day46 in transit!

Not much to say today, just traveling across Italy from Napoli to Bari, 

I did get a lovely send of from Nunzia pleased to get a huge hug from her as I leave! Sweet lass! 

so it was the usual linea 1 on the metro to Napoli Centrale then to Caserta then on to Bari through the backbone of Italy, mountains, fields, cacti,olive oil groves, vinyards one with a chap doing some self fertilizing of his crop 💩 I noticed looked up and saw an Italian chap had to, we both started laughing! 😂

The track to Bari crosses to the coast father North than my target town , following the coast it looks a bit like Málaga Italian style!....

Glad to be missing this bit! 

Through and on ward through more olive groves I spot a few stone igloo shaped constructions as we headed south I missed the chance of a photo so I'll have to remember when I head north.... Curious little huts!

Into Bari and I'm walking through a grid of buildings and shops

all at least 3 or 4 stories tall, on towards where Google reckoned the hostel is..... It got it wrong.... Often Google maps has left and right of the road backwards no matter where in the world you are! 

A quick recce and I've found the location and booked in. 

A couple in their late 30's I'd guess, nice and friendly tho! 

A good bit of banter later and I'm in planning the next few days.

the view from my balcony.... Very typical of Italian towns.

Day45 Steaming caldera!

Today's adventure started with a quick breakfast at the hostel, with a few chats with familiar faces as they emerge, I'm up early-ish to catch a bus tour! 

I probably need to do more similar things to keep the journey fresh! 

Today was certainly a refresher! 

I'm off to Vesuvius! Yes I'm cheating a little taking a bus most of the way up the mountain, I have nothing to prove by climbing up tho. 

On the bus it seems I've only booked the bus! I had thought 19 euros a particularly good deal! A quick visit to the web site and I've booked the remaining 11 euros to gain entry into the park! As they call it!

It's a pretty smooth twisting track with the older folk struggling to make progress but I think most would have reached the top, it's not that far from the tourist stop

it is a bit cloudy on the way up and my expectations were low of a good view in any direction, but you keep in hope, you're here and you never know what the wind blows, the gods were on our side after reaching the lip of the caldera we had to walk on as the cloud was still pretty thick, but it didn't last and I could soon see back over Napoli

with the lifting cloud visibility was becoming good all-round and down into what would once have been a boiling mass of lava (last1944) at the top end of the path you can't see right to the bottom, but views of the strata of the rock and the clouds of steam coming off of the still hot walls were impressive to see, with the smell of sulphur in the air!

behind apparently you can see Pompei but I failed to! 

I'm assured it's center in this image.....

Heading back down as we only have two hours on the mountain I reach the initial viewing point of the cone..... It's completely clear now! 

looking down to the very bottom, safe now but it will certainly blow again in the future!

Back down the track to the waiting point for the bus a little cafe serves a cappuccino and the bus arrives to take us back down the mountain....pyroclastic flows still visible and a lot of dead trees.... Not the friendliest environment

A short trip really but for 29 Euro including the bus I'm happy! 

Into Napoli again and the ever present images of Diego Maradona....I head to the coastline, there aren't many options to do this with the majority of the waterline converted to docks but I found a blissful spot looking over the bay and back to Vesuvius now with her head in the cloud of an otherwise beautiful sunny day!

this was the perfect headspace I needed I enjoyed a good hour or so thinking nothing just breathing in the smells and sounds and sights..... Lovely! 

But the days drawing on and I want to get food, back at the hostel my Chinese friend Tao

suggested heading out to a restaurant good call! A very nice seafood meal later

and we're back at the hostel both have early starts tomorrow!

Day44 Pompeii

How to write up today? 

I guess it's a strange mixture of amazement and disappointment! 

With what should be expected a certain degree of repetition.....

I need to justify all three aspects I think. 

I'll do it in reverse tho just to make the blog flow...

Repetition:-

That's quite simple really, the vast majority of Pompeii is ruined domestic properties so one will always look much like the other. 

Disappointment:-

The enduring feeling really is that in its restoration and preservation the heart of Pompeii ie it's people and their effects have been stripped away leaving the whole considerably less! 

Yes the artifacts should be kept in safe environments but leaving Pompeii with next to no personal items on site takes away any connection to the people who died here, to me history should be felt and seen beyond the few calcified(?) remains of people hereand the ruts worn into the heavy stone paved roadways,but these are nearly all that remain.

The amazing:-

This part is easy, there are plenty of buildings to go wow at!

Starting from Porta Marina near the train station you ascend a steep cobbled road through an arch onto the higher ground Pompeii is built on and to your right are the ruins of the Roman Basilica unlike modern basilica this was a place of trade and debateWhat's left implies an impressive place, what you see all through Pompeii does leave you wondering where the rest of the rubble from the cataclysm ended up? Presumably in new buildings in the surrounding towns..... Nope no lesson has been leant from building on land under a volcano.... Tomorrow blog should show that! 

My route next took me past the gymnasium for youths,naturally you can't go in to this, the mosaic is rather special and the artwork on the walls is close to the best I saw.

Continuing along past brickwork I found interestingAnd one of the drinking troughs that are scattered around Pompeiii reach the Teatro Grande grand theater being a very exact title! Thousands could sit and watch whatever was on show!at the entrance to the theater was one of the few examples of direct connection to the inhabitants of the town...... Graffiti!!no mention of Kilroy being there! 

Next is the Teatro Piccolo aka the odeon! Smaller but equally impressive in its restoration , music and poetry was performed hereentrance stage left is visible through the arch! 

Doubling back on myself through more domestic ruins I pass a tavern with murals topping the facadeoff the road and through a house with laid out garden with water featurei reach the Anfiteatro the amphitheater! Massive and impressiveso much so that Pink Floyd performed here in this bowl! with entry or exit through the tunnels at either end, and a tunnel running around the ring of the arena ..... Now full of Pink Floyd memories, posters etc.... Sort of curious to make such a big thing of a relatively modern event!

Next the Palestra Grande..... The biggest gymnasium in Pompeii at 141x 107mtrs wide it still lives up to its nameand I guess conveniently sited next door is the Necropolis! 

Tho more likely to have held dignitaries than over zealous gymnasts!generations of the same families were laid to rest in these sepulchre likely after cremation.

Through further domestic sites I pass the sanctuary of Apollo into the Terme Stabiane another gymnasium!

This one made into a garden? 

But it has connected it's own baths and hypercaust(underfloor heating!)

with a rather impressively ornate arched entrance to the gym!

with black clouds building and flowing down from Vesuvius I head back through the main forum of Pompei 

hopefully I've made it clear that yes Pompei is definitely an amazing place to visit! 

It's largely my association with metal detecting and finding small personal items lost over the millennia that leaves me with less of an acceptance of what Pompei has become.

Catching a train back to the hostel with a stop at my favourite Italian restaurant to pick up the most unusual pizza! 

Fisherman's pizza ....

Took a bit of work eating it! 

But very nice!

And I'm asleep for another night at this lovely hostel!