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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We leave the Temple of Apollo for later and go forward for our first
sight of the Forum, with Mount Vesuvius in the background.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
The amphitheater is wonderfully preserved and has two
accesses. We get inside and leave by the same one.
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.
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
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.
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.
We come back to our hotel room and fall asleep quickly since
this has probably been the day we end most tired.
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.
