Rome to Pompeii - Sunday, October 29
We all woke up this morning at 9 which was really 8 after daylight savings. Had our coffee, packed up, did the once over walk through and said arrivederci to the apartment. Nick walked down to the parking garage to get the car and when he got back Sarah and I had most of our things downstairs ready to go. Beautiful morning and quiet out on the cobbled streets of Rome…..We felt like we really had a better chance of getting out of Rome with more ease than we got in…..WRONG!! We did our best but somehow all roads kept keeping us back into and around Rome!! Finally we found an ‘exit’ and got on the A1 south. Soooo much traffic, where were they all going on a Sunday morning?!? Road finally opened up and we thought we were on open road but as we neared Naples traffic struck again!
Arrival in Pompeii and finding the Hotel Villa dei Misterie was a quite easy and this time the Via Michelin directions worked! The place looked pretty deserted and somewhat like a ruin from an earlier era…..not as quite as long ago as Pompeii, thankfully, but it was clean and just up the street from an entrance to the ruins which was why we’d chosen it in the first place-not to lie around by a (frigid) pool! After practically waking the staff, we checked into our small, room overlooking the frigid pool. Nick was hungry and we rustled up a few more of the restaurant staff that cheerfully opened the kitchen and prepared Sarah and Nick’s staple lunch of gnocchi and spaghetti Bolognese and a caprese salad, which even included a large sprig of fresh basil, for me. Fortified by our stellar lunch we got water, sunscreen and hats and set off down the street to the ruins. Once again we wished we had EU passports for free entry for Sarah and discounted for us. They just say “American??” we nod and they say “gimme your money!” The entry folks at all the places we’ve visited and paid our 8, 10 or 12 Euro don’t seem to particularly like Americans. Sarah doesn’t even get a discount and she’d be free if we were in the EU! Annoying!
As it was late in the afternoon and we wanted to get started right away, we opted for the audio guides rather than wait for a personal tour. We actually liked this way of seeing Pompeii as we could just wander and explore where we wanted at our leisure and not follow someone else’s agenda. All we can say is Pompeii is amazing!!! Nick had been here 35 years ago, but felt as though he saw different things or maybe the same but with new (older!) eyes. One could spend hours/days here and still have many questions, but we did our best to see as much as possible in the time Sarah’s 11 yr old legs could handle. We found the roman houses, baths and the Teatro really interesting. Sarah was especially intrigued with the plaster casts showing the Pompeiian victims of the erruption, frozen in position, as they were covered in ash and lava. Grim but quite realistic. Trying to imagine the life these people lived all the way back to 74 AD became much clearer as we wandered this excavated village. We would gladly visit here again.
Once back to the hotel we all bathed and dressed for a casual, simple dinner in “new” Pompeii. The evening manager at our hotel gave us a suggestion of a pizzeria/bar called Jerome’s. We found it located on the main drag into town just before the train station. This spot lived up to its description and we had a delicious dinner of calzones, pizza and salad. We had a sweet, young Italian girl who waited on us. She spoke a cute version of English and described the dishes perfectly. On the way home, we stopped into a gas station/minimart for chocolates to eat with our movie back at the hotel. We all got into our jammies, climbed into mom and dad’s bed and watched “The Incredibles” on my computer. Good fun and we all turned in early.
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