Pompeii & The Path of the Gods

Pompeii
Most people would spend their first two weekends in a foreign country trying to find their bearings and get to know the area.....not the Porratas! We dove RIGHT in!  Those that know us well know that we wouldn’t have it any other way.  Our first weekend in Napoli, while staying at the base hotel, we drove to Pompeii. It’s only a 45 minute drive!  We parked on the street near the entrance, bought our tickets at the gate, and walked right on in. It was late May, so there was no line and it was not packed.
 
Pompeii is an ancient city that became buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D.  It is estimated that 2000 people died.  In 1748, a group of explorers re-discovered Pompeii and found that it was mostly in tact.  After seeing it personally, I can say that the history I felt at my feet when walking among those ruins was an incredible feeling. Pompeii is also much, much larger than I expected. It’s around 160 acres! It was a thriving, wealthy metropolis and walking it can take all day, if not longer. 
 
With the kids, we brought a Quenchua Forclaz Hiking Ice backpack that I will recommend below, that we purchased at a European store called Decathlon.  This cooler has followed us on nearly all of our adventures. We fill it full of drinks, snacks, lunch.  Heck, I’ve even filled it with prosecco & aperol soda, along with an appertivo spread. Ha!  Its straps make it very comfortable to carry and it was only €20. 
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​While visiting Pompeii, we elected not to follow a tour. My kids are adventurous, to be sure, but they cannot withstand an educational tour for hours on end.  Although, I do hear the tours are worth it and you get SO much more out of it.  We grabbed a map and walked throughout the ruins.  There are not as many descriptions of items as you might expect. We actually listened along to the English and Spanish tours around us and were able to gleam quite a bit of information on exactly what we were looking at. 
 
The ancient frescos were a sight to behold. Our favorite parts of Pompeii were the Amphitheater, the Roman Forum, frescoes, pottery and the homes of the nobility.  It is easy to get lost in your imagination as to what ancient Pompeii really looked like and what the last moments were like for the people.
 
 As you exit, there is an enclosed museum where you can peak inside the glass.  An archeologist named Guiseppe Friorelli discovered some empty areas in the digging sites of the excavation. He injected plaster into the pockets and discovered that they were the forms of the people who passed away with the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. These statues truly touched my heart. You see the pain on their faces & the contortions of their bodies at the moment of their death. Since we didn’t have a guide, we were unable to tour inside the building, but we could see the statues through the glass.  
 
My honest opinion is that Pompeii is definitely a ‘must see,’ however; there is also another ancient city nearby that was destroyed in the same eruption.  This city is considerably smaller, at nearly 1/4 of the size of Pompeii. We spent nearly 4 hours at Pompeii and only got to see 1/3 of what there was to see!  Our kids were spent.  I recommend checking out Herculaneum. I’ve even heard it’s better preserved than Pompeii. We hope to check it out when friends or family come to visit the area.

Me & Mi Amor in Pompeii

The Plaster Statues

The Colosseum

One of the many frescoes

The Path of the Gods...The Good and the Bad
The second weekend after we arrived, we decided we wanted to take a hike outdoors. After much research, we decided on ‘The Path of the Gods (Sentiero degli Dei)’ on the Amalfi Coast. The Amalfi Coast is famous for its rugged cliffs, fishing villages, and small beaches.  The trail is 7.8 Kilometers in length.
 
The beginning of the trail was just over an hour away from the Navy Lodge in a town called Bomerano. We followed the GPS to the beginning of the trail, using Google Maps, and parked on the street nearby.  The Amalfi coast is known for its winding roads and hairpin turns and many people would rather take the bus or hire a driver....however, the drive to Bomerano is really not bad at all.  As we walked along the walkway to the beginning of the trail, there were a bunch of people standing around the beginning of the trail and I believe this is why we couldn't see the sign for the trail head. We started walking on what we ‘assumed’ was the trail. It was breathtakingly beautiful with a good amount of steps and beauty, but then I decided to check the GPS to see how far along we hiked.  We were not on the trail!!  By hiking the wrong way and heading back, we lost nearly an hour, but did appreciate the beauty of the other hiking trail!! Haha So, I’m going to show you the actual sign below that you need to look for at the beginning of the trail. It’s not that big and we must have missed it with people standing in front of it at the beginning! Learn from our mistake!

