In the shadow of Vesuvius

I thoroughly enjoyed my time around the Amalfi Coast. I spent 5 nights in Sant' Agnello, a suburb of Sorrento. It rained 2 of the days I was there, but it was still good. I spent a couple of afternoons in Sorrento, took a crazy bus ride down to Amalfi (during which the bus driver totally rammed a parked scooter into the wall - it had to be physically pried out from between the bus and the wall before we could continue on) and, of course, went to Pompeii & Herculeneum. In the end, though, I just couldn't be bothered to head out to Capri or Ischia; I opted for a day lounging about and reading in the hostel garden instead. (Believe it or not, you sometimes do need a vacation from your vacation...)

For me, the Amalfi Coast was too touristy - full of sunbirds with money to blow, like I imagine Miami to be. Pompeii was amazing, though. I spent much longer at Pompeii than many (~5hrs) & then went through Herculeneum rather quickly (~1.5hrs) because I was in full sensory overload. It's hard to put into words how I felt walking through those streets or standing in the Pompeii amphitheatre, but it was very powerful. I also loved that there was greenspace where I could escape the throngs of tourists and just be by myself, appreciating the fact that I was actually at Pompeii after all the years I've spent dreaming of going there. (It also didn't hurt the overall experience that I kept running into the very attractive Swedish art teacher from my hostel...) I think the thing that suprised me about Pompeii and Herculeneum, though, was just how far they are from Vesuvius; seeing the distance with my own eyes allowed me to better appreciate just how strong the volcanic explosion must've been...

More than anything, though, my time in Sant' Agnello convinced me that those living in the shadow of Vesuvius are the "forgotten Italians" - if there be such a thing. I rode the Circuvesuviana train a fair bit, and the towns between Sorrento and Naples are in rather "interesting" shape - more like Tijuana or parts of Romania than you'd expect to find in Italy. There are towns like Via Nocera where young children get on the train for a few stops & play cheap plastic accordians trying to get $$ from the tourists; they do this every day, all day - and they're school age children. So, what, maybe they make 1-2 Euro/day? Is it worth it? Scenes like this are definitely what they try not to have the tourists see - or at least what they hope we don't remember. Then again, maybe that's part of the distinction between tourists and travellers: tourists likely won't remember scenes like that, whereas travellers will. Just a thought...