lesliec1

Oh no! I was uploading Part II of my trip report just as a giant thunderstorm rolled in. A nearby lightning strike wiped out our network as well as my computer's UPS, so--among other things--now I will have to re-write Part II. Vacation was more fun than this! --Leslie

Statia

What a bummer, Leslie! We will be looking forward to part II. Great report!

MelJ

Sorry you lost your first version of part II, Leslie, but at least you are assured that so many people are enjoying your report, so please come back soon with the rest of it.

You sound like my kind of travel mom--ready for anything, honest about your kids' gripes and very, very adventurous. You've also shown your teens something invaluable about traveling well--not to sweat the small stuff and to just go with it when things seem to be falling apart.

Lucky kids! Makes me miss my teen-agers (did I say that??) who are now adults. Vacation trips were the one time we were assured they would get along and be friends, since they had no distractions! It really helps bond them to one another.

chepar

Leslie-

This is a great trip report. I love your little details - it really brings back forgotten memories of little details from my own trip to Europe - especially the bit about carrying around lots of change for the toilets.

I had to laugh when I recalled lugging around what must have been 5 euros worth of change in various denominations - total paranoia that I would be caught unprepared if I or my traveling companions needed to heed the call of nature!

Hershey

You are helping to convince me that I could have a good time taking my two teens next summer. Never thought I would say that. Great report.

KT

I'm one more person who's really enjoying your trip report. Frankly, I don't usually read trip reports, but there are a couple of things I like about yours:

1) It doesn't revolve around experiences at the same bunch of hotels and restaurants that are in every guidebook and everybody says you must patronize.

2) You're resourceful in the face of inconveniences. You don't whine. You maintain a sense of humor. Good for you!

Sue_xx_yy

"My notes say that there were weird but somewhat functional shower doors, and only a few unidentified hairs in the bathroom when we arrived....."

Rejoice, lesliec1, and know that even those few hairs are no longer unidentified...they were mine....

If you have a word processing program you can save your report in it and then simply copy it over into the "post a reply" box. This will save you the agony of losing your work. Sometimes when you go to preview your reply you will find strange characters have been stuck in; you can either edit out using 'preview my reply/edit' or according to some you can just save the copy in the processing program as 'text only' before copying it over and you won't get the strange characters.

I love your descriptions of your kids reactions, I can just see you in front of that Naples hotel. Looking forward to more.

lesliec1

Everyone's comments are so encouraging! Hey look! Part II is already on here! After the storm, when our network came back online, it must have uploaded. I'm so glad I've been toiling away trying to remember what I wrote! Sue xx yy, do you mean that you also stayed at Hotel Duomo in Naples? How funny! What did you think when you saw the entrance gate the first time, or were you better prepared for what to expect than we were? Well, guess I'll work on Part III. --Leslie

lesliec1

Okay, this is weird. Part II is on my computer when I open Post a Reply, but it doesn't appear in the list of posted messages. Insert Twilight Zone music here. So, now I will try to post it again, and let's see what happens. I can find more ways to mess up computers than anyone else I know!

Message: Trip Report Part II:

Day 4: We woke up in our Naples hotel and re-packed our backpacks. When we went to pay the hotel bill, for which they required cash, the hotel guy didn't have the correct change so he just rounded down the charges. When's the last time that happened to anyone at a U.S. hotel? We asked him where we could grab a quick breakfast and he said there was a bar just a few feet down the street from the hotel. This was a new concept for us, a place that is a bar/cafe in the evening but that also opens for a quick coffee and croissant in the morning. There's not really breakfast take-out like in the U.S., but people do grab a fast coffee and bite to eat in almost as little time. The place was tiny, and we really filled it up with our big backpacks on, but they didn't seem to mind. 3 caffe americanos (expresso with hot water added, and then we asked for milk on the side) and 3 chocolate croissants. Euro .60 for each croissant and for each coffee--very inexpensive. The man working the expresso machine was an artist performing a well-choreographed routine of dumping the grounds, adding new coffee, sliding cups around, steaming the milk. It was fun just to watch him work quickly and calmly. The croissants were not the highest quality known to man, but they were absolutely packed and oozing with chocolate filling, not the "hint" of subtle chocolate you usually find. A chocolate lover's dream.

