The story of Naples is famous for the tragedy of Pompeii in 79AD which left the city in ruins. It’s a classical tourist destination that draws in many visitors.
I have to be honest in that it wasn’t at the top of my list of things to do while I was here – especially having just come from the Roman forum. However it’s one of those attractions that is easy enough to do that you can use it to kind of get a feel for how to get to places, so I decided to make the journey on my first day.
Step one was figuring out how the train systems work here. Unlike in Australia, Italy has a more obvious distinction between its metropolitan, its regional and then its international train network. We don’t have international trains in Australia for obvious reasons – but it’s also very unpopular to travel interstate by train – so I’m not used to having to navigate the different systems.
As it turns out the trains to stations that you can walk to Pompeii from are on both the Trenitalia/main network and on a special metro one for Naples called ‘Circumvesuviana’. Tickets for the Trenitalia network are difficult and inflexible whereas you can tap on and off on the metro lines (apparently a recent change) and it seems to charge only a flat EUR 1,50 each way.
Upon arriving I was greeted with a sea of tourists. I tried cleverly manoeuvring around the tourists to get some good shots of the ruins. Here’s how I went.
After about an hour and a half I was happy with what I’d seen and ready to head back. The train ride and the assorted navigation probably took longer than the time I actually wanted to spend at the park – but it wasn’t a bad way to spend a half-day.
These photos haven’t had any post-production (and some of them need it); even so, I wonder if it’s obvious that I’m playing around with my composition a bit more and trying to get some really unique shots. After the trip to the castle at Bracciano I’ve been trying to up my photography game – hopefully it shows here.