Episode 5
As it turns out, the location of our little town makes an ideal ‘home base’ for taking short trips around the country. It’s about a 30 minute walk to the Circumvesuviana station in the next town. The Circumvesuviana (which means ‘the area around Vesuvius’) is a railway network serving the area east of Naples.
Our first outing was a day trip to Pompeii. Wanting to have ample time to tour the ancient ruins, we stepped out into the inky blackness of pre-dawn to catch the bus to Naples. There are very few, if any, street lights on at this hour and none of them are by us. Fortunately we are only a short distance from the bus stop as we had to practically feel our way there.
Once aboard, we were the only passengers for quite awhile swaying gently as we sped along the near vacant highway. Eventually though, we wove our way through a series of small towns picking up a sole passenger here and there until we were practically full. By the time we entered Naples, the day was just dawning and looked to be ideal for our outing.
Like so many large cities here, you arrive abruptly. One minute you’re on a highway surrounded by countryside and the next minute you’re up to your ears in urban sprawl. So, focused as we were on just getting to the train station, it never occurred to us to ask the driver where to catch the return bus.
Getting into the station requires crossing several very busy streets and even though there are pedestrian crossings painted on the streets, few drivers, if any, yield. It’s like playing ‘Frogger’ to get across!
Napoli Centrale is smaller version of Roma Termini in that it’s a combination of train station, retail shops, eateries, travel services, and bus stops. By now we’ve been here enough times to know our way around so we purchase our tickets and head down to the platform. The train is crowded with commuters so we must stand but we don’t mind as the views are amazing as we circle the Bay of Naples: to the left is the mighty Mount Vesuvius and to the right is the sparkling Mediterranean!
From the Pompeii train station it’s a short walk to the entrance gate where we must show passports and vaccination cards just to enter the ticketing area. Before leaving this morning, Ihad debated about whether to bring my trekking poles and now, staring up the extremely steep cobblestoned walkway I must climb, I wished I had.
For the next five or six hours we just explore, poking our noses in every nook and cranny, peering into ancient dwellings, marveling over the intricate gold jewelry and small tools found during excavations. It’s definitely a challenge getting around the site. All the streets are made
of large, difficult-to-walk-on cobblestones, the curbs are very high, and to cross the street, a large footstep is required to mount each of the stepping stones at many of the street junctions.
Not easy, especially at my age!
But this place is absolutely amazing. Each turn of the head brings a view that’s picture-worthy.
And as I meander through these ancient streets, it’s hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that some surveying engineer, just doing his job, discovered these buried ruins. An extraordinary find indeed since the entire city was buried under 20 feet of pumice stones and ash! Harder still is trying to imagine the amount of work that was required to carefully unearth this entire 170 acre site. I appreciate the great care that was taken and the respect that was shown in performing these excavations. And thankfully most of the treasures unearthed have been beautifully displayed on site rather than being exhibited elsewhere. Being able to see
these items ‘in situ’ greatly enhances the overall experience.
We decided to leave after about six hours of steady walking and climbing as we wanted to be able to get home before dark plus it had just occurred to us we didn’t know where to catch the return bus. Once back at Napoli Centrale, we go back to where the morning bus let us off only to discover that it’s not a bus stop. What followed was two hours of walking all around Napoli Centrale, Piazza Garibaldi, and the surrounding streets in search of the bus back to our little town. To make matters even worse, my husband had his phone pickpocketed and my phone was now out of power! At this point, we had made so many inquiries on our rounds, I’m sure everyone within a one mile radius knew we were looking for the bus stop! Finally, spying a bus lot along one side of the terminal, we found an agent who pointed the way to the actual bus station, neatly hidden from view on the back side of the terminal.
Our bus arrived and, once again, I’m staring up a two story staircase I’ll have to scale if I wanted to ride. I have seen only a handful of places equipped for handicapped, so if you are physically impaired and dependent on public services and transportation, you’re out of luck.
The bus ride back required us to transfer to another bus in the town nearest our destination.
So after descending the two story staircase, we crossed the road to wait for the next bus going through our little town.
During the hourlong wait at the bus stop, I struck up a conversation with an older woman dressed in wildly mismatched clothing and surrounded by bags of shopping. She spoke just enough English to make herself understood and as we chatted, she started doing a series of extreme yoga stretches, some of which would have caused people back in the states to stop
and stare. But I truly appreciated that she kept a lookout for the bus we needed thus eliminating our need to ask the driver of each arriving bus if they went to our little town. And I admit I was a bit anxious when her bus arrived before ours but she assured us the next bus would be the one we should take. And it was.
We rode through the mountains with a bus load of tired commuters who all crossed themselves, in unison it seemed, each time we passed a roadside shrine. It was well past sunset by then, but with enough light left in the sky to find our way home safely, and checking my phone, we stood in absolute amazement that we had logged in over 8 miles!
NEXT UP: Finding Mimmo!
Ann Kucera is a freelance writer living and enjoying life with her husband in southern Italy