We Climbed a Volcano!

Today was our last day of sightseeing in Italy, as our flight home was very early the next morning. Joey in particular was especially excited about our plans on this day, as he had been looking forward to it the entire trip - climbing Mount Vesuvius and visiting the ruins of Pompeii!

We got up early and walked towards the train station. This is the view of Vesuvius from just outside our hotel.

It was a little confusing, but we managed to sort out our own self-organized trip to Pompeii and Vesuvius rather than booking with some kind of coach bus tour group, which would have been more expensive and lacked the flexibility our family needs. I wish I would have written down the details because now I can't remember them. We bought commuter train tickets on the Circumvesuviana Railway from Naples to Pompeii Scavi, a stop that was much closer to the base of Vesuvius. These weren't nice, clean, on-time trains like the ones in Switzerland. These were more like a city metro, loud and crowded, and definitely not running on schedule. But we bought some pastries for breakfast, squeezed ourselves onto a bench (well, everyone except dad), and waited for our train.

Mary wore through her pants by this point on the trip! We threw them out later that night - not worth bringing home again!

Once on the train, we were entertained for a little while by some musicians who boarded and played one of my favorite Italian songs. When we got off the train, we saw lots of coach buses and people and signs trying to get you to sign up for a guided tour to the top of Vesuvius. We had read about these, and had a better plan in mind. Inside the station we found a poster with a timetable of a public bus service to the top of Vesuvius. The fare is much cheaper than with any of the other buses available, and there were several departures/arrivals throughout the day. We didn't have to wait long for the blue bus to arrive to take us to the top, and we were able to buy tickets directly from the bus driver. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we were the ONLY ones on this bus! It was a nice coach bus, no different than all the others lined up to collect tourists, other than the fact that it was cheaper and there were no pushy people trying to get you to buy tickets for it. We also noticed that many of those other buses sat around waiting while the tour guides tried to collect enough people to fill them up, while ours headed right up the mountain on schedule!

The bus ride up Vesuvius was long and winding, but with excellent views of the Gulf of Naples.

Lava dome formation

We had to buy separate tickets to enter the park and hike up to the crater at the top of Mount Vesuvius. The weather forecast for the day had been a little worrisome - there was a chance of clouds and rain - so we weren't sure if we would have any kind of a view from the top. However, luck seemed to be on our side! We started hiking up around 11:00 am, and made it to the top by 11:30 - even hiking at kid-pace, and had plenty of great views of the surrounding Gulf of Naples.

We made it! Getting ready to hike up to the crater!

Hiking up...

And up!

At the top we got to look down into the crater. At some points you could smell sulfurous fumes, and you could definitely see steam rising up from the crater. The kids all thought it was amazing that we were on top of an active volcano! Here is a video showing the crater, and here is a video of Mary and Joey talking about their experience.

View inside the crater

Inside the crater

Top of Vesuvius

Mary and the crater atop Vesuvius

Lily and the volcano

Joey was on top of the world today! He absolutely LOVED getting to see a real volcano up close!

While we were at the top, some clouds blew in, and totally obscured our view of the Bay of Naples. The kids were actually super excited about this. "We are INSIDE A CLOUD!!!" "I'm EATING the CLOUDS!" 

We ate our packed lunch at the top, and then headed back down the mountain. Here we are disappearing down into the clouds.

Unfortunately no climbing is permitted. It really did look dangerous though - lots of loose gravelly rock.

View of the path heading down. There were other tourists there, but it was not very crowded. Some local school groups were hiking that day as well.

After a short time the clouds parted again, and we had great views of the gulf once more.

The kids bought some souvenirs at Vesuvius. Joey bought a little collection of volcanic rocks, all neatly laid out in a wooden box and labeled in Italian. Lily bought a tiny replica of Vesuvius exploding. Mary bought a necklace with a turtle charm made from volcanic rock. Our bus showed up right on time, and once again we were the only ones on board! I can't believe more people don't know about this option! The bus took us back to the train station, and it was a short walk from there to the ruined city of Pompeii. It was too bad that we only had a few hours in the afternoon to tour this vast city. I could have spent days there wandering from house to house and reading all the descriptions in all the guidebooks. However, I think for the kids one afternoon was a good amount of time. We did end up cutting our visit a little short, as it started to rain and we hadn't packed our umbrellas. This was actually my fault, as Joe had packed them, and I had said the chance of rain was so small that we probably wouldn't need them. Karma? In any case, we already had like ten umbrellas in our possession on this trip and the kids were ready to go, so we headed for the hotel in Naples rather than buying more umbrellas so we could look at Pompeii in the rain.

Inside the city's amphitheater. It was similar to the Colosseum, but much smaller. Like the Colosseum, battles to the death between gladiators and animals were staged here for Roman entertainment. 

Joey in Pompeii. You can see the outside of the amphitheater in the background.

Ancient Roman street crossing! In the evenings, the streets were flushed with water to wash away daily debris. These stepping stones allowed pedestrians to cross the street without getting wet. The space between the rocks allowed for chariots to pass. This was a moderately busy street, with enough lanes for chariots to pass in two directions. There were also smaller, one lane streets, and even larger streets with three or four lanes. I thought it was really cool that you could see places where chariot wheels had worn grooves into the stones.

Joe standing just outside the main gate to the city of Pompeii. The larger archway was the main entrance, open during the day to let chariots enter the city. At night only the smaller, guarded arched entrance was open.

It turns out these columns were not ruined during the volcanic eruption that destroyed Pompeii. There was a large earthquake about 18 years before that eruption that left much of the city in ruins. Here is where the ancient Roman people were beginning construction of a new temple area.

Inside an ancient bath house

This was one of many restaurants on one of the main streets of Pompeii. You could see the grooves in the doorsteps of where the sliding doors would have been. There were holes in the counter tops where hot food would be on display in large dishes for sale. Ancient fast food! 

Ancient "Beware of Dog" mosaic entryway

Ancient welcome mat mosaic

Fountain in the courtyard of one of the largest and most impressive houses in the ancient city of Pompeii

Mosaic showing Alexander the Great in battle

Interesting floor mosaic pattern

More chariot grooves

Carved sculpture inside the city's theater. In the background you can see that Katie has just retrieved a piece of garbage that looks like a used tissue which a previous visitor had wedged into the support scaffolding, and I am about to snatch it away in disgust. 

This was a nice place to visit with kids - there was lots of room for them to run around and explore.

Plaster cast of one of the victims of the volcanic eruption that destoryed Pompeii

Katie with ruined remains of a chariot wheel

As we were leaving, thunder was heard booming in the distance, and Vesuvius was visible in the background, so of course the kids re-enacted the ancient Romans fleeing the city as the volcano erupted.

Far in the distance you can see small holes inside of stone squares sticking off the outer walls of the city. Those were for tying up ships, as this used to be the edge of the sea! It is now located thousands of feet further away as a result of the lava flows after the eruption.

Back at the hotel there was some debate about what to do for dinner. I wanted to do one last Italian restaurant, but the kids were longing for comfort food. We ended up getting fried chicken and french fries and burgers for dinner, but we did go out for gelato one last time. Then it was time to pack up everything and get ready for our flight home. We had to get up very early, as our flight left at 7:00 am. We put the kids to bed, lined our backpacks and traveling clothes up near the door, and settled in for one last European night. It had been an amazing adventure, but we were all looking forward to sleeping in our very own beds at home again.