Happy Trails For Us: My Reluctant Blog

This is to be known as David’s day. And it was definitely an Italian day (insert typical shrug here). When we went to the train station to purchase our tickets to Pompeii, the clerk told us that perhaps there was a strike there this morning, perhaps not, perhaps it would be over by 10:30 (insert another shrug here). She suggested purchase tickets for the bus tour to Vesuvius, but not tickets for Pompeii Scavi until we got there. So we did and hopped on the train.

At Pompeii, there was a crowd, and yes it was closed, but maybe it would open at 11:30 (shrug). Mind you, this was just rumor in the crowd and no official nothing posted. We decided to go to Vesuvius, and work on a plan B for Pompeii in case it was still closed in the afternoon. We walked to the Vesuvius bus stop and waited 40 minutes for a bus (clerk at station in Sorrento had not mentioned it left only once an hour; shrug). The bus came, it was full and since there was a crowd, now a bit angry, the driver promised one would come in a few minutes. At that, we all shrugged, but really, they did send a second bus.

I don’t think we realized we would be going by bus 45 minutes back towards Naples; we did get a good view of the garbage situation once the bus left the highway and we wound our way up to Vesuvius. Once there, I took a long look at the rocky pathway up to the top and decided David would be better off if I did not take my wonky knee all the way up – after all, we still had Pompeii to come. It was a good decision, and I had a perfectly lovely time sitting on a bench a little ways up the path, chatting with a woman from England who had an ankle to match my knee.

David had a thoroughly good time looking at the crater. Once down we realized we had missed the 12:55 bus back to Pompeii, so had a snack and waited for the next bus. In chatting with people waiting, we realized that the 12:55 had never come (shrug) and now we all hoped the 1:55 would. It pulled in around 1:30, and you can imagine we all ran for that bus. Back down the hill, more garbage piles to view, and back 45 minutes to Pompeii.

It was close to 3 o’clock; we decided to pass on lunch because Pompeii WAS open. While buying tickets, we were offered an opportunity to join a tour being put together by one of the office tour guides. It was one of the better decisions that we have made thus far; Antonio had great stories, spoke very good English and we had 2 wonderful touring hours. After that, we felt that had seen what we had wanted and left for the bus. It had been a long, long day – and so we stopped for sandwiches and wine/beer at a stand outside Pompeii, then took the train back to Sorrento. Postscript – Antonio told us that the strike would probably go on all weekend; workers were upset at not being paid in over a year. Definitely a shrug moment.

So we went back to lovely Sorrento, showered and went in search of dinner with a tv for soccer watching (note above this was David’s day). We found a nice enough outdoors pub type place, and then had pasta, salads and a lot of wine while we watched soccer. The day ended finally with a gelato close to midnight; there was still of lot of action in the Piazza Tasso when we called it a night. I was happy that tomorrow would not be an early day.

Lemons at Pompeii: