We decided to drive to Pompeii the second day that we were relaxing in Ravello. Pompeii was over the mountains from the coast, and we had to drive about an hour to get there. You don't really appreciate "curvy mountain roads" until you drive in Italy. Something else to think about – those "curvy mountain roads" are usually barely wide enough for two cars to pass, and NOT wide enough to pass a bus. At one point, I was going around a curve with a car coming at me from the other direction, and I had to get so close to the wall that I actually scrapped my right side mirror. Not enough to pop it off, but enough to let me know that I was close. There were other, less controllable things that we saw on the road as well – like a herd of goats. You never really know if they will get out of your way (they do) but you always drive slowly. The goat herd had a pair of dogs to help him move the things up the road, but I can say I was happy that they were coming TOWARDS me, not walking WITH me. Fun ride!

In any case driving over the mountains gave us some beautiufl views of the Italian countryside and Mount Vesuvius, and we enjoyed that quite a bit.

We made the trip to Pompeii without one wrong turn, due mainly to Doreen’s excellent navigation skills. (When we were going TO Ravello, I was navigating, and missed the correct turn. It made for an interesting drive, but increased the length from an hour and a half to about three hours) We found a parking spot directly in front of the park entrance, walked up and found that the park was closed, because the workers were on strike. But only to 11:00 AM (what sort of a strike is that? An "I want to sleep late" strike?). It was at this time about 10:15, so we decided to sit around and see if they would REALLY open the doors. (Having been the victims of strikers before – mainly in Paris a year or so again, I never believe what the strikers tell me. I was prepared to hear them say at 11:00 that they would strike to 12:00, and then at 12:00 that they would wait to 1:00, until the whole day was done.)

We wandered a bit around the entrance way until about 10:50, the figured out that it would be a mob scene when (if) they opened the gates, so we sidled up to the main entrance and Doreen wheedled her way to the front on the pretext of petting a stray dog. They opened almost EXACTLY at 11:00, and she was able to scamper to the first opened ticket counter. It was good that she did so, because rather than having a rush to the counters, they only let in a few people at a time. So we bought our tickets and had the luxury of being the first people in the city that day.

We decided that to take advantage of our good fortune, we would head for some of the more popular locations first. The house of the faun, the house of the tragic poet, and so on. It was a beautiful, sunny, hot day, and it was an amazing place to visit. It is hard to describe in words, but to see a city, a real city, that was completely covered with hot ash in a matter of moments and vanish from the face of the earth is daunting. You can see the art work that the people enjoyed, the size of their houses, and how they entertained themselves.

There is another famous house in Pompeii called "The House of the Tragic Poet". It is a large one, and all I can figure is that though his verse may have been tragic, and his END may have been tragic, his income was not. It was large, sumptuous, attractive, and had an image on the floor in mosaic tile that is recreated EVERYWHERE in Italy. It is a black dog, with the words "CAVE CANEM" at the bottom. I am sure all you Latin scholars out there know that that means "Beware of Dog"

I’ll not go into a detailed history of Pompeii, but suffice it to say that it was a wealthy town that is well preserved. It was destroyed in 79 AD, and then discovered in the 19^th century. It has been under excavation for over a hundred years.

Pompeii was something that I have wanted to see for years. It lived up to its billing, and we had a good time walking around. The day was still young, so we decided to take the two hour drive down to Paestum, a town of Greek ruins south of Salerno.

I had not heard about the city of Paestum until we arrived in Italy, but Doreen forced me to go because it was something she studied at Yale. It was founded as a Greek city around the 7^th century BC. Rome took it over in 273 BC. It was finally abandonded in the 9^th century AD after attacks by the Saracens, and the prevalence of malaria in this coastal area. It is important because it has three Greek temples still standing, mostly complete.

It was quite a drive down from Pompeii. We had to get off the main highway and get onto some small local roads. Again, Doreen was a great navigator, and we had no trouble finding the right place to go.

Italians believe that they can charge for parking no matter where you are, and no matter where to park. Especially if you are a tourist. We parked in a lot in front of the archaeological site, and immediately a hand was outside my window asking for 3,000 lira. I always pay, I seldom complain about it. It is little enough (about $1.50) that you don’t feel gouged, and I suppose that if it is YOUR restaurant near the ruins, you want to get a bit of cash (tax free) out of the tourists as well.

It was a hot day as we walked around the ruins. One great thing about this place is that it is NOT very well known, so there are few people there. That gives us (Doreen too! see below) the ability to touch old stuff with impunity. The only signs they had around the place were: "Do not climb on the small walls" Huh?

It was obvious once we started walking around the site what the "small walls" are. This is, for all intents and purposes, a ghost town. I have been to real ghost towns when I was living in Wyoming (Sublette, for one) and this place has the same feel. The "small walls" are what is left of the houses and smaller buildings after they were abandoned. This place is large, and it seems that there is not enough money to curate the whole site. They were restoring two of the three large temples, but the rest of the place was strangely quiet.

Driving back to Ravello was as interesting as the drive out, and we again had to pass on blind curves, watch out for scooters and busses, and drink heavily when we got back. What an adventure!

RETURN TO GRAND TOUR HOMEPAGE!