Naples, Pompeii, & Sorrento

Left Pisa on Saturday morning and headed down for my two days here.  It’s really only serving as a base from which to see Sorrento and Pompeii, since it’s pretty cheap.  Realized why once I left the train station.

I knew ahead of time that Naples was a place that wasn’t the cleanest and friendliest, and where there was garbage and where you have to watch your pockets.  But I definitely didn’t realize to what extent that was true until I got here and tried to take my first breath of fresh air.  And couldn’t.  I decided to just get on a train and go to Sorrento, and for a while thought about not even going back and just spending a night on the beach (but eventually decided to just go to the hostel and deal with it).

Beautiful Naples

SO I got on the local train (think SEPTA/NJ Transit) and went to Sorrento, which was everything that Naples was not…clean, beautiful, amazing.  Got a massive hot dog and an even more massive bottle of beer (for 3.50€, beautiful) and walked around Sorrento all afternoon.  Went through the little markets, went to the cliffs that overlooked the port and the beautiful ocean and mountains, found a beach and just sat there.  It was so beautiful.  And if it didn’t start to get cloudy, I would have spent my night on the beach.

Fruit stands in Sorrento...yummmmy

Sorrento...on a cloudy day :(

But as it got later, the clouds came, and I realized a bed is better than being in the rain.  So I got back on the train and went to Naples, and found my hostel.  The people who run it are really friendly and warn you about locking your passport and credit cards in the locker, which is nice of them………….  And he recommended pizza places to go to while I’m here since Naples is known for being the home of pizza (DELICIOUS).  But otherwise I spent my first night in Naples doing the online portion of my camp training.  Honestly, time well spent.

Headed to Pompeii the next morning.  One of the things I was most excited to see on my trip…and it didn’t rain!  Thank god.  Walked around the city for a little before I went to the station.  Ended up by the port and saw a Disney cruise ship!  It took so much to not try and sneak on it.  Would have been awesome I’m sure.

Ruins

Made it to Pompeii and walked to the ticket booth where I saw MAURA, my friend who I’m staying with in Rome!  She was traveling down south for the weekend and we got in line for Pompeii tickets at the same time.  IT WAS SO WEIRD.  So I got to explore Pompeii with Maura and her friends from her program!

It was SO COOL to see all of the ruins there!  And eerie, sort of, with Mt. Vesuvius just lurking over where we were walking around.  But everything was so old, and you could go down into what were basements (I guess) and into what used to be churches and all of this wild stuff.  Most of the artifacts are at the archaeological museum in Naples but I ended up not having time to see that since it was Sunday, but MAYBE I’ll come back one day just for that.  To actually be at the site was, I think, cooler.  Spent a while exploring, probably close to 3 hours.  Took lots of pictures, had a fantastic time, met new friends who I’ll get to spend another few days with in Rome.  GREAT AFTERNOON.

Pompeii & Mt. Vesuvius

Came back to Naples and finished my camp training during the afternoon/early evening, and got PIZZA!  At least Naples had great pizza!

Then took a sleeping pill and passed out so that ROME would get here faster (relatively speaking).  And that was it in Naples.  Wish I got to go to the Archaeological Museum, but time and the fact that I didn't want to go out much prevented that.  OH WELL.  Still had a great time on my little day excursions.

Last stop: Rome </3