The highs of Mount Vesuvius and the lows of Pompeii

We are stopping on a Sosta near Portici (N40.82765 E14.35101) in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, on the Gulf of Naples and the sun is beating down on us!  The Sosta is surrounded by 12 foot fences and a secure metal gate with a 24-hour guard– security is key here as in and around Naples vandalism and theft is rife. It has all the usual facilities, plus electric, free wi-fi, shower and toilet for €15 a night and is a good location for visiting the area.  The place doubles as storage for local people to leave their cars and motorhomes, guessing it can’t be safe to leave them at their houses. Unfortunately, there is very little shade here and poor old Sonny, the motorhome is baking hot and about to erupt!

Bellavista Sosta

Vesuvius is the only active volcano in mainland Europe and has produced some of the continent’s largest volcanic eruptions.  It overlooks the Bay and City of Naples and sits in the crater of the ancient Somma Volcano.  It is most famous for the 79 AD eruption that destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii and Hercalaneum.  The volcano's last eruption was in 1944 and apparently is monitored carefully as it still poses a threat to the towns that surround it, especially the large city of Naples.

From the Sosta we took the scooter up the steep and windy road to the car park (about 12kms), and then hiked the very steep climb to the top (1281m).  You need to buy a ticket to climb Vesuvius - €10 per person.  It is set in a National Park and there are maintenance costs needed for the well-used path, so we didn’t begrudge the price but felt that some of the money needed to go to repair and clean up the litter strewn bumpy road up to Vesuvius. The path wiggles its way up over gravel and rock, that is roped off in the hope to prevent people falling down the sheer drop! The views from the top are magnificent of around the Bay of Naples and across Pompeii.

View from the top of Vesuvius

You can walk around the crater, and peer into it.  A lot of brown/red/grey rock and ash and a few trees growing around it.  Thankfully no sign of smoke coming from it, so hopefully that means no signs of it erupting any time soon!

Crater of Mount Vesuvius

Crater of Mount Vesuvius

There are little kiosks as you near the top selling cold drinks, souvenirs and the usual tatty gifts.  We just brought a postcard and sat and admired the views for a while before making our way down.

As far as you can go around the crater

The next day we took the scooter to Pompeii around what we thought was going to be a scenic coastal route.  Unfortunately, it took us through the roughest parts of Italy we have seen so far.  It made some of the slums in London look like paradise.  We also had a close call with a car who tried to take us out, as we indicated to turn left he though it clever to overtake us – bl***y Italian drivers!  It has become apparent that Italians don’t like to obey any road rules, they just like to use their horn! 

So, that ordeal over and some 18kms later we arrived at the Pompeii ruins.  We were advised to park the scooter in secured parking for €5 as thefts and break-ins are common around these parts - better to be safe than sorry!  We waited an hour in the queue to get a ticket (€13 each) and expected to be given a site map.  When asked we were bluntly told “they are all gone” – their manners here are as good as their driving we concluded! This place is enormous and to try and find your way around without a map isn’t easy. 

The main street

The main square of Pompeii, where excavation work continues.

Pompeii is divided up into about 10 grid-like sections and all the buildings have numbers on them, and the map indicates what each building is (a map we didn't have!). We managed to latch on to an English-speaking guide tour for a while to gain a bit of history and to help us find our way around.  It is hard to believe that the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 destroyed, yet preserved the Roman site and froze the town’s way of life as it stood at the time.

Roman Bath

Vetutius Placidus – bar area that served food and drinks.  The marble counter has jars set into the worktop to hold food.

Little Amphitheatre, the large one was closed to the public due to excavation work, although you could peer across it.

Casts of bodies found have been made and this one of a dog (in glass container), found to be chained up when Vesuvius erupted.

Where the gladiators were held and trained before they fought.

We enjoyed walking around the ancient ruins and trying to imagine how life was back then but we were disappointed to find so many of the places sealed off by padlocked doors or open reduced hours. Buildings that need to be guarded are only open 09:00-13:30 or 13:30-1700; these buildings have delicate items in, such as mosaics on the floor, frescos on the walls, and ancient pillars and fountains thousands of years old and need guarding to protect them from vandalism.  Unfortunately, these are the buildings that you want to see, so unless you are here early and plan to stay late you don’t get to see them all!
There continues to be a lot of excavation work still being carried out, and it is incredible to think that excavations started back in 1748

After about 3 hours of walking around in blistering heat, we had seen all we wanted to and returned to the scooter.  Our TomTom, which had got us to Pompeii was unfortunately running out of battery, so we asked the car park attendant to give us directions back to Portici (where the Sosta was).  He said just keep going straight but don’t stop until you get passed Torre del Greco, as it is not safe to do so. Mel and I gave each other a worried look but knew from the rough areas we had come through to get here that we weren’t going to stop until we got to the Sosta!

Before getting to Portici we had a one night stopover at Cassino. Between January and May 1944 Cassino saw one of the fiercest and bloodiest battles of the Italian campaign during WWII (The Battle of Monte Cassino), as the allies attempted to drive German forces from the town.  The cemetery is the final resting place of 4,300 Commonwealth servicemen, of which 300 remain unidentified.  In total over 50,000 allies were killed and wounded at Cassino.

Commonwealth War Cemetery

The hilltop Benedictine Monastery (founded in AD 529), dominated the nearby town of Cassino, and the allies feared it was being used as an observation post by the Germans.  In Mid-February Americans dropped 1,400 tons of high explosives on the abbey causing widespread damage to the abbey and town.  It took a final attack in May 1944 when the Gustav line finally collapsed and the Polish corps succeeded in capturing the abbey, which was rebuilt after the war.

The rebuilt Abbey of Monte Cassino

The Abbey

Inside the church

We are off to Napoli (commonly known as Naples to us Brits) today on the train, as Mel has set his heart on having a pizza in the place that invented it!

Sally x