teenage years with his double
entendres and innuendo, I've been fascinated by the idea of Pompeii. The
sumptuous villas, the baths, the fountains, the characters and their everyday
lives and the sheer civility of it all, all of two thousand years ago,
frozen in time by the volcanic ash and lava from Vesuvius.
We began the
day with an entertaining and slightly alarming bus in the style of a tram ride
up to the crater of Vesuvius, all hairpin bends and face offs between drivers
trying to get past one another with inches to spare. We gave our very calm and
skillful driver, Luigi, a round of applause at the summit! This was nothing on
the Naples ring road though, more of which later.
We were
dropped off at the car park, with a kilometre walk up a volcanic ash path to
reach the crater ahead of us. As we ascended the summit, all traces of sun
disappeared and we were well and truly up in the clouds, lending an eerie,
muffled feel to the walk. As we crunched our way through the mist,
glimpses of sun began to peek through and by the time we reached the top the
views were stunning!
After a lunch
refuel back at the van, we set off to explore Pompeii. The ruins are right next
to the campsite, Camping Zeus, which provided us with a great two night
stopover. We decided to eschew the tour and audio guides and instead had
done some reading beforehand about which areas to visit, as the site is vast.
As we walked through, we paused occasionally to listen to some of the tour
guides, mostly in English, which provided snippets of information to supplement
our own. Hence we learned about the stepping stones being the equivalent
of a Roman zebra crossing, raised up to keep sandals, skirts and togas out of
the rain, and we heard about the brothels, with their menus displayed outside,
and then we had a two part tour of the House of Faun, with its rare yellow, red
and blue marble fountain and colour scheme throughout the villa to match (I
like to think this is where the TV series was set!). Whilst all the while we
walked the site, Vesuvius loomed in the background . . . .
We left,
happy but exhausted, just before closing time.
We were up
early the next morning to head south and take a drive along the Amalfi coast,
one of the most spectacular in Italy. Mr B soon got into his Italian
driver mode; let's call it assertive, and we spent a jolly four hours driving
the 62 miles along the coast to our next destination. The roads are crazy
windy, with one hairpin after another and narrow alternate lane access in some
of the villages, but spectacular views and a lot of fun! I'm feeling a
bit more acclimatised to the driving style here now since my Naples experience,
and it seems almost an advantage to be in a right hand drive vehicle since one
gets overtaken on both sides, on the hard shoulder and on narrow slip roads! On
the plus side, pulling out in front of other vehicles, or pushing in as we’d
call it at home, is common practice and vehicles will give way. Generally
people are pretty mellow, unless you commit the sin of hesitation, which gets
the following traffic all leaning on their horns!
As I write we
have decided to pause for a couple of days near the old Greek town of Paestum, north of Agropoli,
at Camping Athena. The ACSI camping guide and app has come up trumps so
far and we've enjoyed some excellent sites. This one is on a long sandy
beach and a short cycle ride from the ruins, where we're off to tomorrow. We've
had a few hours in the sun, but now it's spotting with rain, so time for a
cuppa and to review the photos.
J.
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