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Report 1489: Alone on the Amalfi Coast

By Sharonov from Illinois, Spring 2007

Page 3 of 14: Pompeii

On the Circumvesuviana to Pompeii

The next morning I happened to look above my door, and there it was--the heater. I then remembered that in Spain there was always a remote control that turned it on, and sure enough it was right next to my purse. Idiot me didn't even think to look. Well good, tonight I'll be comfortable.

The Circumvesuviana train station (pronounced "CHircum...) was a five minute walk from my hotel, and cost €3.8 round trip to Pompeii. In Italy you buy the ticket from a nearby tobacconist and put it in a machine in the train station or bus that validates the time. If you're caught with an unvalidated ticket on train or bus you could be fined over €60. In the 17 days I was there, I never saw an inspector. It would have been possible to just ride all over the place for nothing, but I'd never take the chance!

I think I'm the only person I know at home who hadn't seen Pompeii -- and I'm glad! The longer you wait to do something, the bigger the thrill. And I was indeed thrilled to finally, FINALLY see this fabulous archaeological discovery. Outside the gate I had four choices: just pay my money, go in and look blindly around (bad choice), pay for an audio guide (€6, OK choice), buy a guidebook (don't want to be looking down all the time) or join a small group and pay a guide (€10). I opted for the last. Our guide spoke excellent English and was very well informed, and the only problem I had was that he seemed to rush around too fast. I wanted to just stand in some places and let the feeling of what was and what happened wash over me. He showed us the main things: forum, amphitheater (which is still used), brothel (with pictures of what the women would do, most of which seemed to be, shall we say, not face-to-face?) and plaster casts of a dying pregnant woman and tied-up dog trying to twist its way out of the leash.) The bodies all rotted in their ash capsules, so plaster casts of the various apertures inside the ash show the person's last position. Most supposedly died very quickly. Hope so.

When he left us I decided to walk around at my own pace. I really wanted an audio guide at that point, but once you leave to do anything, you can't get back in, and the audio sets were outside the gates.

How do you describe the feeling of walking on streets that were buried, along with 2,000 dead people, for 1700 years? I'm not even going to try, but it was truly awesome. One woman said, "why are we so concerned and moved by something that happened so long ago?" I think the answer is obvious: it's all frozen in time. We are now so much like ants, when any kind of disaster happens, within a set amount of time everything is rebuilt. Even Dresden, fire-bombed into oblivion, was rebuilt even using the same stones, so unless somebody told you you'd have no idea anything happened.

Tonight I ate at the restaurant recommended by my driver. It has the same chef as the Caruso but is cheaper. The "menu touristica" was €2, included wine, so I went for it and the food was wonderful. Wish I could eat it all. Tonight I slept warmly and well.

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