We stopped at the Vatican city in Rome. Caden kept calling it the FATican city... with the emphasis on FAT.
It was suggested to us by my Aunty Barbara that it would be fun to post a postcard from the Vatican city with their own stamps, to ourselves. So we did! He wrote, 'To me, from me'.
Cuteness overload! The concentration on Miles' face and the 'this is so easy, I am now bored' expression on Caden's.
They were over the moon to spend this time with Paul (their Dad). Paul and I have put a lot of effort into making a nice friendship after divorce so that we can give the kids a family still and make family memories with them. It is so worth the effort. I often tell them that they are very lucky to have this as lots of people aren't able to be friends with their exes.... I am proud of Paul and glad I had it in me too, that we can make little holidays like this work for them. It takes courage and kindness.
We stopped off for Chinese for lunch, Caden ordered squid... he was expecting calamari... ummmm
followed by more of the world's best ice cream.
We then all got the train from Rome to Naples and got on the Circumbvesuviana (dump of a train) to Pompeii!
There was Vesuvius.
And we made it to Pompeii... we stayed at Boscoreale, quite close to Pompeii. It is good if you can get a handle on the train timetable. I don't recommend walking even though it's 30 minutes, especially with kids, there was hardly any pavement and the environment was scary; dogs on chains and a moody feel to the neighbourhood. Pompeii was fabulous though! Really incredible. The artefacts, the majesty, the wonder...
Walking around, you really can imagine that this was once a beautiful, rich and thriving city. Full of people. The infrastrucure, the workmanship... it really is a masterpiece!
All under the shadow of the sleeping monster....
We found out that you can get the public bus up Vesuvius quite cheaply, there is one an hour if I remember right. You have to get the bus right outside the Pompeii gates in Pompeii centre. It's worth checking it out on Trip Advisor. Don't go into any of the fake tourist offices... one woman basically lied to my face and said they were the only people with tickets and that I had to buy from her blah de blah blah. They were a 'tourism office' directly opposite the actual public bus stop. Anyway, I clocked the scam, we walked out of the fake office and then got the bus up. Funnily enough at the top there were some Romanian dudes who had fallen for the scam, paid like three times the fee we had and their return coach hadn't turned up so they actually got our public bus back, poor chaps! It pays to do your research before you go!
We got to the top of the sleeping beast... Vesuvi-Oh! There was a little suphuric smell at the top, it's almost too high to see anything in detail below. The sea curves around the land and mountains with the cities of Pompeii and Naples at the edge of the sea. It's spectacular.
Caden with his beanie boo Whiskers... behind him is The bay of Naples.
Behind us here is the Amalfi Coast.
I took the following photo and put a filter over it. It reminds me of a poem which I love, by Percy Bysshe Shelley...
Ozymandius..
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
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