[A] Campania

The second week of September, eager to see more of the Bel Paese, three friends and I headed south to Campania, one of the poorest regions of Italy, but also one of the most beautiful and culturally rich. My roommate Christian and I took a night bus from Siena that landed us in Naples on Friday before dawn, around 5 o'clock. It was an abrupt introduction to some of the more widespread social maladies of the city, which sits on Italy's western coast. Trash heaped in the streets, a train station full of displaced residents, and a traffic system built on two parts insanity and one part irreverence. I was eager to escape slightly south, towards Pompeii and Sorrento, where we planned to stay. We took the first available train to Pompeii and waited in the small suburban center until the gates opened to the archaeological park, first in line for the former coastal city.

It was my second time in the park- the first was with my mom and sister in 2007 as part of a cruise. This second time was much more pleasant, as it was completely empty. I find things much more enjoyable when not crowded. The weather was ideal, and we spent the better part of the morning and early afternoon wandering the excavated roads at the foot of Vesuvius.
We took a regional train down the coast and got off, somewhat mistakenly, at St. Angelo, one town over from Sorrento. We went in search of food and found a "magic pizza sandwick" (a saltimbocca). Walking then to Sorrento, we met our friends at the rented apartment and wandered around the small bur ferociously touristy town. Luckily we were just late enough in the season that no crowds were overwhelming.

On our Saturday we headed down to the pier to take a private boat tour of Capri and the Amalfi coast that we had set up ahead of time. We spent the entirety of the day on the water and/or eating, circumnavigated Capri, and swam off of the dock of a house formerly owner by the Italian designer Valentino. There were also brown jellyfish. It was a great trip.
The next day we spent time in town, and Christian and I headed back towards Naples in the late evening to get a pizza and catch the night bus. The pizza redeemed Naples briefly, until we once again climbed over the trash to get to the bus stop.