Day 3 - Mestre to Pompeii

After a bit of indecision about which route to take by train to Naples, where he had a hire car booked to drive to Pompeii, we decided on going to Florence, having a stop-off for lunch and then going on to Naples from there.

The journey begins

We managed to catch the fast train and even found four seats together with room for our bags.  It wasn't long, though, before someone got on at the next stop and said the seats we were in were theirs.  That left Lucy and I standing in between carriages, but we did manage to get the boys seats, so all seemed reasonable and we were hopeful we'd get four seats together again at the next stop.

Then the ticket inspector arrived.

Apparently we'd made two mistakes.  Firstly, the fast trains are reservation only and we hadn't reserved seats, so if we wanted to go on to Florence we'd have to pay 72 Euros.  Secondly, I hadn't written the date of travel on our passes, which meant a 50 euro fine per ticket.  Fortunately, the inspector was a VERY nice man and agreed we could get off at Bologna, pay only 40 Euros for the reservation and forgo the charge and fine.  Phew!

So we booked and switched at Bologna and got our very own seats for the rest of the journey, which was pretty comfortable with some nice scenery on the way.

When we got to Naples, it was clear that driving out of the city was going to be manic.  The drivers all seemed to adhere to European city driving rules in an exaggerated fashion and the roads were really narrow.  It was even worse than driving in Paris and I’d thought that was bad at the time.  The drive to Pompeii was probably the worst drive I've ever had to make, but we made it.

The room's a bit more basic than the one in Mestre, but it’s a nice comfy hotel and we had a nice walk down to the ruins, although it was too late to go in.  Now we're sat having a nice meal in the evening air, so it’s  been a lovely, relaxing end to a slightly stressful day.

The boys tucking in, in Pompeii

Luke's joke of the day:
Why did the shark cross the ocean?

To get to the other tide!