Napoli & Pompei

We got to Napoli this morning after a nice train ride through the Italian country side. Time flies on the trains because there is always something beautiful to see.

We went to our hostel, which is about a 15 minute trip on the metro. Its on the outskirts of town, but it has spectacular views of Naples since it is up on a hill. We left our packs and went out to explore.

We took the Metro to the station then caught a regional train to Pompei. The train took 40 minutes, which I spent napping. Despite the robust Italian family sitting near us and arguing most of the way.

The ruins of Pompei cost €11, but there is SO much to seee! Pompei used to be an important city in the ancient days. But in 79 A.D. Mount Vesuvious erupted and encased the entire city in over 15 feet of ash & lava. The inhabitants were petrified under the ash before the lava destroyed the town. The entire city is amazingly preserved with original buildings, items, art & more. There are even corpses of the victims, perfectly preserved in ash. Almost like mummies, but instead they look like sculptures.

The ruins of Pompei are open to the public to explore. You have to remember, this is an entire city! When we go in they offer a map, so you don't get lost. We opted to just free roam, as we usually do.

Street, after street, after street of amazingly preserved buildings. It was gorgeous! There is an entire ampitheatre, bath house, brothel, and multiple temples among the best kept buildings.

It was really fun to get to roam around the city at our leisure. There were tons of group tours but they didn't seem to do much of the side streets. They just did a tour of the main roads. Some of our favorite places ended up being way off the beaten path!

We took 4.5 hours to walk the city!  by the end of our exploration we were beat and hungry. We stopped by the cafeteria (which is in the forum! Haha) and bought some dinner. They were closing so the guy gave us about €26 worth of food for only €14!! We got a pizza and a half, fruit cup, fries, and a soda! Score!

We made our way back to the station and made the long journey back to the hostel. Walking back to our hostel we found a family of stray cats! There were even some kittens. :) automatically adds to the hostel's "cool score".

We're in a 4 bed female with only one roommate. The hostel is a HI hostel, so its very nice. The only thing is they only have 2 showers for our entire floor! So we showered tonight to beat the morning rush.

Tomorrow we are going to the romantic island of Capri! I'm so excited!!!

Safe Travels,
- Kit & Heather