Day 5 (August 28, 2021)   Pompeii


Before   

Map of Pompeii

   This day we'll take a train to Pompeii but, before visiting the popular Roman city, we might go to Vesuvius crater, since the bus departs from here.

   Once back, we could have our lunch before spending the rest of the day exploring Pompeii.

   The spots marked at map are:

0- Train station
1- Marina Gate
2- Pompeii's forum
3- House of the Vettii
4- Lupanar and baths
5- Theatres
6- Nocera Gate
7- Anphitheater

After

  When we wake up the views are still there behind the window of our room and, after our breakfast, we go to the balcony at the top of the building and check that the views from there are even better than we thought, since Mount Vesuvius is visible from there.
View from Domus San Vicenzo
  We walk to Piano station and pay 2.40€ for each ticket to Pompei Scavi, which is 11 stations from here through Circumvesuviana line. The next train will come in a bit more than 10 minutes and it finaly stops at the station at 10:50 AM.
Train toa Pompeii
  The trip takes around 40 minutes and goes through 11 stations of the Circumvesuviana line. The station Pompei Scavi is almost in front of the entrance of Pompeii excavation and there are signs marking that, as I had read, the bus to Vesuvius crater departs from here. We can see the timetable of the buses, the rate,that the ticket must be bought in the bus and that the admission for the crater must be purchased online.
Pompei Scavi train stationTimetable for the buses to Vesuvius crater
  We leave the option of viiting the crater for later, since the top of the volcano appears covered by clouds most of the time. So, we joing the line in the ticket box to get the admission to Pompeii by 16€ each and access to the path up to Marina Gate.
Entrance to Pompeii excavationMarina Gate
  The first thing we have after the gate is the Temple of Apollo at our left but, since it is to crowded, we get into the Basilica at our right, which is quite impressive.
Basilica in PompeiiBasilica in Pompeii
  We leave the Temple of Apollo for later and go forward for our first sight of the Forum, with Mount Vesuvius in the background.
Pompeii's forum
  Moving along the forum, on the left hand side, there are some warehouses with some artifacts from the excavation and, in each one of them, there is on display one of those plaster figures of someone trapped by lava. They are a highlight in Pompeii and they are really casts created by filling the hole left by the citizens in the solidified lava with plaster.

Plaster casts from Pompeii victims
Plaster casts from Pompeii victimsArch of Nero in Pompeii
  Just after the arch that was one of the exits of the forum we find “Autogrill Pompei”, where we get some food, since we are going to be far from here for the rest of the visit. The offer is poor: just three or four types of sandwiches and a couple of a sort of mini.pizzas. We pay 25€ for a couple of them with drinks and an ice cream.
Forum of Pompeii
  There is no seating area inside so everybody eats outside, somewhere among the remains of Pompeii. When we finish, we resume our exploration from the Arch of Nero, from where we can see Mount Vesuvius clear of clouds through it.
View of Vesuvius from Pompeii
  We get the street of the arch up until the end, passing by some houses for which the access is blocked but we can get pictures from outside.
House in PompeiiHouse in Pompeii
  I thought we could go to the parallel street at the end to come back through it, but there is no access and the only option is to walk the same street down back to the arch. Once there, we get into the House of the Faun, one of the most popular ones here.

Arch of Nero in Pompeya
House of the Faun in PompeiiHouse of the Faun in Pompeii
  We follow that street and passing by some other houses until reaching the Central baths, for which there is very few remainings, and we walk down by Via Stabiana until the theaters.

Pompeii's street
House in PompeiiHouse in Pompeii
  We see the Small Theater first through its gates, that are blocked, and then the Large Theater, which is located in front of a large area of grass surrounded by columns that it seems that was used by gladiators.

Theater in Pompeii
Small Theater in PompeiiLarge Theater in Pompeii
  Leaving the theater behind we find the entrance of a house that has a route in a way that the exit is on the other side. We have a great surprise here because there are beutiful gardens and some other plaster figures.
House in PompeiiHouse in Pompeii
  We reach the Stabian baths and this is what we were looking for and got confused by the Central baths we saw before, with a great courtyard and wall paintings.

Stabian baths in Pompeii
Stabian baths in Pompeii
  In that same street is where the entrance to the Lupanar is, with sexual wall paintings above the row of rooms surprisingly small for the activities that are supposed to happened here.
Lupanar in Pompeii
  The next thing is following Via dell'Abbondanza until the end, where the amphitheater is located. It's clear this was a live and comercial street, with several fast food places (Thermopilum).
Thermopilum in PompeyaThermopilum in Pompeya
  The amphitheater is wonderfully preserved and has two accesses. We get inside and leave by the same one.

Pompeii's Amphitheater
Pompeii's AmphitheaterPompeii's Amphitheater
  We take our way back by via di Castricio, which we follow until the end, by the House of Menander, a big mansion that it seems to be the best preserved of all of the houses here.

Via di Castricio
House of Menander in PompeiiHouse of Menander in Pompeii
  We are walking back to the forum, which means that we are reaching the end of this visit. When we are there, the Mount Vesuvius appears covered with clouds again. We had got some views of the volcano totally clear along the day, but how it looks now and the fact that is around 4 PM makes us to assume that we are not going to go to the crater. Let's recall that the last bus is at 4:20 PM

Via dell'Abbondanza in Pompeii
View fo Mount Vesuvius from PompeiiForum of Pompeii
  We take advantage that the area is a lot less crowded at this time to make some more pictures in the Forum and go to visit the Temple of Apollo, that we skipped at the beginning, before taking he exit.
Temple of Apollo in Pompeii
Church in Piano di Sorrento  We mess it up a bit in our way to the exit but we finally end up at the same street where the entrance and the train station are. After spending some time in the souvenir stands we go to the station and get our tickets for our trip back to the hotel. At the small shop in the station I buy the book that catched my eye in the stands outside but by less than half the price they were asking there.

  In our way to the hotel we make some shopping in the supermarket we saw this morning, when going to the train station, and rest a bit in our room before going to dinner. We are going to have a proper dinner tonight because our lunch has been quite poor.

  We walk to the center of Piano di Sorrento when it is already dark and choose the terrace of a restaurant with great viewws to the sea and the lights of the local port. This is Hotel Restaurant La Ripetta and we pay 36€ for a salad to share, gnochis, a dorade fish, coke and water.
View from Piano di SorrentoView from Piano di Sorrento
  We come back to our hotel room and fall asleep quickly since this has probably been the day we end most tired.