After we ate, we walked quickly to the train station of the Circumvesuviana line, which was not too far but not a particularly attractive hike. There seemed to be a good many "seedy" looking people around, but we just strode past them. From my internet research, I knew exactly what ticket we wanted to go to the Pompeii ruins. (Sorrento line to Pompeii scavi, villa dei misteri.) This was great to know, but the ticket man refused to sell me this ticket. He insisted over and over that we needed a different train and told us the platform and train time, and finally in exasperation with us, just handed us the tickets and demanded 6 euros. My daughter was mortified that I would question the knowledge of the train man, especially as I didn't even speak italian, so I figured he must know what he's talking about and took the tickets. When we got on the train, I made sure to find a local person who spoke english to confirm that we were, in fact, on the right train. A local man who had spent several months living in Texas confirmed that we were on the right train. Okay. And then the helpful guy got off at his stop, which was before our intended stop. And then the train did NOT stop at our intended stop. Of course, we got off at the next stop we could that was past Pompeii, something like Scarfati. I was really annoyed. I guess it must be an American thing to believe what you're told by people in uniform. But--the train ticket guys, the police who routed us everywhere but to the Pantheon--we either encountered a high level of incompetence or a fun new sport of send the hapless tourists all over kingdom come.

Nothing to be done but wait for the next train back to Pompeii. We just used our same tickets, no one cared, no one checked. We had to wait for around 20 minutes, during which time my daughter amused herself by doing her ballet barre exercises on the train platform, using the station's wall as a barre. This attracted quite a small crowd of curious onlookers, including the station master, who came out and made a few dance steps of his own. Guess they thought they had some kind of foreign prima ballerina in their midst. I should mention that this circumvesuviana train had quite a few gypsies coming onto it and going through the cars panhandling. This was the first and only time we saw gypsies on trains, and we just ignored them while we kept an eye on our stuff. We took the train back to Pompeii regular station but didn't feel like waiting for yet another train to the Scavi, villa dei misteri station. So we set off walking, in the 90 degree heat, with our packs and daypacks on. Thanks to decisions like this, my daughter and I hardly gained any weight on the trip even though we ate non-stop carbs.

It was about a 40 minute walk to the front entrance of the ruins, and before going in we went to the pompeii scavi train station and checked the train times back to Naples so we could catch our Eurostar to Florence. Only 3 hours in the ruins! All those great plans to stay in Naples so we could be at the ruins by 8:30 opening time rather than see Pompeii as a day-trip from Rome, and here it was nearly 11:00. Who is it on this site whose tagline is "Don't sweat the small stuff"? For weeks, I had adopted this as my mantra, and I forced myself to chant it now as we bought bottles of water and then got in the entrance line. We checked our packs at the free, supervised baggage storage next to the main entrance turnstile and rented audio tours to save time.

Let me just say this about Pompeii: If there is a skilled museum or historic site planner out there, PLEASE do the world a favor and go offer the management of the Pompeii ruins some free advice. Totally aside from the shortage of time issues we encountered, exploring Pompeii on your own is something of a nightmare. The audio tour is very hard to use. It refers to buildings by number, but the buildings are numbered practically invisibly, so you will spend a long time trying to find the building you want, or else will find that you have just listened to the wrong description for the building you are looking at. The recorded descriptions are padded with atmospheric music that may be nice if you have a week to explore the ruins but is downright annoying when you just want to hear the #@*!! description. The map is difficult to use, even for Map-Genius daughter. Halfway down a street that leads to the building you want, you will find a surprise barrier preventing you from going further. Backtracking and finding a new route takes forever. Street names are hard to find. The suggested tours on the visitor's pamphlet don't tell you what each building has to offer, so you can't make any executive decisions about what to see and what to skip. There are large crowds and the sun is so hot that, even with SPF 35 sun-screen, we fried in our 3 hour visit.

Pompeii is fascinating and wonderful. We hardly saw any of it. Herculaneum is supposedly even better. We didn't get there at all. Do yourself a favor--give these sites an entire day and, if possible, go with an experienced and capable tour guide. I would not recommend the audio tour or the local guides you see at the entrance trying to round up customers. We passed these tour guides in the ruins and I was appalled at many of the guides' arrogant and condescending attitudes, their curt and snide answers to questions, and their hard-to-understand accents. Go with a reputable tour guide who speaks English.

