Where is Ross?

This blog is a record of my travels in Europe during the Summer of 2005. Countries visited include England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Vatican City, Monaco and Germany.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Mt. Vesuvius


Thursday I decided to visit Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii. I caught the circumvesuvio train and got off at Ercolano (Herculeaum) where I could catch a bus to the top of Pompeii according to my guidebook. When I got off I discovered that the buses no longer left from that location every hour, but only twice a day instead. Conveniently there was a fleet of taxis who would take you to the top and bring you back down for the sum of 20euros. It seemed a little fishy that the bus system was gone and these taxi operators were cleaning up instead. I suspect there was some bribery going on there with the people who make the schedules. Reluctantly I agreed to take the taxi to the top. The taxi driver was absolutely ridiculous with his honking on the drive up. He must have honked 200 times during the 15 minute drive on the way up around every corner, every time there was a driveway, it was nuts. They dropped me off at the top and I offered money, but the guy wouldn’t take it then. It did cost 6 euros to enter the Vesuvius park and hike 10 minutes to the crater which was a little much. There were tons of tourists up there. Napoli is a big cruise ship destination and they bus all of the tourists to the top of Vesuvius and to other nearby places like Sorrento and Capri. The hike was on a trail that was fenced off. It led up to the rim of the crater, but you weren’t allowed to go to the very summit of the volcano. I was a little disappointed. It wasn’t a very clear day either, so the views from the top weren’t great. It was still fun to be on such a famous mountain.
When I got back to the parking lot the bus down to Pompeii was sitting there and I wasn’t really in the mood to take the taxi down and then take the train to Pompeii. It worked out that I didn’t have to pay for the taxi and the bus driver was nice and didn’t make me pay for the bus either. So I went from almost getting scammed into having to pay for the expensive taxi to not having to pay at all. Not a bad deal.


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