Napoli, Pompeii and Perugia: Cruisin', Ruins, and Relaxin'

From Palermo we took the overnight ferry to Napoli. Originally when we boarded the ferry we were pretty excited, given that it was a gigantic cruise ship complete with a bar (with dance floor), several restaurants, arcade, and a cinema. But our excitement quickly dwindled as we realized the dance floor would be occupied by people sleeping on it, the movie had no English subtitles, and while the food was actually quite good in the restaurants, there is only so much pasta one can eat while on an overnight ferry. We tried our best to sleep in our uncomfortable sleeper chairs, wishing we had not paid for the chairs and had simply opted to bed down on one of the (free) lounge couches.

From Napoli, we took a day trip to the Pompeii ruins, which after a summer of visiting ruins in three different countries, were by far the most impressive.

On August 24, 79 AD Mt. Vesuvius erupted and over the next two days began to blanket the city in hot pumice, ash, and volcanic gas, killing 2000 people who had not evacuated at the first troubling signs of the eruption (a giant column of smoke).

In addition to the great structures like teatros and amphitheaters many privates homes of Pompeii residents are well preserved. You can even see the disturbing plaster casts of people and animals in the position they were in at their deaths. These shapes were preserved when their bodies decomposed underneath the volcanic ash, leaving distinctive air pockets.

Homes were often named after things they found inside them, like “House of the Faun” (after a Faun statue) and “House of the Small Fountain” (named for a strikingly obvious reason). It makes me wonder if our apartment was suddenly covered in ash and pumice and then later excavated would it be called “Apartment of the Three Broken Ipods,” or “House of the Overflowing Recycling Bin”?



The ruins with Vesuvius looming in the background.



One of the murals inside the home of Menander.


Mammoth lemons!



The colorful Napoli metro.


Another Napoli highlight was the underground tour. A guided tour beneath the city shows you the aqueducts which were later used as garbage storage, bomb shelters/living quarters during WW II, and until recently, scooter parking. You can also see the underground remains of an old theatre as much of Napoli is actually built on top of old structures due to a law stating no new structures could be built outside the city walls, thus people built up instead of out.

Shane ready to get subterranean.




Ready for the candlelit part of our tour.


A new garden project in the underground.


Shane and I are fans of the small doors we see throughout Italy. Shane and I like to imagine hobbits, elves, or Alice after she was stoned on her shrinking potion using a door like this but moments after we took this photo the door opened to reveal a regular-sized, seemingly normal Italian.


From Napoli we headed north to the Umbria region (known for delicious truffles!) and spent a week outside of Perugia in the country. We booked ourselves into a farmhouse hostel for two nights but within an hour of arriving we extended our stay to a full week. It was here that we did practically nothing. We wedged ourselves into a couple of hammocks and only rolled out for the occasional swim, horseback ride, or bike ride.

The farmhouse.



Our bungalow.





This horse was just as hot and tired on the ride as I was. I think we understood each other's condition quite well but our instructor kept urging "us" to go faster. It took "us" almost a half an hour to convince him that a slow walking pace was all "we" cared to do.



Views of Umbrian countryside.



Diana, the charmingly skiddish farm dog.


It was a wonderful place to rest up and conserve our energy for the hectic pace of Rome, our final destination before returning home to Vancouver.