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I didn’t sleep well this time. I’m sure it’s because I was scared to miss my stop, which should have been at 5:49 AM, but instead we were 1 h 10 min late. So I was awake way earlier, but I still managed to be totally not ready when we got in Formia, and had to leave in a catastrophe, leaving the train in my socks and putting my shoes on the crowded platform like a vagabond. Not the best start of the day.

An hour of train later and I was in Napoli [Naples]. And wow, what a fucking mess.

The area around the central station is dirty and sketchy at best, but the traffic is an absolute chaos that I can only describe as İstanbulish. No stops, no traffic lights, billion of cars trying to force their way in, and PERMANENT honking. I quickly hated this place. Seriously, it’s more stressful than Paris.

I did a laundry (I’ve been wearing salt-stained pants for two days) and checked-in at the hostel. It was already noon by now. It’s too late to hike on the Vesuvius… Fuck. Walking on a volcano crater is something I very much wanted to do. I also have pretty low energy, so I opted for the easier visit of Pompei.

The train network around the area is called the Circumvesuviana. It is not linked at all with the rest of the Italian network, and is not in the Interrail pass, but a round trip costed me just seven euros. The rolling stocks are old trains more akin to metros, and in poor conditions. But it still was nice, with the volcano on the left and the sea on the right.

Entering the ruins of Pompei is a whopping 18 €! But there is indeed a lot to see! Circus, countless houses, villas, temples, frescoes, paved roads… A lot of super cool stuff to see! However, the heat was unbearable today, and after an hour, I was just dreaming about sitting under the AC with a gelatto and/or a cold beer. Which I ended up doing, another hour later. Sad that the heat kinda ruined and shortened such an interesting and expensive visit, but I just couldn’t bare it today. Far are the snow and the -10 °C when Alex and I were chasing light in the night of Sweden.

After the Circumvesuviana back to Napoli, I stayed a bit at the hostel, until finally motivating myself to go to the pizzeria down the street. It was freaking great. After all, Napoli is the pizza’s birthplace.

The constant honking continued late into the evening…

Here’s the very short video for last week: