Vesuvius as seen from our roof terrace. We woke up our last full day in Napoli with the mountain hidden in clouds. We were hoping they would burn off and we would be able to go explore and luckily they did.
You take the train towards Ercolano and then catch a bus most of the way up the mountain. It took forever for the bus to come and take us up there. It was a sunny, hot, and busy Sunday. The way it works is you buy the ticket, the bus takes you up there, you have 90 minutes to explore then the same bus takes you back to the train station. Really we had almost 2 hours up there which was the perfect amount of time to walk along the trail as far as we could, eat some lunch we had packed, and walk back taking photos along the way. It was sunny and hot, but I enjoyed it. Lots of photos of the rocks up there, the crater, and the views ahead.
Lots of people up there.
Looking back at Napoli
Napoli
Towards the end of the land is Sorrento and to the right the island of Capri - next time we will visit there
There are all of these sculptures along the road up to the park
This one was in the round about and it had eyes on all sides
Once we got back to Ercolano we walked down towards the water and got some cold beverages. Then we thought we would check out the water, but ran into the Herculaneum Archeological area which you could walk along above it to get to the ticket booth.
We spied from above and then tried to find our way around and down to the water.
The ruins are just there in the middle of the town.
While trying to find the water we went down this alley that lead in the right direction
And came out on the run down area of town. Really Ercolano was not the nicest town, but this area was almost a ghost town. All the buildings were really run down and there were not many people. Every once and a while a car would drive by and that was it.
We kept walking and ended up in the next town over, Portici, which was much nicer. We saw this street fair and decided to check it out and give up on our coastline adventures since we couldn't seem to find a way to get down to the water. There were lots of food and such, but not a lot of people at the street fair.
Because at the top of the street fair we found another religious procession! This one was in honor of Saint Ciro, patron saint of Portici. It was way more fun than the one in Napoli. It was like a giant party.
We were only there for the end of the procession, but it was still fun
It went down this narrow road and all of the people in the buildings on either side were throwing so much confetti out the windows. Most of it was metalic so you just saw all these flashes of light, sparkles, as it caught the sun. I really enjoyed that.
Walking back to the train station there was a lot of confetti on the ground
And back at our place in Napoli as the sun was setting. It was a long day, but we still had to go out and get some dinner.
On the way home from dinner. There was a football game on, Napoli vs Milan and there were lots of places with outdoor screens set up. We went back to our place and sat on the balcony and could just hear all the craziness from all the fans. Really it was a great day.
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