It's A Small World - A Never-ending Pre-trip Report

I know your love of history. Check out the Scavi tour at the Vatican. It's a more archeological tour of the necropolis underneath St Peters and is amazing! Last I knew, they only allow about 100 people a day down there. Its well worth the time as it gives you a real sense of the history behind St Peters and early Rome.

I've also done walking tours of the Forum and Colosseum. I found the tours via Rick Steve's website. They are often led by graduate students and give a lot of info and are very inexpensive.

Your pendant is gorgeous!

Jill in CO

Pinkocto said:

I fear it would take me ages to get through those galleries.

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I can see how it could take all day or more, but neither of us is really into art.

Pinkocto said:

To top it off by seeing the Sistine Chapel, wow!

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That will be one of the big highlights of the trip.

Pinkocto said:

St. Peters Basilica looks amazing as well.

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I really hope that I get to see it this time. Graham has a rule that he will not stand in line for anything for more than 20 minutes. I have however since found out that there is an unofficial exit from the Sistine Chapel that leads straight to the courtyard for St. Peter's Basilica without having to go though security as we will have gone through security before entering the Vatican Museum.

Pinkocto said:

What did you do with the other earring?

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I have not done anything with this yet.

Corinna

jedijill said:

I know your love of history. Check out the Scavi tour at the Vatican. It's a more archeological tour of the necropolis underneath St Peters and is amazing! Last I knew, they only allow about 100 people a day down there. Its well worth the time as it gives you a real sense of the history behind St Peters and early Rome.

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I had looked into this, but unfortunately you have to provide multiple possible dates when you apply for this. As we are only in Rome for one day, this does not work out. Still, we are only a short flight from Rome so we may do this at a different time.

jedijill said:

Your pendant is gorgeous!

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Thanks.

Corinna

Corinna - Sounds like your plans for the cities are all working out great! Can't wait to see your pictures.

@Pinkocto Congratulations! Looks like an awesome job and move for you.

PrincessInOz said:

Corinna - Sounds like your plans for the cities are all working out great! Can't wait to see your pictures.

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Things are definitely coming together. I managed to fight my way through getting hydrofoil tickets for one of the ports today, but that will be covered in the next update.

I am curious just how many photos I will end up with.

Corinna

Naples

This is another place we visited in 2010. That time, we opted to stick to exploring this city and took to the hop on hop off bus. Let's just say that concept does not really work in Naples. The highlight of the day was having some pizza in a simple little cafe in a small alley just of the beaten track. That may well have been the best pizza I ever tasted. As I developed a yeast intolerance about 18 months after this, this is not a draw this time round. I also had severe excursion envy when our table mates shared with us what they had been up that evening. So this time round we are going to take a completely different approach.

There was no doubt in either of our minds that this time round, we wanted to visit Pompeii. The question was on how we would achieve this. We were not really interested in an organised tour and the shore excursions that look good have silly prices. So we decided to do our own thing. During Graham's research, he found that Pompeii does not require a full day and could be combined with something else. Initially the plan was that we would take the hydrofoil from the port to Sorrento, the train from there to Pompeii and then the train back to Naples. That would have meant that we would have a look around Sorrento in the morning followed by Pompeii in the afternoon.

After both doing some research and me talking to a colleague that went to university in Naples, that plan has evolved. The station in Naples is quite a long walk from the port. After quite a busy and tiring day, that prospect did not really appeal. The station is also in a less than desirable area of Naples and my colleague warned me that the train ride from Pompeii to Naples is considered one of the worst in the country. So now the idea is that we take the hydrofoil to and from Sorrento and then do a round trip journey by train from Sorrento to Pompeii. That has one big advantage. Every tour I have seen, both shore excursions and private tours seem to spend the morning in Sorrento or somewhere on the Amalfi Coast and then the afternoon in Pompeii. We are now heading to Pompeii as soon as we get to Sorrento, which means by the time all the tours arrive, we will be heading back and can then spend the afternoon enjoying Sorrento in relative peace.

Speaking of the hydrofoil, getting that booked was an adventure in itself. Part of the problem is that a lot of the English language websites refer to a service that went out of business in 2011! There is still one operator that runs hydrofoils between Naples and Sorrento multiple times during the day, but their English language website is just throwing up one error message after the other. Fortunately I remembered enough from the layout of the English language website to be able to book on the Italian website. So we now have tickets for 9:00 to go from Naples to Sorrento with the return journey at 16:25. The ferry port in Naples is right next to the cruise port so that should be easy enough. In Sorrento, we will have to take the bus into town, which runs every 15 minutes and then we will take the train to Pompeii. This runs every 30 minutes and takes 30 minutes. So that should give us enough time to enjoy Pompeii and Sorrento before we head back to Naples.

