April 4-5

We planned our last day in Rome, and last full day in Italy, to be a day trip to Naples and Pompeii. Coincidentally the Museum of Science & Industry just opened an exhibit on Pompeii, so we were excited to see the site in person. We took an early train from Rome to Naples, where we had to switch to a local train – we met a nice family from England that helped us pay cash for our tickets! – and arrived in Pompeii around 10:30am.

We spent more than two hours exploring the excavated Roman city – it was more stunning than any of us had imagined, both in size and detail. We only covered maybe half of the grounds in that time, before heading back to Pompeii’s train station for the train back to Naples.

Unfortunately, Naples was probably the biggest disappointment of our trip. The local train we took back to the city was a preview of what was to come: graffiti everywhere, buildings in disrepair, a constant free-for-all between traffic and pedestrians, and a generally run-down area, at least in the Centro Storico area that we walked to from the station. We had lunch at a pizza place near one of Naples’ oldest pizzarias, and even that was a letdown: soggy, messy, and an unpleasant experience with the staff. The contrast between Naples in the south and northern cities was quite large.

We were pretty spent after our day trip, so we spent our last few hours in our hotel – save for Dan and Tammy getting a quick drink at the restaurant next to our cute hotel. After that, it was packing and early bed to get ready for the trip home on Wednesday.