Rome, Italy - Travel Scrapbook

Day 7: Tour Over After Breakfast

This morning we'll say our final farewells and head for home or further adventures in Italia. Arrivederci, Roma!

Danny and I laid out clothes last night and pre-packed the remainder of our things.  We have to check out of the Hotel Aberdeen at 48 Via Firenze and check into the Hotel Nardizzi at 38 Via Firenze (Hotel Aberdeen was booked and could not accommodate us for two extra nights in Rome) in the morning. 

This morning is busy very early.  Danny and I wake up at 5am, shower, dress, final packing, checkout of Hotel Aberdeen, walk up the street and leave our bags at Hotel Nardizzi.  Back at Hotel Aberdeen we meet up with Stacy, check the weather in Naples on the computer.  Looks likes 50°F today.  Ladonna meets us and the four of us leave around 6am.  This gives us time to walk to Termini Station, get coffee, find the correct train track, validate train tickets and  hop on board the Eurostar to Pompeii.  Ladonna and Stacy are in the adjacent car.

The train arrives in Pompeii at 9:00am.  A taxi driver meets us at the door and offers us a $10€ ride to the entrance he says is two kilometers.  Stacy goes back inside and verifies the distance is two kilometers.  We get in and pay the $10€ even though each of us thinks the price is a little high, but we don’t negotiate for a better fare since we are trying to save precious sightseeing time.

At the entrance, we rent audio guides purchase tickets and receive a map of Pompeii.  We start out listening to each exhibit’s recording, but we realize after 45 minutes that we are not making a lot of progress and will run out of time, particularly since we frequently run into blocked streets and entrances and have to back track several times.  Also, many recorded messages refer to items not onsite, but located at the Archaeological Museum in Naples.  We reference Rick’s tour of Pompeii, look on the map of sites and select the most important sights we have not seen yet.

The City of Pompeii

Ruins and Mt. Vesuvius	Ruins
Plaster body	Plaster of Mule Driver
Theatre	Sports field across from theatre
Statue from the Bachelor Pad	"Beware of Dog" mosaic
Forum	Fish Market
Ruins	Mosaics from two houses combined

After making quick tours of the chosen sights we return audio guides to retrieve Ladonna’s driver’s license.  Unfortunately, we can’t use our Eurostar ticket on the Circumbesuviana train to Naples, conveniently located across from Pompeii’s entrance. 

The next Eurostart train is 12:43 and we have 20 minutes to get back to our station.  We pass a taxi driver, but he doesn’t want to take us just two kilometers.  He’s looking for a fare to Sorrento or the Amalfi Coast.  We fast walk back to the station, but we miss that train.  The next one turns out to be even better for us since it stops at the Cavour station in Naples, closest to the museum, eliminating the need to transfer once in Naples had we taken the Circumbesuviana train.

First observations of Naples-grittier, harsher – the dark side of Rome.  Naples appeared similar to Rome, but dirtier, less sophisticated, a little scary.

Hungry, we want a bite to eat so we stop at a small café and eat at the bar.  Reenergized, we continue our short walk to the Archaeological Museum.

The four of us tour amazing statues, exquisite mosaics and the “Secret Room”. One used to have to get special permission to view the contents of the "Secret Room" years ago from the King or until recently you had to purchase an extra ticket.  We walked right in with no extra cost or permission necessary.  We took plenty of pictures in the “Secret Room” — however you have to travel to Naples personally to see the contents of the room (or, if you know us, just ask to see our pictures).  It is sufficient to say man has always over-embellished certain anatomical body parts as evidenced by objects and frescoes two thousand years old.

Ladonna has to catch an earlier train back to Rome because she’s attending a concert tonight in Rome.  We bid goodbyes to Ladonna and continue the museum tour.  We specifically look for the Doniforo statue.

We still have a couple of hours to kill before our return train to Rome.  Stacy wants to follow Rick’s “The Slice-of-Neapolitan-Life Walk”.  Stacy’s consulting the guide book and Danny’s a few steps ahead of us when both Stacy and I spot an elderly Italian gentlemen giving us the “eye tug”!  Stacy and I look at each other and ask if we saw the “eye”.  We both did and we call out to Danny to slow up.

How exciting to be warned to be careful in Naples! Backs against the wall, we decide we stand do out like the Yankees we are, wide-eyed and obviously not local brandishing our Rick Steves guide book.  From then on, we consult the guide book cautiously, usually with Stacy reading and Danny and I shielding her so we don’t look quite as lost as we are.

We walk pass the Piazza Dante onto the Piazza Gesù Nuovo and visit the Gesù Nuovo church with its Baroque interior.  We watched as visitor after visitor touched and kissed the statue of Giuseppe Moscati, a doctor of the poor who was made a saint in 1987. 

The church also was bombed during WWII — thankfully, the bomb did not explode.

Finishing up our brief walking tour, we head back to the Napoli Centrale train station for our return trip to Rome.  Arriving back into Rome, it magically seems saner and more civilized.  The area around the Termini Station that seemed like the wrong side of the tracks seven days ago, welcomed our tired souls back home to Rome.