Anyway, we saw what we could of Pompeii. My daughter's favorite moment was when she discovered she could use her watch crystal to make a little blot of reflected light dance around on the floor and walls of the ruins. This attracted the attention of one of the cute dogs you find wandering alone everywhere in this area, and the pup spent a long time chasing the light beam, much to everyone's amusement. In no time at all (actually, in 3 hours), 3 hours had passed. With great frustration, we had to leave to catch our train. We had not seen even half of what we wanted to see.

We caught the train with only seconds to spare, and I began to thrash around in my head the question of whether it's better to have experienced a frustratingly short visit to Naples and Pompeii and leave longing to return, or to have spent the extra day seeing more of Rome. I beat myself up with this dilemma over and over for at least 30 seconds until I fell fast asleep to the rocking of the train. At Napoli centrale we had time to buy another fantastic railroad station meal: paninis for the kids that were like buns with a photo of meat pasted in the center, and some kind of flavorless, 4 layer triangular sandwich for me. We were starving so we didn't care. We drifted in and out of consciousness all the way to Florence.

We had arranged to meet a representative of our Bed and Breakfast (acually a Bed and Bed) outside the building at 8 PM. I eagerly looked forward to these accommodations because I had read on this site such positive recommendations for B&B Peterson (which was filled) and this was their new property. The walking directions were thorough but still confusing. Basically, you exit the station on your right as you face away from the trains, and walk down the street alongside the station and the tracks. Eventually you come to a busy street that requires a complicated dog-leg strategy to cross. You and your son peer confusedly at the B&B's directions while your daughter, who has already found the correct street (via Cassia), yells at you to get a part of your anatomy over there. The woman we were supposed to meet was waiting. She spoke no english at all, but was very friendly.

B&B Cassia, via Cassia 2, tel. 348-8428160 or [email protected] . A really comfortable kingsize bed, or 2 twins pushed together--I can't remember except that it was large, plus a smaller cot; new, clean, modern, tastefully-furnished, with double windows that ensured silent nights, totally modern bathroom ensuite, and air conditioning!!! 77 euros for the 3 of us per night. Wow, we're in heaven!

B&B Cassia is just 3 or 4 rooms with a central reception room, 2 full flights up, self-contained within a building that houses other private apartments. The woman gave us 3 keys, to our room, to the B&B and to the building itself. Using a combination of gesticulation and excited loud italian, she managed to convey to us that we could pay the next morning at 9 when the owner or someone else in authority would be there, and that, if we didn't mind, she needed to hurry out of there to catch a bus, a tram, or a train, or possibly all three.

After she left, we fought over who gets to use the bathroom first ("I FOUND the way here!" "It's MY graduation trip!" "Well, I'm PAYING for the trip...&quot. We showered (modern shower, but it was still hard to adjust the temperature and, even with shower doors, water leaked from somewhere and flooded the floor--perhaps the Italian building code specifies that all showers must leak...)and put on nicer clothes, then armed ourselves with maps and walked back to the train station and beyond, to the Cathedral.

No matter how many times you have seen it, the view of the cathedral, campanile and baptistry all lit up at night will take your breath away. My son was suddenly animated. He delivered an art history lecture: who built what, the competition to design the baptistry doors, the styles, the colors, the materials, etc. etc. It was wonderful that he had learned so much in his high school course and was so enthusiastic about it. My daughter was happy that he didn't mention Bernini again. But we were ravenous.

We meandered over to the nearby San Lorenzo area and just picked a restaurant that happened to look inviting. It had 2 names: something like Pizzeria Dell'Arte and Ciro & Sons. We sat outside, behind a screen that somewhat shielded us from the noisy trash truck and street cleaner performing their evening rounds. We ordered in Italian and the waiter had the good grace to make us feel like we were doing an excellent job of it. My daughter had her first gnocchi, in red sauce, which were light and delicate. My son had homemade ravioli in a white cream sauce with truffles. Amazing. And I had lasagna bolognese. We shared a mixed salad, my son and I each had a glass of house red wine, and we shared a large acqua minerale con gas. Food and service were both very good. For dessert, my daughter ordered profiteroles in honor of her grandfather, who adores them. My son got tiramisu and I got excellent chocolate mousse. Afterwards, we decided we needed to see what limoncello is, since I had read about it so often on the internet. (For those who are in the dark, as we were, it's a lemon-flavored liquour, sweetened with sugar and served cold in a little glass.) It was amazing--almost like frozen margarita but with lemon instead of lime. The bill for the meal, including service was around U.S. $77.00. (Even when service is included, we always left a modest additional tip for good service and food.)

