Another day trip worth doing from Naples is the ruins of Pompei. A city that was completely engulfed by the volcano Mount Vesuvius at some stage in history (as you can tell im really good with dates). Its pretty easy to get there even though italians seem to hate the use of signs. From the main station you have to go down one level and walk a couple of hundred meters through a tunnel to the regional station. There is no signs anywhere telling you this. I went up to the ticket lady and she just started giggling. I was wearing my ‘swiss karmasutra’ tshirt which she quite liked, and subsequently I liked her for liking it. Anyways, I bought a ticket not really knowing what I was doing but it was the train there and back and a ticket in to the ruins apparently.

The regional trains in Naples, and most of Italy, are pretty shit. They are covered in graffiti and just generally seem like they aren’t that well kept, just enough to keep running. Its quite strange because their high speed train, the Eurostar, is freaking amazing, even better than the German ICE trains. I arrived at the Pompei Scavi station and found a weirdo hut building on the platform that I was to give a piece of paper to and get my ticket in return. Walked down the street to the entrance of the ruins and theres a massive line to get in. Already having my ticket I just skip the entire thing and go straight in. Since most people come from Naples im not sure why no one else did what I did.

Walked in and completely forgot about getting a map. Who needs a map anyway, this place cant be that big surely. Im sure the classification of ‘city’ is just arbitrary in this case. It only took me about 10 minutes of walking to realise how monstrous the place is and how I will probably get lost. Didn’t really phase me though, im quite good with direction anyways and if I did get lost its not like i have to leave at a set time. To be honest I didn’t have the highest expectations coming to this place, its just ruins and I totally have no idea at all about the history. Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised. When you really stop to think that the entire place was completely covered in lava and over years and years it was all picked away to reveal whats there now, its crazy. I have no idea how they did it without just demolishing everything.

You can just walk and walk and walk all day though. Turn a corner and theres another street you haven’t seen, and it just goes on and on and on. I picked a day when there was quite a bit of cloud cover so the temperature wasn’t that hot. I cant even imagine doing it in 30 degree weather. Probably the most interesting part of all the ruins were the kitchens, they seemed to be the most intact part of everything. There were also quite a few massive brick dome ovens that were the bakeries for the city. Ended up spending 6 hours there, which surprised me considering after like 2 hours I thought i was over it. I did however take nearly an hour to find the exit. Once again, italians and signs. They hate each other.