Pompeii

I remember first hearing about Pompeii in primary school and being utterly fascinated by it. This may well be what sparked my interest in history. Pompeii was completely covered in ash and pumice following an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79. It was initially rediscovered in 1599 and then again in 1748. The city was so well preserved due to the complete lack of air and moisture. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. There seems to be a lot to see there including houses, temples and thermal baths. The idea that something so old can be so relatively well preserved blows my mind.











Sorrento

Sorrento is a pretty little seaside town. The town itself sits high on top of a cliff and has sweeping views of the bay of Naples. It has some pretty buildings, but nothing in the same league as what we will have already seen on that trip. So we will probably just have a wander in the area around the central square. I am also hoping that we will get to sample some Limoncello, which is produced locally.

I had no idea how old Pompeii was, wow. My mom's parents felt like it was a very sad place. It is somewhere I'd like to see for myself one day.

Sorrento looks beautiful!

Glad you got the hydrofoil booked, how bizarre about the dated information on the website.

PrincessInOz said:

@Pinkocto Congratulations! Looks like an awesome job and move for you.

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Thank you I'm getting really excited!

Pinkocto said:

I had no idea how old Pompeii was, wow.

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I will get to older stuff still shortly.

Pinkocto said:

My mom's parents felt like it was a very sad place.

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I can imagine this. What happened at Pompeii was a huge tragedy and I am sure you can feel that.

Pinkocto said:

It is somewhere I'd like to see for myself one day.

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I am really excited about going.

Pinkocto said:

Sorrento looks beautiful!

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I think so, too.

Pinkocto said:

Glad you got the hydrofoil booked, how bizarre about the dated information on the website.

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I found this through the bank when I did my research for Italy, Spain and the South of France. A lot of the official websites are only in the local language. Anything in English seems to be third party operated and some of them have not been updated in quite some time.

Corinna

How exciting to see Pompeii. I went to the traveling exhibit in Los Angeles last year and it was fascinating. Sounds like some solid plans to miss the tour groups.

Corinna, I think it is nearly time to wish you a fantastic trip! Your ticker says two days!

All your plans sound fantastic. And I know that if I ever made it to Naples on a cruise, Pompeii would be a must do for me! Have you read the Robert Harris Pompeii book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0042JSSVI ? I read a number of his books and loved Imperium. Always meant to pick up Pompeii, too.

franandaj said:

How exciting to see Pompeii.

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I can't wait to see this.

franandaj said:

I went to the traveling exhibit in Los Angeles last year and it was fascinating.

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That sounds really interesting.

franandaj said:

Sounds like some solid plans to miss the tour groups.

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I hope hat the plan works out.

Flossbolna said:

Corinna, I think it is nearly time to wish you a fantastic trip! Your ticker says two days!

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Yes, it is.

Flossbolna said:

All your plans sound fantastic. And I know that if I ever made it to Naples on a cruise, Pompeii would be a must do for me! Have you read the Robert Harris Pompeii book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0042JSSVI ? I read a number of his books and loved Imperium. Always meant to pick up Pompeii, too.

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Thanks for the heads up. One of the jobs for tomorrow is to top up my Kindle app on the iPad. This may well be one of my choices.

Corinna

Athens

Athens is the stop on this trip that I was the least excited about. Yes, I would love to see the Acropolis, but that it is about where my interest in Athens ends. I kind of had my heart set on visiting Corinth, but was looking for an excursion that combines Corinth with the Acropolis. There are excursions like this around, but most of them come with an exorbitant price and the ones that were cheaper do not run on a Sunday. Unfortunately this is when we are going to be in Athens. Graham also felt that the drive out to Corinth was too long so we scrapped that idea. He fancied a boat trip to three small islands just outside Athens and when I looked at this, I quite fancied that, too. Unfortunately we are not in port for long enough to make this work. I became less and less interested in Athens. Add to this that I had read that the walk from the port to the train station in Piraeus is a bit of a hike and I was rapidly coming around to the idea of just staying on the ship that day. People kept telling me that the Acropolis is a must see, but it just felt like to much trouble to get there.

The turnaround came when Graham discovered that there is an express bus that goes from the port to the Acropolis. That made this proposition altogether more tempting. I also came across some photos from the district of Plaka. I had kind of dismissed this as a tourist trap, but it has some really pretty buildings. The bus back to the port has a stop near there, too so that works out well. I also love Greek food and especially Gyros so I am hoping to get some of that, too.

Acropolis

The Acropolis was first inhabited between 4000 and 3000 BC and as such will be the oldest site I have ever set foot in. It is also supposed to be the most important ancient site in the Western world. It is actually a minor miracle that there is anything still there at all. In 480 BC, all of the buildings were burned down by the Persians. It was then rebuilt by Pericles as a city of temples. In 1687, the Venetians attacked the Turks, opening fire on the Acropolis and causing an explosion in the Parthenon, where the Turks had been storing gunpowder, and damaging all the buildings. I am looking forward to seeing this for myself.



Plaka

The Plaka is the oldest section of Athens. It features a number of museums as well as restaurants, cafes, souvenir and jewellery shops. There are also a number of archaeological sites in this area. All in all it sounds like a fantastical place for a casual wander.