We staggered around the duomo area on pillsbury doughboy feet and piano-leg ankles, then tottered back to the B&B. (I love mixed metaphors. They are almost as much fun as misplaced modifiers.) The outer door key didn't work well and we thought we'd be sleeping on the street. At last we got inside. My son went to sleep instantly, my daughter did ballet extensions against the one vacant wall of our room before she too went to sleep, and I did handwashing in the sink until 2 a.m.

And now a word (okay, a lot of words)about washing clothes: I did not want to waste one precious minute of sightseeing time in a laundromat, and the european ones are not like American ones that stay open until midnight. We brought with us the Rick Steves travel clothesline, which we extended by linking together our bungee cords so we could actually make the puny little thing reach somewhere useful. We had powdered Tide in a double ziploc, a flat rubber stopper, and tons of safety pins. By stringing together all the cords, I made a clothesline that went from the bathroom towel rack to the room's radiator, without going over any carpeting because I didn't want our clothes to drip on carpet. This meant we could no longer close the bathroom door and that you had to duck under laundry to enter/exit the room. Oh well. I had invested (and I mean INVESTED!) in REI's ultra travel towels,which are soft chamois-like things, small-folding, super-absorbent and quick-drying. To get ones larger than a figleaf, you will spend around $30 a towel. You can get cheaper ones that feel rough and look ugly, but teenagers will turn their noses up at them. All our hotels had towels, but I didn't know that in advance, plus these were very good for squeezing out laundry.

You don't need clothespins with the travel clothesline. Instead you can curse and swear and break your fingernails trying to cram your wet items through the strands of the clothesline. (Think of trying to tie the end of a really full slippery balloon.) You will occasionally succeed, but for the rest of the time, or for big items that need more room to hang, use safety pins to attach the items to the line or the bungees, or use the hotel hangers. Even the hotel's theft-proof hookless hangers work well. Their little heads will push easily into the strands of the Rick Steves clothesline and, if you haven't put anything too heavy on them, stay there beautifully. On the internet, you will find long meditations on the zen of handwashing laundry in your hotel room. These were probably written by people who don't do laundry in real life and who would enjoy an hour spent crawling around on a blue carpet looking for a blue contact lens. Handwashing laundry is a necessary but boring task. You will be happier if you invest in special travel clothes that are made of quickdrying synthetics, nylon shirts, microfiber or nylon underwear, and synthetic hiking socks. You can also buy less expensive nylon shorts and pants at sporting goods stores and Target. These work well but will not have the wonderful hidden zipper pockets and velcro pockets that make traveling so much easier. We couldn't afford a complete synthetic travel wardrobe, so about a third of our things were khakis, tee shirts, polo shirts, regular cotton socks, etc. These got worn 3 times and then stowed because they would never dry in time to repack. After you fold and stow dirty clothes for a week, they automatically become clean again. Spray them with Febreze and wear them when it's raining or when you will be getting them dirty anyway, such as for horseback riding. Cotton socks are totally useless. You will get blisters in one day, and walk holes thru the socks. Don't even bother. If you can afford it, get the synthetics. Are we still in this same day??? I think I finally went to bed.

Day 5: The B&B man was very friendly. We paid for our 2 nights and he showed us on the map where to find a grocery store, a place for breakfast, and a fruit/vegie store. He gave us a new front-door key. We went to the bar about 20 feet from the B&B for breakfast. We had coffee americano and chocolate croissants. Prices were higher than naples: Euro .70 for each coffee and croissant. Still not bad. We walked 2 blocks to a little grocery and got a large piece of young asiago cheese, an apple, and a bag of apricot cookies. Then we walked back to the Duomo and went inside the cathedral. Beautiful! We took so many pictures! We checked out the Baptistry and the famous Ghiberti doors. Most of the real doors are in a museum, but we never made it to the museum. We paid 6 euros per person to climb the campanile. Expensive, but cheaper than going to the gym and gives as good a workout. Just when you think you have reached the top, you find another staircase. There were around 410 steps, (everyone kept getting a different total), it took me forever and I had 6 heart attacks. There are lots of nice people also having heart attacks along the way, so you can stop to chat. The view is spectacular and you will use up tons of film. We hated to come down.

