We awoke to a 7.30 alarm because we had every intention to catch the 8.30 bus then the 9.48 train for a big day out in Naples. However the biggest thunderstorm was happening outside when we woke up. A search on the weather forecast said it would clear by 10 so Pompei was now our destination. This was 15 min train ride from Vico Equense but first we had to catch the local bus!! We purchased our 1€ tickets from the shop and waited at the bus stop. At 9.30 it arrived and we embarked on the craziest ride down the mountain for a 40 min journey around the villages. For me this was a rest from driving them and proved that if a bus could negotiate these narrow, hairpin roads then anything can!!!
We caught the 10.48 train, a very old underground type train packed to the rafters.... Just a good job it was cool!!! We disembarked at Pompeii scavi (ruins in Italian), everyone got off, they must have had the same thought as us.... 'Rubbish weather let's go Pompeii!!!' From the station there were touts selling guided tours but we just wanted to 'Rome', pardon the pun!! The queue was about a mile long so Sarah got water for her and I had a fresh orange juice to refresh us whilst waiting. They also sold fresh lemon juice, the size of the lemons were like nothing we've seen before (the photo isn't even representative of the largest!) Once we had paid our entrance ticket we just wandered around the ruins... We had fun entertaining ourselves: 'who could live in a house like this?', hide and seek, Sarah found her new dream kitchen, and a zebra crossing, we did it all!!! 13€ entrance and not a shop in sight!!! There was however a McDonalds type take away directly in the middle of them! The ruined city was huge and the weather did get hot, navigating with the map was right up Sarah's street and there were some amazing points of interest around the city, lots of selfies show these. The most poignant photo is the one with the ruins and mount Vesuvius behind, after all this was the reason Pompeii was wiped out in 76AD. Train home then bus back up the mountain to rest after an active day sightseeing.