• Breakfast at the hotel.
  • Bus from Via Salaria to Termini.
  • Train Rome-Naples – departure: 9:27 AM, arrival: 11:36 AM (tickets at €19.50 per person, bought few days before at the ticket agency at Termini; avoided long line-up to the ticket window, for just few cents more).
  • Early lunch at the McDonald’s at the Naples train station (11:45 AM).
  • We tried “A Slice of Neapolitan Life Walk” according to Rick Steves and his “Italy 2009″ book – a self-guided sightseeing/shopping tour through the heart of Naples and back to the station, but it wasn’t enough time. We wanted to get to the Royal Palace, but all we were able to achieve was to  walk from station to Piazza Garibaldi along Corso Umberto I and back to the station (11:55 AM-1:20 PM). One of the reasons was that the center was under some serious reconstruction just taking place.
    Neapolitan apartments

    Neapolitan apartments

  • Stands full of "deals", Naples

    Stands full of "deals", Naples

    Still, we were able to get a feel of the Neapolitan atmosphere and saw both the good and bad side of Naples (including a short glimpse at a “dirty and dangerously-looking” area near the port. While we didn’t find any great tourist attractions in Naples (maybe we just didn’t have enough time), we were able to get some good deals on leather belts (€5 each!) and CDs with Italian music (opera, film music and more).

  • Got back to the train station around 1:30 PM and looked for the Circumvesuviana (CV) commuter train station that according to Rick Steves should have been somewhere in the basement of the Napoli Centrale station. The problem was that the station was also under the reconstruction and the place was like a labirynth, but we found it finally, got the tickets (€2.40 per person) and headed to the platform. It wasn’t easy to find the actual platform (track) from which the train to Pompeii was to depart, but a friendly Japanese tourist told us that we were at the right platform.
  • NOTE: We learned from the Rick Steves’ book that it wouldn’t be easy to find the right track and he was right. Rick also had a good tip about taking the CV train to get there, not the regular train as its station is located far from the main entrance to the Scavi, while the CV station – Pompei Scavi – Villa dei Misteri is very close (about one block away).
    Pompeii Scavi CV train station

    Pompeii Scavi CV train station

  • After about a 35-minute trip, the CV train from Naples to the Pompeii Scavi station arrived around 2:00 PM. Pompeii Scavi is a ruined and partially buried Roman town that along with Herculaneum, its sister city, it was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano of Mount Vesuvius spanning two days in 79 AD. The eruption buried Pompeii under 4 to 6 meters of ash and pumice. Its excavation has provided an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city at the height of the Roman Empire. Pompeii Scavi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it is one of the most popular tourist attractions of Italy, with approximately 2,500,000 visitors every year (2008 data).
  • The Porta Marina entrance to the Pompeii Scavi was nearby. We got the tickets (full price: € 11.00, half price: € 5.50). We also got – for free the map and information booklet – very useful, as we later found out, but it was available at the information window, not the box office. Then we left the bags and around 2:20 PM we entered the Scavi through the Porta Marina.
  • It was very hot that day (like almost every day during our stay in Italy), and it was the hottest part of the day when we were there, but the experience of being in such a unique place was well worth to risk the sunstroke.
  • As often during this and our other holidays in other parts of the world, we were following Rick Steves’ advice and just did the self-guided tour that he described in his book, but we added a little to his itinerary.

  • Forum, Pompeii Scavi

    Forum, Pompeii Scavi

    We visited the Pompeii Scavi area in the following order: Porta Marina – Via Marina – Tempio di Venere – Basilica – Tempio di Apollo – Foro (The Forum) – Via Abbondanza/Via del Foro – Macellum (Fish and Produce Market) – Temple of Jupiter – Cafeteria/WC – Via del Foro – Via delle Terme – Terme del Foro (Forum Baths) – Thermopolium Caupona (Tavern)

    Tavern, Pompeii Scavi

    Tavern, Pompeii Scavi

    - Vicolo della Fullonica – Casa del Poeta Tragico (House of the Tragic Poet) – Casa della Fontana Piccola – Vicolo di Mercurio – Casa di Salustio – Via Consolare – Casa del Chirurgo – Porta di Ercolano e cinta muraria – Via delle Tombe – Necropoli di Porta Ercolano – Villa di Diomede – Passegiata fuori le mura – Nacropoli di Porta Vesuvio – Castellum aquae – Vicolo dei Vetti – Casa dei Vetti (House of the Vetti) – Vicolo di Mercurio – Vicolo del Labirinto – Casa del Fauno (House of the Faun) – Via della Fortuna – Vicolo Storto – Casa della Caccia Antica – Panificio – Via degli Augustali – Vicolo del Lupanare (The Brothel). See Google Maps street views from the official Pompeii Scavi website – click on the arrow to move around the Scavi area. Also, see this great interactive map showing the Scavi’s most important points of interest.

