27 May

Getting out of Rome was a minor adventure. We went to the fancy lounge in the station, but our ticket wouldn't open the door, so we tagged along behind a business-suited man. There was a line at the counter that never seemed to move, so we took off our packs and sat down. We reasoned that they would tell us if we weren't supposed to be there. Sure enough, before long they told us. This was the "members only" lounge. It didn't even have any sort of refreshments, so it was no huge deal, but seats are nearly non-existent in the Rome station. We did manage to swipe an English language newspaper on the way out. That'll show 'em! We finally found the first class waiting room, which was pretty bleak, but at least it had seats and insulated us from the beggars and grifters.

The ride to Naples was fine, and we were only there a few minutes before catching our connecting train to Pompei. We rented a "bungalow" in an RV park for 35 Euros a night. It's pretty basic, not much worse than our Rome hotel. It's right across the road from the ruins of Pompeii and we toured them this afternoon. If we had to choose between Rome & Pompei, we'd take Pompei every time. After the ruins closed for the night, we bought groceries for tomorrow and ate pizza from another RV park's café.

Joe with the newspaper

Ruins of Pompeii

Basilica

Temple of Venus

food market

body cast on display	Joe at fast food joint	Casa del Poeta Tragico	CAVE CANEM mosaic
Joe at Casa del Forno	Joe at tombs	Villa of Mysteries wine press	field of poppies
unexcavated shops	Casa della Fontana Piccola	Casa di Meleagro

Casa del Fauno (House of the Faun)

Alexander Mosaic	close-up of mosaic	dancing faun
floor of tablinum (office)	room at corner of peristyle

Ruins of Pompeii

Italian wall lizard	Lupanar (Roman brothel)	cart ruts in street
Quadriporticus of the theatres		Casa dei Ceii fresco

Casa del Menandro

peristyle garden

bathhouse

cart

Ruins of Pompeii

ongoing excavations	another fast food joint	House of Octavius Quartio
architectural landscape	Mt Vesuvius

Amphitheatre of Pompeii

exterior	tunnels underneath	interior
Joe in the amphitheatre	Joe by entrance tunnel

Porta Nocera tombs