Hi Corinna. Oh for sure Pompeii is a must! We really enjoyed this. It is like the hotest place on Earth though be warned. I would go again in a heartbeat. Also did Herculaneum same ash covered trajedy there also good to see.

We stayed in Sorrento a couple of times. Delightful town. Lovely square on the middle. Devine ice creams! I liked English Trifle and After eight lol.

Wow seekng Athens that is great! I am pleased you managed to find a way to make this work!

Somehow it crept up on me. As of 16:30 yesterday afternoon I have been officially on leave. I did not get out on time as I needed to wait for my tickets from Dubai back to Manchester being issued. This is now all done. I have pre-booked everything that needed pre-booking and I just need to have a final sort out of all the confirmations and other paperwork.

In the end I never booked anything for out first evening in Paris. Graham was going to look into a dinner cruise, but could not find anything suitable. He suggested that I may want to book the tour that I had wanted to book. By then I was officially running out of time. So I did not bother. I think this may have turn out to be a blessing. We are both not a 100% well. We have heavy colds and with both of us they have turned into an ear infection. I am still not a 100% sure that we are actually leaving tomorrow. I am however quietly optimistic. I am feeling much better today and I am hoping that Graham does as well. He has gone off to work before I woke up. In any case, it may be a good idea to have a quiet evening on the day we arrive in Paris. If we both feel up for it, we may have a nice walk along the banks of the Seine. I have also not ruled out that I may end up going to Disneyland Paris for the the evening if I get restless. Indeed, in a way that would work out great as this would mean that I could watch Disney Dreams then and would not have quite such a long day on the Monday. We will wait and see.

To my immense surprise, I managed to get everything outstanding done at work by the time I left on Wednesday evening and that was definitely a load off my shoulders. Today I have to take care of the last odds and ends like charging all of our cameras, getting a few last things including some dollars that we needs to pay for our excursion to Petra and my least favourite task - packing. Graham dropped a subtle hint on Tuesday when he asked me which suitcase I was going to take and then proceeded to take it down and put it in the hallway. So far I have resisted although a few odds and ends have gone in.

I decided to get a pair of earrings to go with my pendant. With all the travelling we are going to do, I will only take the bare minimum of jewellery. I have decided to just stick with the rose gold pendant and some earrings to go with them. When I was researching Athens, I came across beautiful filigree jewellery so some of that will follow me home. Anyway, here are the earrings:



I think they are very cute.

I also finally got around to trying on the gowns. This was a real surprise. The one that I thought I would like best, I am really not sure about. Graham does love this one me though and I hope this will grow on me:



The one I was most unsure of actually turned out my favourite:



They are very different in style from what I would normally wear, but I am excited to get the chance to wear them soon.

I also got my nails done on Tuesday and I really love how they have turned out:







Right, I better get going and get the last errands done. I will be back later with the final instalment.

Corinna

Paula Sedley-Burke said:

Oh for sure Pompeii is a must! We really enjoyed this.

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I am glad to hear it.

Paula Sedley-Burke said:

It is like the hotest place on Earth though be warned.

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I have been told this before. The same has also been said about the Acropolis and Petra so it looks like we have chosen places that are nice and hot. At the moment this actually sounds rather appealing. I am sick and tired of this cold and wet weather.

Paula Sedley-Burke said:

We stayed in Sorrento a couple of times. Delightful town. Lovely square on the middle.

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That is also good to hear.

Paula Sedley-Burke said:

Devine ice creams!

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Now you are talking. I do not really have a sweet tooth, but I love Italian ice cream.

Corinna

Sorry to hear you are both unwell. This British climate! I hope you continue to feel better soon.

Your Paris plans to rest might be an idea save your energy for the rest of the trip. I love those earings! Fabulous.

The dress is delightful. I like the colours the way the shade red gets stronger as it stripes down the skirt portion of the gown.

Your journeys are always so exciting and I really enjoy reading your TR's. Can't wait to hear how you like Petra and see pictures. I was there in 1997 , rode horseback through the "pass" and was in awe of the magnificent scenery. Know you will enjoy it immensely. Safe travels !

Those nails are very pretty!! I love the little bit of glitter!

We were in Athens in the mid 90s over the Orthodox Easter weekend. The city was deserted and that definitely made it rather pleasant to visit! We loved the Plaka area and had no idea that it existed and were surprised how nice it turned out. So, hopefully things have not changed for the worse in the last 20 years! And the Acropolis is certainly a sight that is worthy of a visit!! The most amazing thing about it was that it was actually mainly destroyed in the late 19th century by some well meaning people who tried to clean it up and ended up damaging the stone so much that it all fell apart! Our guide showed us photographs from before the cleaning started.

Sorry that you are both feeling unwell, but hopefully you are both on the mend and ready to start into your adventure!

Have a marvelous trip - I am already looking forward to the trip report!!