Day 65: Popping in to Pompeii

I was awoken early by a strong wind rattling the windows and looked out to see a pretty miserable, rainy day – not something we've encountered that often thus far, thankfully. After packing the car once more, we drove up the hill behind Maori, over a pass and were greeted by a spectacular view of Mount Vesuvius and Naples. We had planned to climb the volcano, but although it had stopped raining, it was still pretty windy, so we figured it probably wasn't a great idea (we had also had numerous people do their best to dissuade us from making the climb over the past few days, each for a different reason) so we headed to Pompeii instead.

And we were really glad we did. The site is truly impressive - incredibly extensive and, in places, just jaw-droppingly well preserved. Although there were quite a few people there – including several large Asian tour groups and what looked like a big art class – the place is so big, that we were often alone as we walked in and among the buildings. We stopped and chatted to an Australian couple – both nurses – who were travelling around Europe en route to a surprise visit to their son, who was living in Helsinki and had just had a baby. On their advice, we found a large display cabinet that contained the plaster casts of an entire family killed in the eruption (one family member had a lizard sitting on its shoulder). A little later, we found a small group of people crowding around the entrance of a small building, getting a descriptive talk form a guide. We made our way through them and then hurried the girls back out – turns out the building was one of Pompeii's brothels and was decorated with a collection of rather explicit paintings on the walls.

Heading back to the entrance, we discovered that the on-site cafe was a branch of Autogrill – a ubiquitous Italian fast-food chain that makes very good pizza. As we were all a bit peckish by this point, we stopped to partake in a slice each – with impeccable timing, as the heavens opened up not long after we sat down.

Back on the road, we drove up into the mountains and into the region of Abruzzo. Stopping for petrol and some groceries, we got a bit of shock when we stepped out of the car as the increase altitude had brought a serious decrease in temperature. At around dusk we arrived at the tiny hill-side village of Roccacasale, where we met Mark, who was renting us his lovely little house. Once again, we had a bit of a steep hike up from the car, although thankfully it wasn't as bad as the one in Ostuni.