ITALY - Part One, Pompeii

Because most of my friends and family have only heard parts about mine and Wendy's trip to Italy I thought I'd post a part of the trip each week. so you can all get the whole story. Wendy I hope you'll help me write the other posts since you kept a journal.

Well where to begin. After a couple of days in Scotland catching up with family we were finally on our way to Italy. Our flight arrived in Naples in the evening so our first night was spent trying to find the backpackers, which after taking one big wrong turn and walking for a while we turned around and went back in the right direction and eventually found the place (only after Wendy lost the argument over who would try to talk to the locals for the first time).

http://www.hostels.com/en/availability.php/HostelNumber.1552

That night I was maulled by mosquito's but was to excited about going to Pompeii to care!! (Ok then Wendy, after a little whinging). We got some advice from the people at the hostel and the recommended the bus to Pompeii because it leaves every 30mins... 1 hour and a bit later the bus turned up.

arriving at pompeii made us forget about all the dramas and difficulties of getting there. This was what I came to Italy to see, and my camera bore the brunt of it. Pompeii is a massive city and seeing the excavations you could get the feel of how they lived.

My highlights of Pompeii were:

• The frescos and tiles (some in relatively good condition)
• The forum and public areas
• The mummified people
• The brothel sign and picture of the man with the huge #*$! (see the pics)
• Stadium

After about 3 hours maybe more Wendy convinced me to leave and we decided to leave past the stadium and the last thing we saw of the city was of Mt Vesuvius overlooking Pompeii. Check out the picture in 'Things to see and do'.

Because we had been walking around for hours we were starving so we tried our first of many Italian pizzas to come, a plain margarita not the best pizza in Italy but it filled the gap

We took the train back to Naples and it was starting to get dark so we walked back to the hostel that city is crazy though people everywhere, scooters and cars cramming down these ridiculously tiny streets.

I don't know if it was just that we were just overwhelmed or what but we later decided that Naples wasn't our cup of tea BUT there was still plenty more of Italy to come. The next day we caught the train to Rome. But that's a story for another day.