After leaving Rome, two of us decided to go to coastal Italy for a couple days with a half day stop in Pompeii. This was almost halfway through our trip and as both of us will tell you, definitely when we hit rock bottom.
Our day got off to a rocky start when we took an uber to the wrong station at 4 in the morning. We then had to wake a cab driver who was sleeping in the drivers seat, to take us to the station so we wouldn’t miss our bus. Luckily we made our bus and got to Pompeii with minimal trouble. We dropped our backpacks at the train station’s left luggage and went to explore the architectural ruins, which were gorgeous. About two hours into our exploration it started to rain. We felt we had seen most the ruins so we went in search of food and wifi before we took our train to Sorrento.
We needed to find wifi as my travel partner had to do her course selections that day. After wandering about in the pouring rain we had no luck in finding wifi. Soaked to the bone we stepped into a small pizzeria to grab a slice and use my hotspot to do her selections. We finished that and the rain showed no signs of stopping so we decided to just buck up and head to the train station in the rain. We were supposed to be getting on the local train system and head to the town of Meta di Sorrento where we had rented an Airbnb.
On our walk to the train station we passed a fairly large grocery store, and as we both knew we were heading to a small town we thought it best to get groceries here. We figured it was only a 10 minute train ride and then a 10 minute walk from there. Now in the interest of saving the planet this grocery store had biodegradable bags (which is great for the planet and really bad for our story). As it was still raining the bags were not holding up so great as we walked. By the time we reached the station most of our grocery bags had broken at least once. Imagine our relief when we approached the ticket counter to get on the train….not. Instead of tickets we found a giant padlock. Turns out the train station in Pompeii was closed. No one seemed to be able to give us an explanation about why.
After some google research we came to the highly upsetting conclusion that there was no viable public transit method to get us there that evening. There was also no uber in the area. Leaving us with the option of getting a cab. We walked into the local hotel and asked if they would be able to call us a cab only to have them inform us that the cabs in Pompeii were currently on strike. But if we wanted their doorman would drive us to the train station. That was closed. For 15 euros.
We politely declined and returned to the street where it was still pouring. The two of us were on the verge of tears. We sat down in a giant puddle without a care that our clothes might get wet, because they already were. And cried. We repeated many times how badly we wanted to go home and how done we were. After our brief moment of self pity we stood up. Realizing that we had no choice but to get to our airbnb, one way or another.
The walk was listing at 7 hours because of the long winding road up and over a mountain, which meant walking was just not an option for us. Sad, cold, and hungry we walked to one of the many tourist information booths in Pompeii. The woman there said that they had a private shuttle that we could rent, for 90 euros. Which was more that we had paid for our entire three nights at the airbnb we were trying to get to. Run out of options, we agreed and we were finally on our way to our airbnb.
We got checked in and dropped our bags on the couch. Shivering, we changed to dry clothes and sat down on the bed, pulling the blanket up to stay warm. Or at least that’s what we told ourselves. Two Ferrero easter eggs were within arms reach so we grabbed those and consumed them as our first dinner in Sorrento. Exhausted, the two of us agreed to take a quick nap until 8pm when we would get up and make a real dinner.
We woke up at 11:30. The next morning.
All in all we came out of Pompeii better friends and better travellers. No bumps in the road that came after really phased us. And we both became a lot more comfortable crying in public (by the end of the trip we had both won the championship crying belt from crying on every mode of transportation). Although it was an extremely rough day, I still loved getting to see Pompeii.