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Wednesday, November 9 to Saturday, November 13
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On our return to modern Pompeii, we started asking how to get to Herculaneum, and were told that we had to take a train. Finally, we found someone who told us we could drive there and we liked his opinion. First, though, I wanted something to eat. After walking around a little and not finding anything looking too appealing, we actually went to a McDonald's. We could have done better for lunch, but it seemed okay at the time.
Next, we encountered possibly the worst traffic I have ever seen on our first attempt at reaching Herculaneum. I never thought anything could be worse than asian cities like Manila, but this was truly amazing: narrow streets, inching along, fighting for every inch. It's hard to convey the feeling to people who have been only in light American style traffic such as Los Angeles. The rules are different in these types of situations. Frank said, "You must show no fear or you are lost." The driver must continue pushing on and immediately grab each little patch of ground ahead before some other driver seizes it. Most of the cars had scratches and time after time I feared we would get marked as well. Motor scooters (commonly referred to as Vespas) add to the intensity. They buz around like bees and can come out of any direction. Left and right have no meaning to them. They drive wherever there's enough space for them to get through.
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I am so glad that Frank drove here and kept his composure so well. Even if I could have tolerated the intensity of the traffic, I could not have physically coped with it as my weak right ankle (from an old basketball injury) would have given out with all the pedal pushes required by the manual tranny. After literally driving in circles, Frank made the decision to postpone our search for Herculaneum and go ahead to Vesuvius. I feared another long search, but it didn't take that long. We did have to turn around a time or two in some narrow spots and the road was always very narrow and never one you would think lead up to a tourist spot.
Eventually, we started climbing up steep switchbacks. At the parking area, at about the point where the cone lost it's vegetation, it was cold. We paid our fee and started walking up the steep trail. I stopped a few times to wait for Frank and to enjoy the view. Closer to the top it got very windy and cold, but it provided a fantastic view of not only the inner part of the cone, but the entire Naples Bay area. In the southern part of the bay was Salerno with the resort island of Capri just off the coast. And hugging the north part of the bay was Naples. Filling the space in between were buildings, roads, and more cars than you'd ever want to see. It was so peaceful up there on Vesuvius, far away from the congestion, but smoke still rises from the crater and one day Vesuvius will erupt again and wipe out some of the people below.
The trail ends up taking you around three-quarters of the rim of the crater. Three small wind-swept souvinir shops are spaced out along the rim. Along the outside it's a 45 degree drop-off and on the inside there are a lot of vertical faces. A big cement block base and a rusting cable trailing off down below mark the remains of an old gondola route. Why isn't it still operating? This is a perfect place for it: a beautiful crescent shaped bay nestled against a tall steep-sided mountain where you have 360 degree views for miles.
On our hike back down Vesuvius, I was the slow one with my injured leg bothering me on the descent rather than the ascent. At the parking lot we found out that Herculaneum is actually Ercolano, just like Rome in English is really Roma in Italian. But why don't we call it by the correct name? We call Pompeii by it's correct name. In this case, the only reason I can imagine is that Herculaneum might be the original Latin name. Now, with the correct name we were on our way. Driving down the hill we were passed by an speedy cyclist, one of many that we saw throughout Italy.
With the correct name, Ercolano Ruins, and decent directions, we got there relatively quickly, but our efforts were in vain, when we were told at the entrance they were closed. We arrived at 3:32 and they closed at 3:30. They kick everyone out of the ruins at 5:00. Why couldn't they let us in with the knowledge that we would have to be out by 5:00? I looked inside and I couldn't see any visitors walking around close by. The ruins looked to be quite small, judging by what I could see and knowing the modern Ercolano surrounding it. So, we decided to head north.
As we entered Venice, we were greeted by this sign, probably in honor of the Iraqi mess. |
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We drove for many hours, having dinner some time after ten. We stopped just outside of Venice at midnight and checked into a hotel. Again Frank wanted to go to the disco and again I declined. We got to bed about 1:30 and were up again at 8.
On Saturday still having wonderful weather, as we checked out of the hotel Frank asked the clerk if there was still flooding in Venice. The clerk said he had just telephoned a friend of his in Venice who said the flooding had ended! After parking just outside of Venice, we started walking (or hobbling in my case) to the town center. The further in we went the higher the water got. Soon it was covering the sidewalks in each route we tried to take. Worse yet, it was rising! We could see it coming up through the sidewalks from the ground. We retraced our steps and decided to take a canal boat, essentially their form of a bus. It took us to Piazza San Marco.
(Left) Church at Piazza San Marco. (Center) One of the many heavily weaponed officers we saw;
this one didn't seem too happy to see me. (Right) Phones available for anyone who doesn't mind getting wet. |
I have been all over Europe and Venice may be the best of the best as far impressiveness. Brugges and Amsterdam have lots of canals, but in Venice, the canals are the "roads" for the most part. These fantastic buildings are built over the water and doorways open right onto the water. Lots of beautiful bridges connected different areas. After leaving the boat we walked on raised platforms to keep dry. We walked on the fantastic Rialto Bridge and visited the flooded, but still beautiful Piazza San Marco. It's a huge plaza boardered by fantastic Renaissance era buildings. The return boat ride still amazed and pleased me.
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