My trip report for Pompei.

My daughter, son-in-law and I stayed in Pompei this month, Feb, and contrary to some postings on this board it was certainly not a dump or ugly or dangerous. We loved it. It does have some touristy buidings and shops next to the Scavi entrance that are not very beautiful but are not horrible. The hotel was comfortable and pleasant with lemon and orange trees in the garden. The receptionists were exceeding helpful with our travel questions and every other request. The town has a beautiful Piazza that the locals would walk around in the evening, nice sidewalk tables and cafes, interesting shops and friendly restaurants. Everyone was lovely to us. It is centrally located so we could easily travel to all the other places on our itinarary, we didn't waste so much time on the dreary trains. I wish I could have stayed longer than our 4 nights and would certainly stay there again.

Day one, Sunday, We arrived in Naples by air (Sky Europe) around 10AM, caught the bus to the train station, It doesn't actually drop you off at the station. It was a bit of a walk to the train station through a gauntlet of sidewalk sale tables and vendors. If you ever need an umbrella, that's the place to go. Guard your wallet.

Bought artecards at the Naples station, the vendor gave us info on the right train to take to Pompei. We were staying at Hotel Diana so we didn't want to take the Circumvesuvian train. She didn't tell us we would need to switch trains to actually get to Pompei but we soon figured it out when we got to the end of the line and we didn't see Pompei anywhere! So we went into the station, got the right info and finally got to Pompei about 13:30.

We had an appt for the Suburban Baths at 1400 and we still had to check in and walk to Pompeii. Tried to find a cab but there were none around so we raced as fast as we could. Needless to say to anyone who has been there that we didn't make it on time but our next appt was for the house of Menander at 1500. We found that one on time and it was great.

We next went to the forum, a man approached my daughter and started a conversation with her about the ruins, he is a really cool guy named Mattius, who works there, he showed us around the Forum area and told us all about the different temples and buildings, he was fascinating, gave us all Pompeiian names and was a lot of fun.

There were very few people there, I think maybe because the weather report was for rain all week that people stayed away, we felt at times like we had the place to ourselves.

Day 2, Monday, I had made an apt for the Suburban baths the next morning at 10:30, I almost cancelled thinking we could not get from there to the next house, Golden Cupids, at 11AM. I'm glad I kept the reservation because we went back to Pompei and they let us in early to the baths and we made the next appt in plenty of time.

The key man was very informative about the next three houses, he gave us a personal tour and was very informative, wonderful person.

Then we had our picnic lunch. There is no place to eat right now at the the ruins so that morning we purchased food and drinks on our way there. There are a number of shops selling pannini and other Italian lunch items. I don't think they will let you leave and come back on the same ticket, at least the sign says they won't ,so if you are spending the whole day there don't forget to bring lunch and drinks with you.

We then went to the House of the Faun. There was a man selling paintings from the House of the Vetti, which was closed for restoration. He described all about his artwork and then walked around the villa with us. He told us all about the house and history of the excavations. I bought 2 of his paintings, he was great too.

The weather was pretty clear and we were able to enjoy wonderful views of Vesuvio, it sprinkled lightly on us just a few times, cleared up by afternoon. We walked to the theaters, several other houses,the brothel and the House of the Mysteries.

I wish we could have had another day or more, it is a fascinating place.

On day 3, Tuesday, we went to Erculano, climbed Vesuvius, the wind and rainy sleet were very strong there and made it difficult but I made it up to the top! I'm a 52 year old chubby blonde, non athlete. My daughter was shocked I was going to attempt this. The van lets you off and it's supposed to be a 10 minute walk but it took me at least 20 minutes, going down was horrible and my knees were like jello at the end, they still are recovering! The umbrella had to be layed to rest though, blew out too many times. Of course we still had the rest of the day to keep slogging through.

So then we visited the ruins of Herculaneum. We hired a guide who had very strong opinions, seemed a bit of a curmudgeon, maybe had a bad day? We won't forget him anyway! He took us into some of the locked off areas and was very informative. I'm glad we hired a guide because we would not have seen as much otherwise.

