6:59 am? Didn’t I set an alarm for super early today? I think for like 6:15 am or something like that. Why? Where do I have to be? What is happening today? Oh yeah, I’m on a tour to Pompeii. I need to meet my group at 7:00 am. Oh no…
That was the scene playing out in my cabin a couple weeks ago. I was stoked to be seeing Pompeii. I remember reading about it and watching films about it and now I got to go there…if I could get out of bed. Thankfully when I ran up to meet my group by about 7:12ish, the tour leader had overslept as well and wasn’t even there yet. In addition, none of the busses had left and I actually ended up waiting about half an hour!
The first part of my tour was a drive to Salerno to board a boat for a sail along the Amalfi coast. Along the way we passed Mt Vesuvius. The two peaks of Mt Vesuvius tower above the Italian countryside and it is hard to imagine that there was once only one peak on this mountain that stood three times the height that it does today.
The boat ride to Amalfi was nice. Towns are built into the seaside cliffs and each village looks like a movie set. There are ancient castles, picturesque lighthouses, quaint chapels, and pristine beaches all along the coast. It would take at least an entire day to explore even one of these towns. But today was not that day.
The only town we stopped in was Amalfi. Instead of an entire day, I had an hour to explore. Any more than that and I surely would have gotten lost. There are a few streets with traffic, but there are mostly winding pedestrian passageways and staircases. Most of the homes in Amalfi are not accessible by car. You just keep going up and around and eventually you end up on another road with traffic on the opposite side of the city from where you started. If you’ve done much walking on cobblestone streets or old stone staircases you can imagine the unevenness of this walking experience. You can also imagine how my hand and arm lost the battle with the stone wall along the staircase when my toe caught on a step (don’t worry Mom, I’m okay. I walked it off…after the bleeding stopped).
After Amalfi we boarded the boat back to Salerno. The scenery was just as amazing the second time around.
Once we got on the bus I asked the guide if I could have the jump seat next to the driver. This seat is clearly meant for the tour guide. It’s a single seat and is right next to the microphone. However, none of the guides ever use it- instead they take the first row of seats on the left so they can sit in one and put their junk in the one next to it. I think this is a universal tour guide move- check it out the next time you are on a bus trip. I’ve always coveted this single, front seat. You are right next to the driver. You can trick him into thinking you know Italian by using the few words you know, until he starts speaking to you and you stare back blankly at him (not that this situation happened to me). You don’t have to look out the window, you get to look out the windshield! Your seat folds out over the stairs so you have no floor to put your feet on and they just dangle there (but be careful on the dismount as it would be very easy to fall down the stairs. For real- that didn’t happen to me). Who wouldn’t want this seat?!?! I think I’ll ask every tour guide for it from now on. Plus, as a crew member, I go on tours as a Tour Escort and only one escort is allowed per bus. That means I am never on a tour with anyone I know so I sometimes have to share a seat with a guest. That’s not really a problem- I talk to guests all the time- I don’t mind being on tour with them. What I do mind is when they fall asleep in the seat next to you and their head keeps getting closer and closer to your shoulder (okay, this one happened to me).
After my bus ride in my awesome, new, special seat it was time for lunch. Another great thing about being on tour is getting a free lunch. Even better than being free food, is that it is different food than I would normally eat. Since being in Italy, it is rare for me to order anything aside from pizza. Whilst on tour, the lunch normally has a first course of pasta and while you are expecting your dessert to arrive they bring you a main course of meat and vegetables, finally followed by an amazing Italian dessert. Each meal is accompanied by champagne, wine, flat water, sparkling water, and coffee. Let’s face it, I will throw awesome dinner parties at some point in my life after experience like this (sadly for my guests, after the meal I will force them to sit through slideshows of my travels. On this tour alone I took 242 photos. You might want to block off a solid month and a half if I ever invite you for dinner).
Now that I was so full I could barely move, it was time to walk around Pompeii for a couple hours! Pompeii is dirty. I’m not sure why I expected an ash covered city to be anything other than dusty and dirty, but I did. I was glad I was on a guided tour as it is difficult to tell what anything is now. However with a guide to point things out, you really can get a picture of pre-eruption life. I visited a marketplace with a painting on the wall of things sold in the market. I saw the town square where most of the activity of daily life took place. I entered a house of a wealthy citizen and saw the largest mosaic found in Pompeii. I walked through the bath house- saw the courtyard separating the sides for the men and women. The architecture of the day is so amazing to me! I referenced this in the last post as well in regards to the 3D painting. In the sauna of the bath house, the ceiling was designed to move the steam through the room, but it also had ridges on it to collect the condensation and whisk it away to the outer edges of the room so no one got dripped on. Amazing! Why did they not design my bathroom on the ship like that? Hours after I take a hot shower, drips are still falling from my ceiling.
I have so much more to see at Pompeii. There are a few more tours I want to do, but I’m also looking at getting a guide book, taking a bus there, and spending an entire day exploring. So much was destroyed, yet there are so many things that were found intact- from buildings to large mosaics to dishes to huge clay water jugs.
At some point during the day we visited a cameo factory for a few minutes. We watched a video on how the cameos are hand-carved from seashells, saw an old man carving one, and visited the gallery for shopping. I was considering buying some cameos for gifts until I saw the price tag. Sorry Christmas gift recipients. Can I interest you in a collection of Mediterranean postcards or a bag of pasta shaped like the Leaning Tower of Pisa purchased in Pisa? How about a model of one of the world’s largest cruise ships? That reminds me…I actually do need to buy one of those for someone…
While I was waiting for the rest of our group to finish shopping in the cameo gallery, I was standing outside near a couple families from the US on my tour. I think it was two families that were somehow related so there were several teenage cousins in the mix. This was before we visited Pompeii and I heard one girl (who I would guess to be about 15) tell her mom that before we went into Pompeii she and someone else were going to catch a cab back to Naples. Here’s the conversation that played out (I don’t remember the exact words, but I’m not taking dramatic license here…this is really what was going down):
Mom: You really should see Pompeii.
Daughter: Really Mom? Should I have really seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Should I have really seen the Vatican yesterday? Should I really see all of this?
I should get a raise for the restraint I showed in this situation. I said nothing. I slapped no one in the face. I just stood there…saddened. That is the future of my country. The future of the world- no reason to see Pisa, Rome, or Pompeii. Not when you can sunbathe on a giant cruise ship. That’s why all of my international crew members think I’m an idiot.
I want to hear from my teenage readers (do I have teenage readers? Do I have any readers?) via comment, Facebook, or email what you think you “really should see.” I’m serious…I want to know. Rome? China? Cleveland? Should you shed your blood in Amalfi? Not slap people in Pompeii? Disney World? The Mall of America?
Come back soon to read about what I saw on the island of Capri whether I should have really seen it or not!
