Chatting away with friends who’d just returned from a trip to Italy started me off comparing Pompeii, Heracleum and Ostia.  Pompeii and Heracleum were all buried by ash and Ostia silt.

Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background

Pompeii is, of course, the most famous. Heracleum is its poor cousin.  Ostia often doesn’t rate a mention but is perhaps the most impressive.

Source: www.visitingeu.com

My favourite person and I think that one of the best things about going to Pompeii and Heracleum is that its best reached by the Circumvesuviana, the local railway that runs between Naples – Sorrento.  Catching the train at the Naples railway station is something to behold. It’s the local’s railway.  Each of the carriages is completely covered with graffiti.

The train is a chance to see how the locals live. In the afternoons it’s full of teenagers catching the train home from school. It’s boisterous and not understanding the language a little confronting. On the weekends’ its still chaotic but the trains are full of kids and families. Then there are the buskers – I use the term loosely. In our experience, the train buskers have been pretty ordinary but I am sure we have been unlucky.

Making sure your on the right train is the next step. Not just that you are on the right line but that it goes all the way. One day when we were travelling through to Sorrento, the train just stopped and then everyone except us got off. For a short while, we wondered what to do until a local realised we had no idea and told us that we needed to get off and catch the next train.

Pompeii has a dedicated station and for Heracleum, the train stops at the town and then there is a walk to the archeological site. Continue reading →