Day 6

 This morning we had breakfast at the hotel at 8 and then checked out at 9. We were able to store our luggage at the hotel reception so at 9:30 we jumped onto the city bus and headed to the Vatican City. It was extremely busy… Rome in general is a lot busier today as it’s a long weekend in France so there are a lot more Europeans weekending here.

Once we made it to the bus stop closest to the Vatican, we walked the 1km to the church. We passed the Castle Saint Angelo. There were lots of people on pilgrimage. In hindsight it would have been better for us to join their walk as they skipped all the queues! It is free entry to the St Peter’s Basilica but the line was massive. Luckily it moved quickly and soon we were inside. It was huge which mosaics all over the roof. They look like paintings but we had learnt the day before on our tour that they are mosaics and that the materials used to make them was all stolen from the colosseum years ago. 

We wandered around the church and eventually made our way into St Peter’s Square. It is so hot today. 30 degrees and not any air flow. The people didn’t help, so we headed out of the Vatican and back onto the bus to do the city loop. Unfortunately the bus was no better as it was constantly stopped in traffic and it was an open top bus. 

Once we made it back to the stop closest to our hotel, we jumped off and found a place for lunch. After lunch we grabbed our bags and got a taxi to the train station. Our train to Pompeii left at 3:20 and went to Naples which we then had to transfer at to another train to Pompeii. In theory, it sounds straight forward. But Naples train station is far from logical or easy. We had 20mins between trains and by the time we found that we had to go down a level for the train line we wanted and then found there was yet another level and line we had 2mins to spare. It was not enjoyable. 

The train was only 30mins from Naples to Pompeii. Our hotel (Airbnb) was 5mins walk from the station and is right by the entrance to the ruins. We eventually found our key - it was self check in and the host gave instructions via google translate. We showered and then headed to dinner at one of the places recommended by the Airbnb host. Barnaby enjoyed a huge pizza and I had gnocchi.

We are both exhausted from the heat, walking and people. Pompeii so far has been much quieter than Rome so tomorrow should be nice. We have tickets in from 9-5 and have our next train to Sorrento at 6pm.


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