six in the morning

Everyone was feeling pretty dirty and tired the next morning. We had Nutella and bread and some gas station juice for breakfast. Tallis had to run back inside the station just after this picture to get the keys from Schyler, because a big camper wanted to top off the pressure in it's tires right where we were parked.

Then we were off driving on the highway again. Around ten we came into sight of the first famous thing I'd seen on the trip yet. Vesuvius. I saw it through the trees, hazy and pale with the dust of distance. I was terribly terribly excited. As the morning wore on we got closer and the volcano loomed bigger. It was gorgeous and rather frightening. I didn't like having my back to the mountain. I couldn't see how people lived within sight of the volcano. It was an ominous shadow in the back of my mind for the two days we stayed there.

We were going to see Pompei today. We got lost in Napoli for about an hour trying to find it. Apparently there are a lot of hotels and restruants called 'Pompei' and they all advertise with big signs along the road, 'Pompei this way! One Kilometer! Next right turn! Next left turn! One Kilometer behind you!' Eventually we did find it and an autocamp right next to it. We unloaded all our stuff and then headed across the street to the entrance. We fought through a press of tour guides and tourists, bought our ticket and headed into the dead city.