We went to an interesting museum in Erculano, the Museo Archaeolgico Virtuale, it was the best thing that day and one of the highlights of our trip. http://www.museomav.com/
It has lots of entertaining and interactive exhibits that bring the ruins back to life. A few exhibits are only in Italian but most are in English also. Children would love it.

We then decided to go to Sorrento, it was night. We walked around looking for a place to eat, finally had dinner at a touristy place, don't even remember the name, sad to say we were not prepared with the name of a good restaurant. The soup was good but the fish on my plate was bad.. Odd for a coastal city, we alway had good seafood in Italy. I think it was possibly not a normal thing for the restaurant, they were very nice to us and gave us each a free drink. We did enjoy the lemoncello and then went on the train back to Pompeii.

The train only stopped at the main Scavi entrance so we then had a long walk back to the hotel. We were escorted by a lovely black dog all the way back, he would entertain us by wandering into traffic and causing mayhem, cars brakeing, wheels screeching, then he would reappear and follow us again. My daughter wanted to feed him but he turned up his nose at our leftovers so he must be well fed by someone. There are lots of stray dogs in the town but they seem to mind their own business for the most part.

Day 4 Wednesday, we went to Naples, visited the Archeological Museum, it was having a special exhibit of Herculaneum objects. Very interesting exhibits of everyday living objects, glassware, jewelry coins, statues, and the beach remains of the people fleeing Herculano. I wish I could have spent more time there but others in my party weren't quite as enthusiastic about it, we were also very hungry, so we left after about 4 hours.

We looked for a place to eat lunch on Via Toledo, it was sunny so we found a sidewalk vendor and ordered slices of pizza. We were new at this, found out you pay first inside and then go outside and give the man the receipt. We really should have had a translation guide, do bring one, don't be silly like us.

After lunch we walked and looked at the shops, and other beautiful sights, then went down to the harbor, then over to the castle Nuovo, back down to the harbor and started looking for a SITA bus that was recommended to us by the receptionist at our hotel, we finally found it after walking east on Via Marina for a few miles, not sure how far but was a long ways, their boarding location was changed due to work going on at the harbor.

Then back to Pompey, at least the bus dropped us off near the hotel. Next morning we took the train back to Naples to board our plane to Vienna.

It was a nice trip and I really enjoyed staying in Pompei. The people at the Hotel Dianna were very nice and helpful, we enjoyed the gelato shops every evening and the cafes also, very pleasant. The piazza and cathedral are so beautiful. Hope I can return someday.

Very interesting report. I had never thought of staying in the town of Pompeii so this is good information. There weren't any guides at Herculaneum when I went but it sounds like a guide would be an asset there. Did you hire him at the ticket booth? You did a lot in only a few days.

Was the cafeteria at Pompeii closed for some reason?

kjalaska - thanks, very interesting report. Kybouron - The cafeteria was certainly closed back in October when I was last there, and seemed to have been for a while. I may have misunderstood the notice on the door, but it appeared some form of financial dispute/failure to pay rent may have caused it to cease trading.

That's bad news about the cafe closing as it's the only place for food and drink on the site but also someplace to get out of the sun and heat and cool off a bit. There's no re-entry to the site so it's important to bring water and some snacks.

Thanks for an interesting report. Sounds like a good way to visit the area in more depth. But it does sound like transportation links were missing in a few places that you had to fill in on foot.

Thanks Adrienne, we hired the guide in the entry hall, there were several that were waiting to be hired. We were so glad we decided to go to Campania area in Feb, there seemed to be very few tourists, no crowds at all and nice weather mostly, I'm from Alaska so a bit of rain was no problem really, felt like summer to me.
Thanks also Nikki,, transportation was pretty good there, the night we walked from the Scavi entrance back to the hotel we could have changed trains and went to the station near the hotel. I just happened to be with my daughter and her husband who love hiking, they don't have much pity for their old mother. Finding the bus was kind of a pain, it was a good idea, if it had been where it was supposed to be. I could have taken a cab to the train station and taken that back to Pompei, I was very close to doing so when we finally spotted the bus. There are plenty of cabs in Naples and we even took a cab back to the hotel in Pompei the first day there, my feet were killing me. It was 10 euro but worth it to me. I really liked Hotel Diana but if I went again I would stay closer to the ruins.