October 26, 2009 Pompei

So, having scoped out the proper train to take yesterday, I had a lazy morning at the hostel and got to the Circumvesuviana train and over to Pompei at the crack of ...noon!

Should have left much much earlier..... pompei is huge! I had expected a few pebbles on the ground in the outline of houses, but the area is huge, really they have excavated nearly the whole town, and its a big one and except for the roofs a lot of the buildings are nearly intact, down to the paint on the walls, and the frescoes. Too much to go into, but hopefully some of the pics will tell the tale. Anyway, I was fascinated by the engineering of the place. Most houses of any size have the roofs slanted towards the center courtyard where there is a pool that catches all the rain, which then falls thru to the underground cistern that provides the water for household needs. When the Roman aqueducts were put in place, the courtyard system became redundant, so then the pools were mostly decorative.

Got to see the thermal baths, with the hot and cold sections, also very nifty engineering. The town had two theatres and a coliseum for sports, plus various temples and administration centers. All very straightly laid out in the Roman way, which makes me wonder, what happened since then Most Italian towns I have visited have circuitous small lanes that wind this way and that, maybe that became more of a protective factor from various invaders. Dont know but will have to read more on it.

Anyway, after about four hours carrying around a daypack with too much in it, my feet were killing me and `i was parched. As the time had changed earlier, bringing sunset on earlier in the day, I decided to head back to Naples.

Couchsurfing. I know I had mentioned to a lot of folks that `i was going to try to connect with people thru Couchsurfing and possibly arrange a night or two lodging thru the kindness of strangers. Well, I had been contacted by a young man, Fabio, age 37, who offered to escort me thru Naples. Because I didnt have a phone, we had a couple of missed connections thru the messaging system of Couchsurfing. This was one of those nights where I waited and the message came too late, so I ended up going out to a typical Italian restaurant with Linda, an Australian girl who works here, and Jenny a Canadian girl from BC. It was a lovely meal. I had veal and the whole thing only came to 10 Eu each, wine included. When I got back it looked like I might have a lunch arranged with Fabio, so I didnt make any plans for the next day other than to go to Teatro San Carlo and see about tickets to a performance. Since the Opera season doesnt really start till later in November, December I had to settle for a ticket to see Baryshnikov dance! November 3. Poor me.

Well, again the messages got crossed and I lunched on my own. I wandered thru the big shopping mall, glass enclosure and then walked up and down the road surrounding the port. I found where I would purchase my ticket to the ferry to Sicily and planned the best road to get there from the ferry with my heavy backpack the next evening.

Wed. Oct 28 Packed my gear and left it at the hostel and took the Metro to meet Fabio and Valeria, another couchsurfer from France. We had a nice pizza lunch and Fabio shared some history of the area. We all walked back to his office,apartment and had coffee. Valeria left after we made arangements to meet that evening outside the ferry as she was going to Palermo to visit her grandmother.

Now heres the interesting, weird part. Fabio, who as I mentioned was 37 and young enough to be my son, which I mentioned to him several times, put the moves on me. No exclamation point on this computer or I would now put in several. I countered, he pressed, I resisted, he gave up. I honestly dont know if its a game the men play over here, I certainly dont fancy myself that blindingly attractive, and he was actually quite good looking, I could have seen him going for Valeria, who was ten years younger than him, but not me. As I said dont know if it is the culture or just him, but it certainly threw me. I didnt want to be some cliche for sure.

So, after I scurried back to the hostel, I hung out till time to leave and met Valeria. We were pleasantly surprised to see the ferry was more like a cruise ship, with several decks and entertainment areas. We scoped out the area and decided to settle in the lounge, where there was live muscial entertainment. A young neopolitan played keyboards and sang all kinds of music. He was very good and actually delivered the only version of Feelings, yes that smarmy song, that Ive ever liked! We had a cocktail and explored the ship a bit, then stretched out on the circular banquette seats to sleep.

View next blog for my very exciting Sicilian experience!