The Wonders of Pompeii!

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Ciao!

To catch up on dinner last night: Just down the road is a very nice-looking restaurant, and in we went, after making a complete circuit of the Paestum ruins to see them lit up at night. Just the chef and his wife; very nice people – but WHY do people in this neck of the woods think we’re GERMAN?? So…what did we want? We asked for the menu – but it’s more like a guideline, really; they didn’t necessarily have what was printed. So…while they were out of chicken, and mozzarella, and no bolognaise sauce, we did have matching meals! Started with a plate of absolutely wonderful prosciutto with parmesan cheese and cherry tomatoes – boy, are the tomatoes here great! Then, heaping plates of tagliatelle with a creamy mushroom sauce. Everything was terrific – and we were the only people in the place! No idea how these folks all stay afloat, but figure they’re probably mobbed in the summer months. I know we could have gotten fish there; it was a fishy kind of place, but I’ve had my fill of “seafood salad”, thank you very much!

Well, it’s Saturday evening now, and we’ve just come back from an incredible sort of day! But first, two thoughts that I wanted to share:

First, somewhere in these ramblings I know I’ve mentioned how difficult finding plain ol’ orange juice can be … and we’ve seen things like blood orange juice – but boy, when we came down to breakfast in Matera and found a pitcher of pea-GREEN juice, that was quite a surprise! The only thing I could think of that was that color were kiwis – and guess what? KIWI juice!! Uh…R got a glass (we had to know) and we both tried it … can only imagine how many little kiwis it takes to make up a pitcher of juice! But why anyone would want to is more than either of us can understand…

Second point – it is SUCH off-season in the areas we’ve been visiting that the traffic signals are turned OFF! Now this isn’t really too much of a problem generally – not too much traffic – but boy, occasionally it would be nice to be able to figure out who has the right of way! However, in true Italian fashion, I generally assume it’s mine …

Got up around 6:30 this morning, as we wanted to get an early start to Pompeii. To be honest, the weather forecast for both yesterday and today was pretty gloomy – rain alternating with showers alternating with heavy rain … However, yesterday, while we did have some showers, for the most part, the day was sunny and lovely! So much for weather forecasts…So, downstairs for breakfast (more Kiwi juice!!) and then out by about 8:15 a.m. According to information in our room, it’s “only” 60 km (about 36 miles) from here to Pompeii … WRONG!! Possibly as the crow flies…

So, started out, heading toward the autostrade (equivalent to an American freeway)…and by golly, those Italian sign painters got us yet again! Led us up some really odd roads, and then, voila – the signs stopped altogether! We’ve figured it like this: The signs are really for the people who live in the area – so that when you get “close” enough, everybody who needs to know already knows which way to go – so why bother with another sign?? GRRRRRR……FINALLY found the autostrade; certainly NOT where we’d intended, but once on it, we sailed right into Pompei, right to the excavations. Found a very close place to park, and headed in.

One word: WOW! We’d been there probably 10 years ago, and it had been in POURING rain. We had the place to ourselves, but golly, the weather was SO bad. Today, however, while we did have occasional showers, for the most part, the sunny, blue skies were wonderful! And, not too many people, either – and as they were mostly in tour groups, they were fairly easy to avoid.

We went all over the excavations – I had forgotten how beautiful the wall murals were; how vibrant the paint, even after 2000 years! R is right – because the city virtually “stopped” at a single moment in time, it is so easy to picture people living here, going about their daily business – it’s wonderful! And, as it was Saturday, many of the buildings were opened. We would really recommend Pompeii as a sight that everyone should see. It will stay with you forever, believe me!

Stayed until afternoon, when we didn’t think we could walk any more (and those Roman streets are NOT easy to walk on!!) Found what we thought was our exit – and we were wrong! Fortunately, didn’t have to walk too far back to the carpark. Did stop and split a pizza Margarita; just needed a little something, and while R says he is swearing off (or at!) pizza for the immediate future, he did relent today.

Then, to be honest, came some of the most harrowing driving I’ve ever been a part of – and I drive in Rome, remember!! But compared to this … of course, the sign painters got us yet again. We were following the little green signs saying “A3 Salerno” – and suddenly, they just disappeared, and said “A3 Napoli” instead! Wasn’t sure what to do, (but VERY sure we didn’t want to go to Naples) so went straight, and ended up on a restricted access road heading straight to Castellammare – my alternative was to head off to the Amalfi Coast! (And anybody who has ever been on that road, knows it’s hard to do a U-turn!) So, landed in Castellammare on a Saturday afternoon, with EVERYBODY in town out for the day!!! Truly an incredible mess (RRZ– the Castellammare Mess! You would have HATED it! I certainly did!) – had to drive for absolutely miles with scooters buzzing every which direction, trucks and cars pulling in and out; absolute and total chaos. My nerves were a tad on edge, but R did a truly incredible job navigating – and this time, the signs to the A3 actually went all the way to the autostrade! How did that happen??

From there it was an easy cruise back to Paestum. We got off just south of Salerno and took the beautiful coast road all the way back. Beautiful views; very rough sea; would hate to be on a cruise ship out there today! On arrival, we found the parking lot at our hotel was absolutely PACKED, as a wedding reception (Francesca and Guiseppe) going on, as well as tour bus … hmmm…

Will close now; more later!
Am planning on posting lots of pictures of Pompeii – hope you enjoy as much as we did!
Love,
m