Pompeii and Naples

 

Hi all. We made a day trip to Naples (Napoli) and Pompeii the other day. It was REALLY hot, and I was willing to pay exorbitant prices for some lemon sorbet, or lemon granita or SOMETHING cold. Anyway, here is a picture from Pompeii. See if you can have a guess of what it is.

I'll give you some time to guess.

Ready?

Okay now?

It's a kitchen! The hole on the right is a oven (a pizza oven if you will - your original wood-fired oven!), and the 2 round things on the left are grain milling machines. So you put the wheat grain in there, shove a big cylindrical stone in the middle, and rotate the stone (with human power or animal power?) and out comes flour. (pronouced = flower - that's for you Glenji).

Of all the things I could have shown, why show a kitchen? Well, you should know me enough by now not to even ask that question.

The other thing is that the whole complex is still unfinished. That is, most of the city is still underground, and archaeologists are still digging it up now. The area available to tourists is only about 20-30% of the total Pompeii city area.

And another funny thing. I have experienced the definition of a Tourist Trap. When we booked the tour, it was pretty straightforward. The bus picks us up outside our hostel at 7:00am, and we drive to Naples, have a look around, then drive to Pompee and have another look around, and catch the bus back home. Somewhere in there, we have lunch.

The first part went to plan. We had a tour guide on the bus, who talked about Rome etc, and when we arrived in Naples, she got off, and swapped with a dude who got on - the local guide. The local guide was easier to understand, and we actually got off the bus and walked around Naples for a bit. The coastline is REALLY nice, and the rest of the town can be characterised with:
a) historical buildings
b) historical statues
c) rubbish on the streets
d) graffiti on said buildings and statues

Bit of a shame really.

ANYWAY, afer baking in the sun, we hoped back onto the bus and headed for Pompeii - YAY!

When we arrived in Pompeii, its not just ruins. There's a hotel right next to the entry, and lots of places selling gelato. (by the way, I'm sick of gelato now, the novelty has well and truly worn off). We got literally FUNNELLED into some random shop, that makes some kind of jewellery out of sea shells. It was very nice. But the issue is that this was never on the itinerary, and thus we had no opportunity to object. Before we knew it, BJ and I and a hundred of other tourists plebs were being assaulted by salespeople.

We got out of there. Then we HAD to have lunch at the hotel's dining area. (The jewellery shop is in the same building as the hotel). The dining area was HUGE. I'm not kidding, this place was designed to serve food to about 20 coaches of tourists simultaneously. Whilst waiting 20 minutes for our food, BJ and I talked to 2 couples from the UK on holidays. I think they were retirees/empty nester types. They seemed really laid back. Anyway, we finally got served semi warm food by very sweaty waiters. Running around in a double breasted suit never helps the temperature.

The very fact we were FUNNELLED into a jewellery shop and a cafeteria posing as a hotel restaurant tells me I must have experienced a tourist trap. I wonder, between the bus company, the jewellery shop, the hotel, and the Pompeii site, who was paying who commissions. Ultimately, it was US!