In these troubling times (which times aren’t, really?), I felt drawn to a place renowned for it’s volcanic tragedy – Pompeii. Only a half hour train ride south of Naples – an open air museum of a Roman city from 2,000 years ago, when it was a rich bustling city of 20,000.

Imagine living happily (or unhappily) in your nice city where your livelihood is, living with neighbors richer, and poorer. That afternoon you are especially bored, wondering if you’ll ever escape the day to day doldrums, when, as if in answer to your prayer (but not the answer you would have desired) an atomic boom sounds shaking the ground, and a dark mushroom cloud blossoms 12 miles high above the mountain, above your city. Stones and hot ash begin to crash down. Some of the roofs catch fire, only to be smothered by more ash.

You can’t think what to do, everyone else is grabbing what they cherish, hauling what riches they can in their carts, in their arms, babies crying, fathers cursing, mothers herding goats and chickens. Getting out of town, to the ocean, to the boats, away from the mountain and their home. You hesitate, surely this will pass. You walk through the others, stop and watch them, with a blanket over you head, watch until they’ve all left. You notice the gate to the administrator’s palace is wide open. You go inside, past the garden, the ash falling like heavy snow, smothering the flowers. You find shelter in a corner of the main room. Surely this will pass. And then you will pillage the palace, king for a day!

A whoosh sound, the walls shake and each breath becomes a punishment. You curl into the corner of the room and wheeze and cough. You’d give your life for one clean breath. You give your life.

The day before I traveled to Pompeii on the tourist train at Stazione Centrale, I walked the old city of Naples. A typical European old town with narrow alleys and long streets like Turbinale for the cruise line tourists. Lots of ceramic shops and fast pizza shops and day-old pastry shops. Turbinale goes uphill from the port all the way to the train station.

I picked a restaurant and had spaghetti carbonara w bacon in a rich butter sauce (no garlic either!). Al dente of course.

Got up early and caught the Campania express (tourist) train to the ruined city of Pompeii (which sits next to the modern city of Pompeii).

The city is enormous – I clocked 25,000 steps on my iPhone taking it in.

Only walls and floors left, after the destruction, the fragile glass and marble statues long since removed to the museum in Naples. But I did marvel at the painted walls of the richer homes, and the mosaics.

The next day, my legs and feet hurting, I took the 2 hour ferry to the Amalfi coast, and an expensive taxi up the winding road to Ravello, a city known for its breathtaking views and visits by literati and composers over the years.

The second day in Ravello I walked the famous 1,500 steps down to the city of Minori, to eat a Delizia al Limone as featured on Stanley Tucci’s series, and to walk the stone beach there. The trail down is picturesque, with small orchards of enormous lemons along the way.

I ate well in Ravello, the pizza and the pasta, and enjoyed the view.

All in all a good workout, walking 2,000 years into the past, and 2,000 feet down to the ocean 🙂