Day 3 – Naples – The Ruins of Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius

My wife, the fantastic planner, got us a combined tour of Pompeii and Vesuvius that included free lunch (a pizza!).

Being jet-lagged, we got up kinda early and moseyed down to a cafe where I got coffee.
Cultural difference #1: Coffee in Italy means espresso.
Cultural difference #2: Breakfast means pastry. My wife and I each had croissants, which would become, for the most part, the daily mainstay.
Cultural difference #3: You pay to sit down. It makes sense if you consider that there’s a severe lack of land and that Italians take their time eating. Gotta keep the numbers up.
We got our bill and I was surprised (again) at how cheap everything was, including the table. I tried to reconcile my bill in the most broken Italian. I’ve also never been yelled at for trying to pay too much, but the tiniest Italian lady put me in my place very quickly.

Lauren and I jaunted to the tour group meeting spot where we found a large number of English speakers. We had come to Naples the weekend of one of England’s twelve banking holidays, so, at least for this weekend, we’d have some people with whom we could have a chat. They were all hilarious. The warmest it gets in Britain is like 78 and it’s always cloudy. Early morning Naples was 87, the sun beating down rays into the pasty Brits faces.

I learned at Pompeii that I much prefer to explore an area rather than be guided around it. The thing, however, is that to skip the long lines, you need to be in a tour group. My second biggest pet peeve is waiting in long lines.

Lauren and I quickly befriended a lovely British couple, lawyers from Reading, who cracked jokes with us in between Pompeii trivia. We went to lunch where we all had pizza and discussed world politics and Doctor Who.

Even with a guide, these tourist sites are bedlam with merchants everywhere.

After lunch, we took the bus up to Vesuvius where we were given an hour to go up and down. I remembered my quick jaunt up the Eiffel Tower and arrogantly couldn’t wait to conquer this mountain. An hour and fifteen minutes later, I was bartering for some water with a local.

I am not fit.

We didn’t have dinner, my wife just reminded me, because somebody passed out. It was me.