So today marks the official 2 week mark where I am at the halfway point in my adventure. I have access to a computer here in Rome which is a bit easier than using my ipad thought the keyboard is a little different. Why do things have to be different. Why must there be different plugs for everything, even the keyboard, It's still the alphabet as we know it but hte commas, apostrophes and @ are located in different places, so must for me typing without looking at the keyboard. At least a little bit.
Okay let me get to yesterday. It was an interesting day. First the train rain from Florence to Naples. Met a friendly stranger on the train ride. Had an interesting conversation. Made me think about a few things. Oh the insight of older people.
When I finally made it to hopped straight into the "L" as those in Chicago calls it bypassing the cities toward the ruin town of Oplontis and then Pompeii. Did you know that there was more than one town that was covered and in a sense perserved during the volcano. Oplontis is a small portion but big wbought to have what would considered an Olympic sized pooled in the "backyard". Nice paintings as well. After that the next stop was pompeii. One can get list in this city. Reading in history books can not convey the size of this thing. You get a map that divided the town into regions and the blocks. Luckily they have marking such as Regio IV and whatever the section you were in so you didn't get lost. Well kinda. Maybe I should have broke out the compass to make sure I was the going the right direction. Sure you could have figure out were you were based on the intersection but as far as direction. Well that was just trial and error. I found the sight that I was looking for. The cast of the people who were buried in the ash and the outline of their bodies preserved. And since when excited the archaeologusy inserted liquid plaster to have an outline of the bodies. Here's what the books doesn't tell you there are 14 bodies and about have of then are children. It was a little sad to see the little bodies. There were distinct females as well. But you will see the pictures.
Made it back to the train station earlier than planned and had to wait for my train since I had to have a reservation. Decided to grab something to eat. Apparently Napoli is home of the pizza. I went out the train station trying to find a good restaurant to sit and eat since I havebt done so in Italy yet. No such luck and frankly I didn't really feel comfortable walking around. Who would have thought I would feel safer in Chicago. One thing I can say is that here in Italy they actively try to sell you stuff. Not just people on the streets but in well established stores. Umm no. Why do I need to go into a suit store.
Got back to the train station and bought a little snack to eat. Was able to connect to the McDonald's wifi since I was sitting close to it and yay after some finagling I got my dugeons and uppers tour for the collesium. Which means I had to push back my train ticket to bari. the original plan was to not maybe not spend the night un in bari and take to ferry that night but with this train in missing that ferry. So then in not gonna make my reservation for Sunday night. And now I can. Cancel it. I had to 14 days In advance or be charged the first night. Damn. I rennet another had done this and I promptly canceled then but apparently this slipped my attention. Oh well. It will be worth it to see that dugeons of the collesium.
So I met another friendly stranger and thus one did not speak English. He ended up resorted to drawing pictures in my. Journal as a way to attempt conversation. He even gave me his number and asked for mine. How would we even communicate when the only speaks Italian. Oh yea he's 53. I know. But hey. I entertained him. Gave me something to do for 1 1/2 hours. Frankly I think he franked and smoked a little too much in his younger years and that interfered with his mental capacity. I had an interesting story to tell, a picture conversation as well as two other pictures.
Lesson of the day: do not write in public. There must be something about me intently writing in my journal that had to draw two men to want talk to me. One called me beautiful and the other said Bella (beautiful/sweat heart)many times. Ummm yea, no more writing in public. I'll just stick to people watching with my headphones one.
Just a little taste of Oplontis.
And then pompeii
My second friendly stranger.