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6 -
Not a good night! (Too much to eat, too late probably). I woke feeling a bit rough
and while dressing and showering, had long internal debates about whether to go straight
to a chemist and get some more antibiotics or not. In the end, I decided not (given
that Erythromycin hadn’t worked and Amoxycillin couldn’t be taken with Methotrexate,
and local chemists spoke broken English to mix with my fractured Italian and a lot
of arm-
I went downstairs and had a less than calm breakfast. For some reason, the ear-
I was trying to make my mind up whether to go to Pompeii or not today and really
couldn’t decide. On the down side, I was tired and not feeling great and it was a
long hard drive across the hills and through the suburbs of Naples. Also, the weather
was dreadful; the skies were grey and it was already drizzling. On the other hand,
today was the last chance to go – I will have to drive to Naples on Sunday and I
am most unlikely to do the journey two days running. Also, in spite of the grey
weather, experience has shown this week that it usually brightens up a bit towards
mid-
The drive was long, but relatively easy and even enjoyable in parts. I didn’t get lost once, in spite of all the maniacal driving in the Naples suburbs. I found that I had become accustomed to the Italian style of driving and gave as good as I got. Major road junctions are a particular treat. If you did the English thing and waited for a gap in the traffic, you would be hooted to death in seconds and the cars behind would mount the pavement to overtake you and leave you behind. In fact, the Stop sign painted on the road means “inch forward” (“feet” actually) until you create enough of an obstruction that you block the junction and people have to let you in. Any less than this and you are invisible and beneath consideration. London driving is similar, but nowhere near as blatant – you are just basically expected to ignore all rules and push yourself into any available spaces, leaving everyone else around you to sort out the mess. Surprisingly, the traffic flows quite well and I didn’t see anyone hit another car all day!
On arrival, I parked the car in one of the many “secure” car parks that skirt the ancient city, (capitalism strikes again!) and headed off into the ruins of Pompeii. It really was like walking into another world. The programme about Pompeii on the BBC last week left a big impression and it was really quite exciting to recognise the places that you had seen “brought to life” on the TV, like the house of Stephanus the fuller and the shops on the main street with their marble counters and inset pottery storage jars. I just walked my feet off over the next four hours or so. It really is quite a surprise just how big Pompeii is, and how much of it is left. I took so many photographs that the camera started complaining that its batteries were running out. The streets, houses, atriums and frescoes were so complete that it was almost like visiting the Marie Celeste, and all the while, the brooding presence of Vesuvius hung over the town with its peak hidden in the clouds as though it was still smoking. I just found the place fascinating, and the stories it told engrossing and so poignant. So many lives lived in these streets and brought so suddenly to an end in a single day nearly 2,000 years ago, and yet here it all was in front of me, at times seeming almost untouched, as though the population had just tiptoed away the day before and left it behind.
In the end, the weather behaved itself well and in spite of a couple of quick showers, (I remembered the umbrella this time) the rain held off, and there was even some reasonable sunshine from time to time.
I finished the tour off with a very good rice salad in the cafeteria and returned
over the hills at about 4.00pm. Once again, I found the way easily. In fact, I
discovered why I had had trouble when driving to the hotel from the airport. The
directions given by Cresta were wrong and they had made me turn off the motorway
before the Angerola slip-
The hills were covered in cloud and I disappeared into the fog for an hour before
descending again into Furore, where the weather was a little better. I stopped off
for a well-
It was all a bit different in the restaurant tonight. Yesterday I was the only one eating there. Tonight, they were hosting a party for 50 guests, so the staff and family were buzzing around like flies on speed. They still had time for their usual courtesy and service for their regular guest however and they played their usual trick on me. I ordered a meal the size of my appetite (penne, followed by a steak and salad) and before I could blink, I was tucking into a complimentary fish course. (A large fish course – absolutely delicious, but by the time I had finished the penne, there was precious little room left for the delicious steak). I decided that forgoing the sweet was a necessity, but was served with complimentary ‘cigale’ to go with my espresso. No wonder I keep getting up from the table having eaten too much! (Not that I’m complaining really). On the bright side, the healthy day walking in the open air seems to have done me some good and my cough/cold seem finally to be improving, even without the antibiotics.
