Vesuvius, Pompeii, and Capri

My birthday dawned bright and sunny… no, wait, it rained like the dickens. Far be it from me to criticize the weather, though – if it happens on My Day, it’s obviously the best weather ever! We had big plans for the day, starting with The Volcano: Vesuvius.

Vesuvius regularly wears a hat of thick clouds even when the rest of the sky around – as shown in other posts – is clear and sunny. It seems to have its own climate up there, near the crater, where the (gulp!) lava would come from. And with the rainy day, Vesuvius was definitely playing coy: no one could climb because the weather had gotten too intense up there.

The road to Vesuvius is a twisty-turny one laner, but that didn’t stop busloads of us going up and down, the side mirrors of the buses nearly kissing and the panicked folks in their windows looking at us, panicked, in ours, a handshake distance away. The bus driver had nerves of steel, however, and got us to the ridiculously small parking lot where buses were hooking nine-point u-turns in the midst of a crowd of tourists awaiting the park’s re-opening. They would just honk and our mass of people would swell and heave around them… not a little disconcerting, but thankfully the park did re-open, and we began to climb. Right into a wall of clouds.

Looking down into the crater was uninspiring, as we couldn’t see anything even ten feet away from us. The clouds would whoosh a little in the wind, so that the rocks below had a thinner veil, but it was never clear.

Until the last possible moment before we headed back down:

Pompeii

So the morning was cause, and the afternoon was consequence. Our next stop was the site of Pompeii, which was buried in AD 79 under the liquefied, roasted remains of the top of Vesuvius. The city is remarkably intact, including mosaic tile floors, frescoes, columns, theaters, even a brothel.

Our guide wanted to give us a real feel for what life was like during pre-eruption days in Pompeii, and that involved talking a lot of… shit. Pardon my French, as we say, but the lives of the Pompeiians were a lot closer to the fundamental bodily functions than we might comfortably discuss today. In the shared public bathrooms there was also a shared booty-brush with which everyone cleaned up afterward. There was poop in the streets. There was a very short life span – around 25 years! – in part because of the preeminence of poop. Slavery was the norm, and it was clear they lived arduous lives.

Did ’em a favor

Then came the eruption. They had some warning, but not enough. Wealthy bakery owner, slave, and everyone in between – all encased in the remains of the decimated volcano.

Our tour guide mused that Vesuvius actually did the Pompeiians a favor, cutting off their short, difficult, painful lives. But somehow, even in their limited time on earth, they found time to build the city and to fret about decorating it:

Another bodily function

As important as bathrooms were, a brothel appeared to rate highly among visitors to Pompeii, warranting a durable sign pointing the way, and frescoes inside with the “menu” of services available.

To Capri

If anything could be more different from the natural grandeur of Vesuvius and the historical mind-blowing of Pompeii, it is Capri. The island (pronounced CAH-pree, for those in the know) is a fabulous touristy destination with crowded streets and overpriced sites and overfull boats and long lines. It’s expensive and you have to dedicate the whole day to the trip. Even so, you are just one of hundreds or even thousands of folk who pony up to go to this famous island. Apparently a passel of celebrities all call Capri home, but none crossed our path.

Still: worth it.

Capri is very steep-sided and has fantastic views all around. There’s the Mamma Mia highway and a chairlift that will take you to the highest point.

The Blue Grotto

The Blue Grotto was also on our itinerary, and a snappier tourist trap, you’ll never see. Still, despite a ridiculously long line, it was such an experience. You won’t believe me if I describe it, but I’m going to try.

So there’s a weensy hole at the base of a cliff, in the sea, with the waves rising up and falling back. You can get to it in different ways: one, you can ride a bus to the drop-off point then stand in line on a stone staircase that winds down to the sea.

Or you can ride to the little spot on a boat, drop anchor, and wait your turn. From either of these two entry points you load into a little dinghy and take your place in line with other dinghies. First you pay a fee to enter, at a “desk” that is also on a dinghy.

Then, when it’s your turn to go inside, your dinghy captain uses the waves to get close to this diminishingly small opening, everyone lays down as flat as they can in the boat. The captain grabs a chain and pulls the dinghy through the tiny gap (and he also shrinks down to height of the top of the little boat), then suddenly…

Kaboom.

You are in a spacious, echoing cavern filled with unearthly blue light (some sort of refraction of sand, rocks, water, angle… but definitely not human-made). Very eerie, until the boat captains start singing old-school Italian favorites (“O sole mio…”) Once that starts, it just feels sweet. Tourist trap, sure. But it’s so bizarre and gorgeous! A guest on another dinghy also serenaded us, and she sounded like a trained opera singer… a real treat!

After a couple of turns around the cavern, we prepared to go back out, repeating the Extreme Ducking procedure. Lucky for me the captain noticed my hands were on the edge of the boat in a perfect spot for smashing on the rocks, and he warned me before he grabbed the chain, ducked down, and hauled us back out. He had a lovely singing voice.

From there we went to Anacapri and had a fantastic lunch at Le Arcate, on the recommendation of our bad-ass tour guide, and then we walked around the high-altitude town, snapping pictures over the edge, of ourselves and of the sparkling blue water below.

Last birds before leaving Capri

Just had to share these pics of happy little opinionated birds, hanging out at the wharf at Capri. If I turned the camera the other way, it’s full of shops and steep climbs and wall-to-wall people. But in this directions, it’s just birds and boats…