Herculaneum and Vesuvius

I was up and left as early as I could manage, which was 9.15. I was prepared with water and walking garb.

As I had done a number of times before, I walked to the station and took the train to Montesanto, then changed and got the metro to Garibaldi. At Garibaldi, I walked for ages inside the huge station to find the Circumvesuviana line, and attempted to buy a ticket from the woman on the desk. We somehow got into an argument because I'd seen a sign that made me think the tickets were more expensive than they really were. Anyway, I came away with the right ticket, and feeling a bit sheepish.

I waited on the platform for the train to Ercolano, with what seemed like the entire tourist population of Naples. The train arrived. It was a standard metro-style train, and was already pretty full of  commuters. Consequently, it was like a tin of sardines when everyone got on, and was a pretty unpleasant journey.

Ercolano finally appeared outside the train window, and I gratefully got off, leaving the Pompeii tourists to enjoy the rest of their journey. I bought lunch (a grilled but now cold bread/cheese/tomato affair) at a little cafe opposite the station, and packed it in my bag.

I then set off down the hill towards the ancient city of Herculaneum, following the instructions I'd read in advance. The town of Ercolano was busy but pleasant enough. Plenty of older people steadfastly going about their business in the shadow of a huge and volatile volcano.

The entrance was at town level, but the old city was lower, so the approach was on a bridge from which you could gaze down on what you were about to explore. I bought my ticket in the shiny welcome building, got a video guide (for which I had to leave a credit card as deposit), and began my journey through the surprisingly compact ruins. It was about 11.30 by now.

The tour started where the seashore used to be, with a shock. Those people who had managed to escape to the boathouses had been trapped. Each arch contained around a dozen skeletons. Then we moved on to the Villa of the Papyri, a grand residence with a large square and statue. At this point, I'd already started to get hot, and unzipped the legs of my walking trousers.

Then we were taken up into the town proper, in which it was possible to recognise a gymnasium, homes, shops, bars, blacksmiths and baths.

The main things that struck me about the ruins was how advanced the society was. The roads were grid design, with aqueducts, the houses were two-storey in many cases, with the standard layout of atrium with impluvium, tablinum, triclinium, cubiculum. Another thing was how impossible it seemed that some of the decorations and frescoes and floor mosaics had survived for so long. Some of the frescoes looked like they'd just been painted. Astounding!

I began by trying to see everything, but near the end, I pushed on. I felt like I'd made a good job of it. I left the site, ate my lunch in some shade, and walked back up to the station.

At the Vesuvius Express office near the station, I bought a return ticket which included entry to the national park, and was assured that it was not too late to make the journey. After about a 15-minute wait, I and about five others were shown to a minibus. I'd hoped that it would be a larger bus, but considering how late in the day it was (about 3pm), it made sense.

Unfortunately, our driver was a total kamikaze and the journey was really not fun. As would be expected, there were a lot of switchback corners, and it was fairly steep in places. There were very few corners that he didn't squeal the tyres on. There were at least three Brits in the back of the bus, chatting away apparently unconcerned, but everyone else stayed very quiet. It wasn't until we all got off that it transpired that we were all Brits, and none of us had enjoyed the journey.

Anyway, we were given a meeting time (4.45pm?) and I set off walking up the hill, past a check point, and then past a little shop. This approach was not steep, but it was a relentless slog, on fine gravel. At least it was quite cool by now, at this altitude.

I tried to join a guided tour of the geology, but failed to find the right person. I had very limited time, so pushed on myself. It wasn't long before I was at the crater rim.

There was only about a third of the rim that you could walk around, so I aimed to go there and back. At the point that you joined the rim, you could just see Naples through the haze, and you could clearly see Sorrento from the far end. There were plenty of fumaroles to see, which was slightly unnerving. But I'm so glad I did it - felt like a real achievement. When you're up there, the crater is so enormous that it's not even possible to fit it all in a photo.

I marched back down quite quickly, afraid I'd be left behind, but found the group with the driver nowhere to be seen. He came along before long, and we had another white-knuckle journey back down the mountain.

Back in Ercolano, I quickly got on a Circumvesuviana train back to Garibaldi (thankfully empty now), the metro to Montesanto, and the Cumana to the hotel. It had been a huge day.

I found the divers busy drinking on the balcony, having had a singalong earlier. I left them to it, and had a little walk above the road to see what was up there. There was a park, but it was closed. I took some photos and headed down, taking some more photos from the balcony. I found my own drink, but the party broke up soon after.

I had a shower, and we got ready to go out for dinner, following behind the crowd. We discovered that they had failed to find a restaurant that was open, and so we all went to White Chill Out, on the opposite side of the road to the rest of the restaurants, which looked expensive and not particularly welcoming.

The meal was good (not great), and expensive, but it did the job. We headed back to the hotel and had a fairly early night.