Outside it was very hot and crowded with tourists. We wandered to the Ponte Vecchio and window-shopped, unable to afford the high prices. Then we headed to the nearby Uffizi gallery, where we had a reservation. We sat on the gallery's steps eating our apple, cheese, and cookies. The reservation let us skip a huge line. The museum cost plus the extra reservation fee was expensive (Euro 9.50 plus 3.00 reservation fee). Kids don't get any discounts in Italy, unless they are from the EU. We rented audioguides. To save money, I shared an audioguide (2 headsets, one tape recorder) with my daughter.

Do not ever try to share an audioguide with a tired, cranky teenager. She either stalked off impetuously or lagged sullenly behind, impeding my ability to circulate in the museum. Eventually, I discovered the secret. If she lagged or pulled away, I merely unplugged her. She soon began to stay closer at hand.

The Uffizi is huge, and the audioguide is good. We spent hours wallowing in the Italian Renaissance. Afterwards, we needed an immediate gelato fix. However, having once tasted the good homemade stuff, we were unwilling to settle for the mass-produced gelato all around us. We had to walk a long way, and even then had to settle for the regular stuff, but at least it was cheaper further from the main tourist attractions. Then we hit the open air stalls in the San Lorenzo market. The kids had a great time bargain hunting, and the bargains were pretty good. A silk tie with architectural motif for their dad, 7 euros. Last year's authentic Italia soccer jersey, 39 euros, reduced to 37 because we came back to the store a second time and also bought a tee shirt. Scarves, shawls. We even found a cheap place to buy a giant bottle of cold acqua minerale (euro 1.10).

As the sun began to set, we made our way to the train station. I wanted to catch a bus to Piazzale Michelangelo to relive old memories. Decades ago, when I had just finished high school, I backpacked across europe with a friend. We had stayed at the campground at Piazzale Michelangelo. It was a barren, rough unimproved place then, with a hostile gatekeeper and a hole in the ground for a toilet. You had to have a tent, which we didn't, figuring we'd just tie up a clothesline and hook our 2 ponchos together to make a tent. Having never before seen a european campground, and expecting an american one with trees, wildlife, and a fire pit, we were astonished to find no trees that were large enough to support a clothesline and an empty parking-lot type of environment. Fortunately, we ran into 2 friendly American guys with a huge tent and a nice supper simmering on their camp stove, and for the rest of this story, you'll have to buy the book. I promised my friend that I would try to find our old campground.

We took the bus to the top of Piazzale Michelangelo, arriving just at sunset. The view of the entire city spread before you is incredible. A zillion more photos. Through my zoom lens I spotted the campground down the hillside. Eureka! In the old days, you had to hike up to it from a bus stop midway up. Now you could reach it by a beautiful paved road down from the main road at the top. We got permission to wander. Now it is all improved and 5 times larger. There are hook-ups and RVs. The trees are larger. The campground rents towels and even tent-rooms. The little cafe is bigger and crowded. There are entire bath-houses, with rows of toilet stalls. I opened one. Guess what! It's now a CERAMIC hole in the ground! However, you can beat the system--there are Handicapped toilets! I found what I thought was the spot where we had camped years before and we photographed it. Mission accomplished.

We walked back up to the piazalle and decided to find a restaurant. The Loggia restaurant looked way beyond our means, and we figured it was probably overpriced for mediocre food. A guy at a snack bar recommended the Michelangelo pizza restaurant. it looked unassuming. We didn't realize it, but it belongs to the campground, and campers get a discount.

The maitre d' showed us to a table on the terrace, but I asked for one of the vacant ones that had a view. He acted really put out (maybe that request was supposed to be accompanied by some folded up money...) but seated us at one. And so we had mediocre pizza and wine while gazing through potted geraniums at the Duomo and the twinkling lights of Florence under a full moon and trying to remember what we had been doing the previous Tuesday night at home. I never wanted to leave.

However, we had been told that the buses stopped running at 11:30. We had bought 3-hour bus tickets, so ours were still good, but it was nearly 11. (Actually, the buses run until 1, but who knew?) We paid and then bought gelato-to-go on the way out. We caught our #15 bus. Then we had a bit of an adventure. We had no idea where to get off the bus for our B and B, plus the bus doesn't follow the same route on the return journey. Both kids fell instantly asleep on the bus (including Navigator-Girl), and I no longer trusted the information provided by people in uniforms, such as bus drivers. I knew we had to go beyond the train station one or two stops, and so I got everyone off at what I thought was the right stop.

