Emily's Not Too Far Away: Bon Giorno, Pompei

Hello Hello,

Can't believe we slept a full 10 hours last night! Room includes breakfast so we ate a simple meal with coffee and bread before heading over to the Circumvesuviana to get a ride to the Ercolano - Scavi stop for Mount Vesuvius. The walls on most stops along the way to the Ercolano station was covered with graffiti, which is unfortunate. (On the ride home later, the graffiti-covered walls somehow adds a different sort of charm to the town).

Graffiti on walls - tsk tsk

View hiking up Mt. Vesuvius

The Crater - check out the smoke on top right

Calvin @ steep hike

Breathtaking views

Anyways, the ride on the bus towards the foot of Mt. Vesuvius was exciting by itself. The bus had few close contacts with pedestrians/ dogs and I held my breath for at least half of the ride. We got some walking sticks (tips are expected, we tipped 2euro for two walking sticks) for the steep hike up. We half hiked up to the crater lip and walked around it. While the view up was spectacular, the heat from the crater was something else. (FYI: it is supposedly one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, its thermal heat shock at 400 deg. celcius wiped out herculaneum back then). Anyhow, it was still an amazing feeling seeing the mountain in person that was responsible for wiping out the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Mosaics from the past

Can you believe the colors?

We planned for Vesuvius today and Herculaneum site is not too far from the bus ride so we decided to stop by. Herculaneum is a sister site resided by a lot more wealthier crowd than Pompeii at the time of eruption. Most structures in Pompeii were damaged by the eruption but Herculaneum was covered in at least 60 foot of ashes so the residences/shops were very much intact. We enjoyed strolling along the streets of Herculaneum and thoroughly checked out the site. Dinner was similar to what we had yesterday, pasta and more pasta (it is Italy after all), and of course, the wine. We heard fireworks after dinner and ran out, the cathedral right around the corner of our Hostel was cordoned off for some special events and they had fireworks. We enjoyed the fireworks show with the rest of the crowd and found some yummy gelato for after-dinner treat. Not too many people here speaks English, we struggled with directions (with my broken Spanish and the very minimal Italian words I understood), but the hospitality of the locals are definitely one of a kind and something to be proud of for every Italian, the eagerness to help and help all the way deserves a big A+!