6 weeks around Europe

Today was an underground day, mostly.  One of the reasons for coming here was to see the historic underbelly of Naples - the Catacombs. The Catacombs were not developed because of any persecution or clandestine alternative, they simply were developed because back in history it was not hygienic to bury people near a populated areas so they had to be buried outside the city walls.  The rich didn’t want to be buried and forgotten so they paid to be buried in these catacombs after being dried out (yes, gruesome I know particularly as they were put in the recesses until all the blood and other liquids had drained out of the body before being entombed.  Mostly the Benedictine Monks did this (nice way to earn some cash) and to expediate the process would squash the body (removing the head first).  By squashing the body they could get a couple of people in the same recess - economical.  Families of the notability and the mega rich would pay for an alcove where they co...

Caught the Circumversuvian again early as heard that you need to do Pompeii in the morning as they close the houses off after 1.30 p.m.  The train was packed and had to stand most of the way - a bit like going to work in London really only hotter!  Also I didn’t realise that Pompeii was so far from Naples, another 8 stations on from Herculaneum.  The good thing is that the entrance to the archeological site is right opposite the station. Note:  don’t bother getting tickets online before hand as the queue to get the vouchers exchanged for tickets is longer than the normal ticket queue - luckily I hadn’t done the on;one purchase thingy.  Also at Pompeii they are not so good with the guide book - it was non-existent, where as at Herculaneum the guide book is really good and the interesting bits are all numbered. Pompeii and Herculaneum are quite different so I was glad that I did both - Herculaneum is more like a small town whereas Pompeii a bigger city complet...

The day started fine though looked a bit over caste.  Got a taxi to the place where I was meeting the bus and the heavens have opened.  Had to wait an hour huddled under a block of flats as it wasn’t really a bus terminus, just a car park.  Bus comes along and it raining really hard by now.  The route of the bus takes us back to Bari (opposite direct to Naples) to pick up others before heading in the right direction.  Well what started out being a 41/2 hour journey ended up being 6 1/2 hours due to the fact that we couldn’t get out of Bari because of the flooding. Eventually got to Naples, lovely scenic route from the east coast to the west.  Bus terminus in Naples is right next to the train station, which in turn is really close to where I’m staying.  Get off the bus and think OMG where have landed - loads of immigrants and refugees milling around and obviously sleeping rough near the station.  Now Naples cannot by any stretch of the imagina...