Wrong. This left us in a deserted area that had rather "unwalkable"-looking roads. My son began instantly regaling me with criticisms and complaints. This grew old fast. Meanwhile, my daughter pondered the map, studied three dark uninviting roads that seemed to lead to nowhere, and then charged off down the road she thought was best. As we walked, she and I tried in vain to make my son stop complaining. In 15 minutes, she had led us back to the B&B without hesitation or mistake. Incredible! But my son was now in the doghouse. No way I could put up with this constant negativity. It would be one thing if he was taking some responsibility for the decision-making. But he was deferring all that to me and to his sister, saving all his energies to criticize us when things weren't perfect. Maybe I could mail him home in the morning. We all went to sleep in huffy exhaustion. Part III to follow soon.

mebanese

And exactly where can we buy the book?!

emtravel

Just stumbled to this msg board from Asia (been in Europe many times including with teenager).
I love this report! Leslie, how many parts? I do not want it it to end! Maybe we should send 3 of you to next trip ! Sophia

Mary_Fran

Terrific report! I feel as if I almost know your family. It would be fun, when you've finished posting, if your kids would be willing to post their reflections.

cigalechanta

What a great idea, Mary Fran!!!

SeaUrchin

Yes, that would be a fun report. I love your report lesliec1, you are a good story teller. I, too, feel like I know your family.

yipper

fabulous keep it coming

Joelleinitaly04

And we thought we were just stupid because we couldn't really figure out those audio guides at Pompei either! The problem is there are too many numbers on those buildings and trying to figure out the right number. There were three different sites where we pushed the button for the temple of Apollo and then realized it was not that. And we never did find that site - or we did, we didn't know it.

We ended up just using the audio guide when we were pretty certain we were at the right place. It became a event -- "Hey look this is on the auido guide - oh goodie let's listen!"

Joelle

Travelnut

lesliec1, I rank your storytelling right up there with "Elvira" and "Degas". I laughed about the climb up the tower (6 heart attacks). I have to climb at least one tower every trip and know exactly what you are saying..

bevzy

I too love this and am taking 2 teen girls to Europe in September. Eek.

yk

Leslie-

This is a really excellent report! I usually don't read trip reports, but yours is something different. I applaud you taking your two children and keeping such a positive attitude.

Here are a few observations I made (so far):
1. I'm glad you mentioned about the ticket guy at Rome airport refused to sell you any Trenitalia tickets except for the ticket to Termini. I wonder if that's just him or is that the rule these days?
2. The incident on the train from Rome to Naples, with the kind Italian man assisting you. This is a great story to show that there ARE friendly and helpful Italians. We keep hearing stories on this board about these scams with "uniformed personnel" automatically helping travelers with their luggages and finding their seats, but then requesting a "tip" afterwards.
3. About the audioguides in Pompeii. I agree with you that they are not the most user-friendly, with lots of intro music and pauses. But I think it causes the most aggrevation when the tourist is on a short time limit. I was in Pompeii last year for 4 hours and felt I saw less than 1/2 of what I wanted to see. But if I go back, I will still rent the audioguides again.

Looking forward to reading Part III.

111op

I enjoyed reading the trip report also.

Now regarding Pompeii, I was there last year but didn't use the audio guide. I'm not really a fan of audio guides in general. They're usually too detailed for me, and, in any case, my time is usually pretty limited. I did use this article from the Times, which I found pretty useful:

http://travel2.nytimes.com/mem/trave...55C0A9649C8B63

It could help someone else with their planning. The problem I had though with taking the alternative exit at the other end of the ruins was that I found the walk quite unbearably far. There was also no way to plan a meal at Il Principe before taking the train back to Naples (dinner at Il Principe doesn't really start at 8). So the day started off not too badly but ended being pretty tiring.

In any case, some of the better known houses in Pompeii were under restoration when I was there, as far as I can remember. The only named house I remember seeing is "The House of the Faun."

Regarding the many tour guides in Pompeii, I actually agreed with the NYT article in that I found it pretty fascinating to tag along a group for a couple of minutes and learn what the guide had to offer. Otherwise some of the staff on site were pretty helpful in terms pointing me in the right direction.