Contents

  1. Preface
  2. San Francisco
  3. Amsterdam
  4. Amsterdam, Helmond
  5. Amsterdam, Zandvoort, Haarlem
  6. Amsterdam, Bruges
  7. Bruges, Brussels, Cologne, Berlin
  8. Berlin
  9. Berlin, Potsdam
  10. Berlin, Wansee
  11. Berlin, Prague
  12. Prague
  13. Prague, Karlstejn, Vienna
  14. Vienna
  15. Vienna, Salzburg, Füssen
  16. Füssen, Neuschwanstein, Munich
  17. Munich, Innsbruck
  18. Innsbruck
  19. Innsbruck, Zürich, Lauterbrunnen
  20. Lauterbrunnen, Jungfraujoch
  21. Lauterbrunnen, Schilthorn
  22. Lauterbrunnen, Spiez, Zermatt
  23. Zermatt
  24. Zermatt, Martigny, Chamonix
  25. Chamonix, Mont Blanc
  26. Chamonix, Mont Blanc, Courmayeur, Aosta, Turin
  27. Barcelona
  28. Barcelona, Sitges
  29. Barcelona
  30. Milan, Venice
  31. Venice
  32. Venice
  33. Venice, Milan, Cinque Terre
  34. Cinque Terre, La Spezia
  35. Cinque Terre, Pisa, Lucca, Florence
  36. Florence
  37. Florence
  38. Florence, Siena
  39. Siena, San Gimignano, Rome
  40. Rome
  41. Rome
  42. Rome, Sorrento
  43. Sorrento, Vesuvius, Pompeii
  44. Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, Ravello
  45. Sorrento, Capri, Naples
  46. Naples, Bari
  47. Patras, Athens, Mykonos
  48. Mykonos
  49. Mykonos
  50. Mykonos, Paros, Santorini
  51. Santorini
  52. Santorini, Athens
  53. Athens
  54. Athens, Amsterdam, San Francisco


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42. Sorrento, Vesuvius, Pompeii

Photo Gallery

First thing is to head up to the top of the volcano. For some reason, the guidebooks tell you to get out at Ercolano (Herculaneum, an ancient Roman town destroyed along with Pompeii by Vesuvius). However, after getting there I discovered that, at this time of year at least, there are many more scheduled bus departures from Pompeii (which would have been more convenient anyway, since my plan was to visit Pompeii in the afternoon). But it isn't a problem getting up from Ercolano; I waited only ten minutes to get on one of the many private taxi vans waiting by the station, which charge €10 per person for the roundtrip, with about an hour and a half to walk around the top. I rode up with a nice Scottish family and a few others. It's a little scary sitting in the front seat, going around the blind curves of the mountain at high speed.

Although its shape is similar to much higher volcanos, Vesuvius rises only about 1300m. The view over Naples and out to Sorrento is excellent, but when I visited there was quite a lot of haze and some low, dark clouds not far above the mountain. The short but steep trail from the parking area is not exactly a wilderness experience, with loads of package tour buses dumping people of very limited athleticism onto it. There are suitably dramatic clouds of smoke rising from the rocks in the crater, which is impressively sheer and deep. In places, the ground is warm to the touch (and gets warmer as you dig). A stand at the top sells shots of limoncello for €1! So that made for a lot of fun.

I took the train back to the ruins of Pompeii, destroyed by the eruption of 79 AD. An interesting point is that at the time of its obliteration, the town was still undergoing a massive reconstruction effort due to an earthquake over a decade earlier. So you find that many of the old white Greek columns had been patched with red brickwork (a Roman invention). I picked up the guide pamphlet which lists about 70 sights within the large complex of ruins, and proceeded to hit them consecutively. This is not a good idea, unless you have extremely abundant amounts of time and energy. I was there about five hours, and was quite exhausted by the time I got into the forties. Walking through such a well preserved ancient town is remarkable. There are lots of interesting little sights, like the tiled beware-of-dog entryway, the baths, kitchens with multi-colored tile and big round holes in the counters, and of course the fresco of a man with a scale balanced on the tip of his extremely large you-know-what (supposedly denoting not so much pornography as moderation, fairness and fertility). Way out to the east (it's a pretty huge place) is an impressive stadium. I wonder how long these ruins will last now that they have been unearthed and exposed to the elements. The weather improved through the afternoon — sunny and warm (I was overdressed in a long shirt), but then quite chilly after dark.

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