    Bakery, Pompeii Scavi

    Bakery, Pompeii Scavi

  • As it was so hot and it was quite an area to walk around, our water supplies soon got depleted. There were a few water fountains around Pompeii, but we were not sure if it was safe to drink the water from them. The only other option would be to walk back to the cafeteria that we visited at the beginning of our tour and we didn’t have time or energy to do that. So we filled the bottles we saved and risk getting the salmonella or whatever, but luckily that never happened and we stayed healthy.
  • continued – Terme Stabiane – Via dei Teatri – Via del Tempio d’ Iside – Tempio di Isisde (Temple of Isis) – Tempio di Asclepio – Forio Triangolare – Tempio Dorico – Teatro Grande – Teatro Piccolo (Odeion) – Quadriportico dei Teatri

    Teatro Piccolo, Pompeii Scavi

    Teatro Piccolo, Pompeii Scavi

  • That was the end of the excavated area. From the Quadriportico dei Teatri we had a nice walk through the park/garden to the Bookshop/ WC. After a few hours spent under the hot, hot sun it felt really good to find some shade and be able to walk among the trees. At the bookshop we got a very interesting book – “Pompeii/Herculaneum/Capri Past and Present” with plastic overlays that allow to see how the present ruins looked before the volcanic eruption in A.D. 79.
  • Around 5 PM we arrived back at the Porta Marina entry point where we picked up our bags at the left luggage counter.
  • Now it was time to find the bus stop to get back to Rome. We asked the Scavi staff about the location of the Marozzi bus to Rome, but nobody knew that. Apparently they have never heard about it, which was rather strange. Disappointed, we just had to look around for our bus.
  • But it wasn’t easy… There was no info about the bus, no bus stop sign. We found the Pompeii info center – about 300 meters from the Scavi entrance – but even there the attendant couldn’t tell us anything about the bus, which was hard to understand. Well, the bus was from a private company – Marozzi – but still the info center in such a popular tourist attraction should have had information for the tourists who would like to use the bus to get to Naples and even farther – to Rome. We knew about the other public transportation options – regular train, CV (Circumvesuviana) train and the taxi, but we had the tickets for the Marozzi bus! Luckily, a waiter from the restaurant near the info center assured us that the bus would come about 6 PM and said that he saw it coming every day, stopping by in front of his restaurant. We were waiting impatiently, but it was already well past 6 and the bus was not coming. However, the waiter insisted that the bus would come and said that its arrival time depended on the traffic on the autostrada (the bus was coming from Amalfi/Sorrento) and that sometimes it was quite late.
  • Finally, when we were almost ready to go the CV station, the the Marozzi bus appeared. The driver checked our tickets and let us in. By the way, the location of the bus stop was strange. It would be reasonable to have it in front of or near the main entrance to the Pompeii Scavi, but it was about 5 minutes from there, down a winding, narrow and rather dangerous road. Regarding the bus tickets, we bought them online, at home – at €16.50 per person – the website is in Italian, but easy to follow; to find schedule/buy tickets – click on the “Prenota Marozzi” link, which will take you here – click at “Prenotazione“. Easy and they accept PayPal!
  • Anyway, we got on the bus, our trip back to Rome was safe and without any problems. We watched the majestic Mount Vesuvius and then the beautiful sunset, but tired after the stroll around the Pompeii Scavi, we soon fell asleep. Reached the Tiburtina bus depot at 9:10 PM.
  • Took the metro to Termini and had quick supper at the McDonald’s there (9:48 PM).
  • Did some grocery, etc. shopping at the Conad store on the lower level of the Termini station.
  • Bus from Piazza dei Cinquecento to Piazza Fiume (10:20 PM) and short walk to the Executive Hotel.
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