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Our first two days in Italy. Perfect flights, on time and comfortable. We managed to get some sleep in the Philadelphia to Rome segment to arrive refreshed in Rome Saturday morning. (Thanks to Ambian, I slept like a baby. I didn’t even remember eating, except as a dream.) Easy train ride from the airport to the main train station in Rome. Then a city-to-city train to Napoli—about a 2-hour ride. We met a friendly cardiologist in our train compartment who lives in Napoli, was at a conference in Rome who told us all about Napoli and other places we will be later in our trip. Finally a short but slow commuter train in Napoli to Pompeii. About a 10-minute walk from the train station to our B&B, a charming newly decorated place near the center of town. We came to appreciate packing light and one small rolling suitcase. Lots of stairs in the train stations and streets and sidewalks are rough coble stones or worse.
A pleasant walk around Pompeii the first day, then our first pizza in Italy. And of course red wine and then gelato. So much to try.
Perfect weather so far. Rain during the train trip and overnight but never when we were walking.
Sunday morning up early with the loud but welcome church bells at 7 am. Breakfast at our B&B where we met a couple from Rome on a weekend vacation. Then off to the Pompeii Scavi (Ruins): A complete 2000-year old 160-acre city that is mostly intact after being discovered and excavated in recent years from the 79 AD volcano ash. Most interesting to see all the retail, residential, government, and other buildings. (Plus we had our own rescue/guide dog who adopted us…but that’s another story)
Sunday afternoon, back on the train to Napoli, another pizza from a restaurant we had heard about from Rick Steve’s and our friend from the first train. We are now headed back to Rome.
Caio