László Varga

On our long weekend in Napoli we decided to participate in a combined organized trip to Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius. I have found the trip on Viator.com. The price seemed a bit expensive, but I decided to go and managed to convince my colleagues to come along. To be honest I was quite anxious regarding the quality of the service: for the money we have payed my friends would have had my neck if it would not meet a certain level 😛 . This was my first such pre-payed trip and I really did not know what to expect…

After paying the requested amount from my credit card, I received my voucher in a few minutes. I had to call them back 24 hours before the date of the trip for confirmation. I think I did it in a few minutes 😀 . I was really anxious to talk to someone at last (there was no link where I could contact the organizers before receiving the voucher). They confirmed that the booking has been made and that they will pick us up from the hotel at the predefined hour in the morning. I was rally relieved 😀 .

Two days before the trip I have received a call from them that the pick-up time was changed by 15 minutes. The next day I received another one saying that the initial time was back again… Well, at least they called… but how serious is this company? I mean come on… make up your mind…! 🙂

D-day. We went out to the port half an hour before the pick-up time to check the boats to Capri (another exciting trip which I am going to describe in a new entry later). When we returned to the front of the hotel, surprise, surprise: the van was already parked up front waiting for us.
I turned to our very gentleman-like driver and said:
– You were supposed to be here 5 minutes later. Are we late?
To which he replied:
– Well I did not say anything, your friend came here and asked if I was waiting for your group…
So he was actually waiting to the exact moment, and then go search for us… surprisingly punctual for an Italian… 😛

After this fast chatter we jumped into the van (a very nice van with air conditioning – it later turned out it was a rental car, so probably very new). We picked up another 4 persons and headed towards Pompeii, a few kilometers away from Napoli. The road was a bit bumpy, but this was due to the ‘excellent’ Neapolitan roads: they are a disaster especially inside the city.. the highway was a bit better (but by far not an Autobahn). After a trip of about 30-40 minutes (I have no idea how much exactly, sorry 🙂 ), we arrived to the entrance of Pompeii where the rest of the group with the tour guide was already waiting for us.

Our tour guide, Andrea, was a very funny guy and it later turned out to be a master of the history of Pompeii (as he said Pompeii was his area of expertise). He took us through most of the important parts of Pompeii starting from the Gladiator School, the Odeon theater, the streets of Pompeii, the fountains, the “Lupanare”, the Forum with the temple of Jupiter, the temple of Apollo and the Basilica. He was continuously explaining every detail as we were going along, and I must say he had a really professional way of making you understand and remember everything he said. All in all it was a really nice experience and so far it was worth the money.

Next we had a pizza lunch (included in the price) in a very nice and cool (it was getting really hot outside) restaurant. The pizza was (as most Neapolitan pizzas) delicious. It was only a Margherita, so no fancy stuff, but it was the best Margherita I have ever eaten.

After cooling off, we embarked in two vans towards Mt. Vesuvius. We arrived almost to the top by car. There is a very narrow parking place which did not seem to bother all the huge buses that went up 🙂 . From there we were on our own. The guide only bought us our tickets and told us at which time to get back. There was not much to explain anyway: big volcano, climb, watch, take pictures… simple 🙂 . And it was as simple as that. I must admit there is a great view from the top of the whole Neapolitan bay. I made the nice pictures, collected some rocks and there you go: put a tick in the check box, I have been to the top of Mt. Vesuvius 😀 .

This concluded our trip that we payed for, and I must say it was 100% worth it. You really get what you have payed for. For a south Italian company they have really made their best to make everything perfect. That is truly amazing, because as the guide said the southerners might not be as orderly as the northerners, but they have soul 🙂 .

We even made a stop to a jewelry manufacturer, which I think was really the equivalent of a gift-shop of a normal museum visit 🙂 . Anyway we’ve seen how hard it is to make the jewels, but we did not buy anything. That is for people who have 1000+ euros for stuff like this 🙂 .

All in all it was a really nice experience, and in the end I think it was not expensive at all. The things one would have to go through and pay for, to organize and execute a combined trip like this can make it very-very difficult and expensive. So 10/10 for the trip and 12/10 for the guide, he was a professional 🙂

This is the name of the maritime museum in Porto Antico in Genova. I really do not know why, but we were never interested in visiting this museum, so after nearly 9 months of living in Genova this was the first time we payed a visit. I must say I really was not prepared for this visit (as one can see on the low quality pictures made with my phone). We were just hanging around in the city and the idea of visiting the museum came to us in a flash.

The entry price into the museum is 10 euros (but we were asked only 8, don’t ask me why, we didn’t either 🙂 ). The museum itself is arranged on 4 levels presenting the maritime history of Genova. At the ticket office we were informed that we were allowed to take photos (without using the flash).

The exhibition itself is really astonishing at some displays (like a full size galleon, or another full size ship that one can check out from aboard too). There are lots of photo opportunities and the displays are lit quite well. There are many displays that we could interact with (rowing on a galleon, measuring distance with old devices, sailing around Cape Horn etc.).

The fourth floor was dedicated to the massive emigration of Italians towards the U.S. This part was very realistic, simulating a whole trip towards the U.S. from embarking in Genova and disembarking on Ellis Island.

The top floor of the museum provided a nice view of the Genovese Port and of the city of Genova. Here we could rest a bit, and stretch our itching legs after a pretty long walk in the museum.

All in all I think it was a great experience and I am really sorry, that I haven’t done this visit before. It is well worth every cent that I payed for it 😀 . For those who are interested and also speak a bit of italian, there is a lot of other info on the museum’s official site.