The Cambias Digression

What did we learn from this trip? 1. Plan for bad weather. Even if it seems highly unlikely, plan for it anyway. We went to the driest, sunniest part of Italy, and got rained on. Next time I travel, I'm definitely bringing a sweater and some form of rain gear. Packing my sweater this time…

Our final day was spent traveling. We got up at 4 a.m. but were unable to savor the brief silence on the streets of Naples because we had to get in a cab and tear off to the airport to make our flight to Milan. I slept most of the way, but did wake in…

On the final day of our visit, we got breakfast, paid our bill, and dragged our bags through the drizzle down to Sorrento's harbor for the boat ride to Naples. It wasn't quite as dramatic as the previous day's voyage, for which we were grateful. The weather was maddeningly changeable: sun one minute, showers the…

After our visits to Pompeii and Herculaneum we wanted to see some of the actual art treasures from those cities, all of which were taken away in the 18th and 19th centuries as the sites were excavated. Most of the good stuff is nearby, at the National Museum of Archaeology in Naples. Accordingly, we got…

On the fourth day it wasn't rainy! In delightful partly-sunny weather we boarded the train for Ercolano, where we planned to ascend Mount Vesuvius by bus and then explore the ruined city of Herculaneum. Ercolano, it must be said, is a dump. I hope nobody reading this is a proud native of the town, but…

We made sammiches, put on our rain ponchos, and boarded the train for Pompeii. Pretty much everyone else aboard the Circumvesuviana rail line was also going to Pompeii, though we didn't learn why until we got there. Turns out we were very lucky in our choice of week to visit Italy. It was Culture Week,…

The rain continued on our second day. Not a hard rain, but an annoying rain, especially since our supply of clothing was limited and the only way to dry things was to hang them up in the sunshine. If there had been any sunshine, which there wasn't. So staying dry and keeping dry clothes became…

We decided to go out for pizza. Pizza originated in Naples, so that's where we went. The four of us (me, Diane, Emily, and Robert) set out on our trip to southern Italy on the 14th of April. Drove across Massachusetts after lunch, deposited the car at Alewife and rode the T to Logan Airport.…