Pompeii

Monday was a tourism day for me, while Dee would take the taxi (under 20€ this time) to the Institute to keep it open all day. Marilyn and I left just after 8am to take the subway downtown to the train station. Lu was to have accompanied us, but she was tired and concerned about doing too much with her back issues. So she bowed out and stayed home for the day, resting a lot and going to the local stores for a couple of things. It turns out that she made a very good decision, because our trip to Pompeii was wonderful but very exhausting. I had forgotten how wearing it was to walk on the very uneven streets there.

Our friend Pam met us at the train station. Dee had called Pam to offer her own spot on the train, and Pam was delighted, never having seen Pompeii before. She is here working on an MBA; she is a convert to the church who served a mission in Costa Rica, and she also has a PhD in psychology. She has never married. She and Marilyn quickly became good friends, and we had a delightful day together. Because there were only three of us, I got to stretch out my legs on the train, as we had reserved a group of four seats facing each other.

I had purchased tickets to go to downtown Naples and see the amazing Cristo Velato statue right after the train arrived, before coming back and grabbing a train for our 2pm tour to start in Pompeii. It was going to be tight, but our train from Rome arrived 45 minutes late, so we missed our appointment at the museum. 

 

 

At that point we decided to just get on the Circumvesuviana train to Pompeii and grab a nice lunch there before starting the tour. The train was pretty crowded, though not as packed as when we went there in 2015. Marilyn got a seat (with zero leg room) and enjoyed visiting with a retired language teacher from Belgium, while Pam and I stood up for the half hour ride. As expected, the train had no AC, so it was fairly hot, but it could have been worse. We got to Pompeii about noon and went to the nice little restaurant near the station, right outside the entrance to Pompeii, called  Hortus Pompeii (Pompeii Garden in Latin). It has covered outdoor seating and good food. I emailed our tour guide, Cinzia, to tell her that we were about an hour early and would be happy to begin if she wanted to. She showed up right away and we got started.

Cinzia had been recommended to me by Sorella Knies. It cost just under 100€ for a 2+ hour private tour, which was well worth it. Cinzia is from Naples and has been a tour guide for many years, finally going out on her own as a private guide a while back. Her English is very accented, but also quite easy to understand. She explained that there is far too much to try to see in Pompeii in just a few hours, so every guide has to choose what to focus on. Her tour was very informative and enthusiastic, and we loved it. She seemed to hit all the highlights that I remember from prior tours. The whole nature of the Pompeii experience, how they found it and excavated it, is very impressive. There is nothing quite like seeing the plaster casts of the victims, and the artwork everywhere is remarkably well preserved. It was hot, but we had our umbrellas to use as parasols (no sunburn!); there was a nice light breeze much of the time.

 

Cinzia, Marilyn, Pam, me

After the tour, we walked back and barely caught the next train back to Napoli. It turned out to be the express train, which has AC and skips most of the stops to get there in only 20 minutes. There were no seats for us, but the AC felt heavenly. On the way we got to visit with a nice, young middle school teacher from Denver. After arriving, our thoughts naturally turned to gelato, so we walked around a few blocks outside the station looking for some. There was none to be found, and the neighborhood seemed to be an immigrant place with lots of middle eastern and African places to eat, but no ice cream. The further we walked, the seedier it got, until we turned one corner and saw a whole bunch of homeless folks laying on the sidewalk. At that point, we decided to return to the station and get some gelato there. It felt wonderful to sit after hours on our feet, eating gelato and drinking cold water in an air-conditioned place. We relaxed there for well over an hour until it was time to catch our train back to Rome, which arrived on time. From there Marilyn and I walked to the Institute.

FHE had just ended, with a very nice lesson (according to Dee) taught by the Ganziani (Wijesundera and Melling). I forgot to take a picture :( When I rang the intercom, it was answered by some of my Seminary students who were there hanging out together; it was great to see them. Lu brought Jelly Bellies from Costco, which we shared at the Institute. We wondered why they weren't being eaten very quickly and then found out that in Italy, there's a game with candy that looks like Jelly Bellies, based on Harry Potter, but some of them are yucky flavors. So, the kids were less than eager to dive in. The place was pretty full, which was really great, including a new girl from America, Noelle, here for a few months working as a nanny. Dee had cooked peanut butter cookies, which were soon gone.  

Sandro came by for family history help, and we indexed a batch in Italian. He is very generous to do this service when he has his own family to research. He reads the Italian handwriting without a problem most of the time. There was one town name we couldn’t decipher, but I looked at the area in Google and found it! After he left, I did a batch in Latin.

Then, Grazia came by for family history, more than an hour late, but I was able to fit her in. I thought this would happen, so we set up in the kitchen so I could finish the cookies while we researched.  One town’s records were not available to us (only viewable at a family history center, unfortunately), but another one was. She will also come back on Thursday.

We left for home a bit early, where we found Lu feeling well rested after a three-hour nap. It was fun to visit and laugh about lots of things until kinda late. They have been wonderful guests.