The Sign

​At the beginning of the hike, there is a restaurant that sells bottled water for €1/small bottle, as well as a few snacks.  We brought water, trail mix, cliff bars, and lunch, but it was a hot day at the end of May, and I was worried we didn’t have enough water. We purchased some extra water from the restaurant and filled our backpack cooler up to the brim and started on our way!  This trail is so indescribably beautiful....pictures and words just don’t do it justice. I would round a corner in the hike and see a vista that made my jaw drop. My husband and boys told me they were tired of hearing me sighing!! Oh, the life as a mama with boys. They always give me crap for being a woman! Stinkers, the lot of them!
 
We stopped as often as needed to drink water and tried to find the most incredible vista on the trail to enjoy our lunch. The little ones kept telling me how much they loved hiking and that they were really enjoying their day. It was a rigorous hike for them, but they never complained and truly enjoyed their time.  At 7 and 9 years old, they’re very active, but they really made me proud of them on this particular hike.  
 
I’m going to be honest; I’m a total and complete klutz. I had hurt my ankle a week before and had to buy some good quality ankle boots in order to go on the trail and not risk hurting my ankle again.  The boots I found are made by Columbia and are pictured below. They hold my ankles nice and straight and truly prevent me from twisting or breaking my ankle. I plan to get a lot of use out of them!

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There are two or three different waterspouts along the trail. Those were really nice for rinsing off our faces and hands and wetting our hair to cool off. Once we finished the hike, we found one more water spout to refresh ourselves and stopped at a nearby restaurant called Ristorante Santa Croce for some appetizers, a cocktail, and some more cold water. The views were spectacular, of course, but there was definitely sticker shock for the price of the food in comparison to Napoli.  When we arrived at this particular restaurant, the wait staff seemed irritated that we didn’t have a reservation even though the restaurant was empty.  We were so completely exhausted from the hike that we happily paid the price.. The restaurant was a fantastic break and much needed after the hike! 

After leaving the restaurant, we read that we could take the stairs down to a town south of Nocelle, called Arienzo, and take a bus from there to Positano, from Positano to Amalfi, and from Amalfi back to Bomerano. Keep in mind that each of these towns are at the top or bottom of a cliff edge.  Winding roads with hairpin turns await this journey. The buses were the most inexpensive way for us to get back to our car, aside from hiking the trail back to the beginning. In hindsight, I really wish we had hiked back.  The stairs down to Arienzo were closed, so we had to walk to a bus stop in Nocelle, wait an hour for the bus, take that bus to Positano.  Once we got to Positano, we had to wait in a line for the next bus to Amalfi.  That line lasted over an hour. The buses did not stop at the bus stop at the times posted either. It was very confusing and not fun at all after a long hike in the heat.  We also missed some of the busses that came by because buses will not stop if they are full.  We FINALLY made it on the bus and made the journey to Amalfi.  Once in Amalfi, we had to wait another 45 minutes for the bus back to Bomerano.....the last two buses of the day ended up being full. The bus driver didn’t say a word to us, just honked and breezed right past. Our phones did not have reception. We walked to a nearby hotel and the woman at the front desk kindly called a cab for us. It cost us €70 to get back to our car!!!  We tell our friends often about this so that they’re prepared. We have friends that paid €100 for a family of 3 to get back to their car. Keep in mind the danger of the roads.  Realistically, a small distance can take over an hour with the way the roads are in the Amalfi. This drive makes for beautiful views, but is not fun for public transportation and makes for an expensive cab ride!
 
The hike was worth every moment and let me reiterate that I suggest hiking back to your car!!  This journey we’re on sure has its ups and downs and lessons in between, but the beauty of this country floors me.....from the ruins of Pompeii to the breathtaking vistas of the Amalfi. We truly feel blessed to get to experience this area of the world and embrace these experiences with the utmost appreciation. La Bella Italia, la dolce vita, sono innamorato.  The beautiful Italy, the sweet life, I am in love.