I had heard mixed reviews of Naples, so didn't feel bad that our excursion took us straight from the port to Pompeii and skipped Naples altogether. Our first plan was a combined Mount Vesuvius hike and Pompeii excavations guided tour. A few months after booking that I got an email that it was cancelled. Many of the excursions run seasonally and November 1st seemed to be the cut-off for many of them. I'm guessing that was the case here. We found a shorter tour that was just the excavations portion. That ended up being a good fit since we were already more than a week into our trip and because we had a lot of walking ahead of us in Rome. But it was also overcast and drizzling the day we were there and Vesuvius view wouldn't be that amazing.
I thought I had a good idea of what to expect from Pompeii based on the reading I had done and photos. I knew, for example, not to expect any people lying in the ruins. And I knew that it was a huge area. But I was expecting it still to look desolate - sort of a stone and rubble lot with some remaining ash and rocks. So imagine my surprise when we approached the entrance and were walking on a path flanked but tall pine trees and grassy areas. The smell was amazing. I don't know why I had never considered that the trees and nature would grow back in 2,000 years!
Again this was a place you could surely wander around on your own but to do it justice you needed a tour guide or an audio guide since there are not placards or signs explaining what you're seeing. Two things I learned on this tour were that the casting that we see aren't casts over the preserved bodies of the people and animals. Those did decompose. Instead the ground was so steady that they acted like molds that held the shape of where the people or animals had rested. Maybe everyone else already knew that.....The other shocking fact our tour guide casually shared was that tomatoes were not native to Italy! Christopher Columbus brought them back from the New World. Mind blown!
Of course the tour guides of today are pseudo audio guides. Since there are so many tour groups, the leaders use a microphone system where everyone listens to their live commentary on a receiver with an ear piece. We quickly learned (but failed to remedy) that William's little ears don't hold the cheap hard plastic earphone well, so he never used his audio guide. We just encouraged him to stand up next to the tour guide in order to hear his or her actual voice. That usually worked fine. Of course I did have to remind myself a few times that he is a 9 year old on a two week tour of antiquities and if he just wants to hide in the trees or chase birds or lizards once in awhile that he can do that, too, and it's ok if he's not getting every second of the official tour.
After leaving the ruins, we went to a limoncello store where we sampled and bought up a bunch of different flavors. I need to crack open my chocolate limoncello someday soon!
I thought I had a good idea of what to expect from Pompeii based on the reading I had done and photos. I knew, for example, not to expect any people lying in the ruins. And I knew that it was a huge area. But I was expecting it still to look desolate - sort of a stone and rubble lot with some remaining ash and rocks. So imagine my surprise when we approached the entrance and were walking on a path flanked but tall pine trees and grassy areas. The smell was amazing. I don't know why I had never considered that the trees and nature would grow back in 2,000 years!
Again this was a place you could surely wander around on your own but to do it justice you needed a tour guide or an audio guide since there are not placards or signs explaining what you're seeing. Two things I learned on this tour were that the casting that we see aren't casts over the preserved bodies of the people and animals. Those did decompose. Instead the ground was so steady that they acted like molds that held the shape of where the people or animals had rested. Maybe everyone else already knew that.....The other shocking fact our tour guide casually shared was that tomatoes were not native to Italy! Christopher Columbus brought them back from the New World. Mind blown!
Of course the tour guides of today are pseudo audio guides. Since there are so many tour groups, the leaders use a microphone system where everyone listens to their live commentary on a receiver with an ear piece. We quickly learned (but failed to remedy) that William's little ears don't hold the cheap hard plastic earphone well, so he never used his audio guide. We just encouraged him to stand up next to the tour guide in order to hear his or her actual voice. That usually worked fine. Of course I did have to remind myself a few times that he is a 9 year old on a two week tour of antiquities and if he just wants to hide in the trees or chase birds or lizards once in awhile that he can do that, too, and it's ok if he's not getting every second of the official tour.
After leaving the ruins, we went to a limoncello store where we sampled and bought up a bunch of different flavors. I need to crack open my chocolate limoncello someday soon!
