The Forum at Pompeii
Last year we went to Pompeii as part of an organised coach tour… what a disaster…. lol. We joined the coach, which called at our hotel, and then took literally hours to navigate the roads and traffic to the dig site of Pompeii, only to be whisked around by a ‘guide’ and pushed back on the coach to head back to the hotel… This year we planned to go on my birthday, and do things a little differently…
We caught our hotel shuttle bus down to the town, after breakfast, and walked the short stroll to the Rail Station in Sorrento, to catch an early morning train to Pompeii…
Ann on one of the modern ‘tourist’ trains… loads of rooms for suitcases.
Sorrento is at the ‘head’ of the line, so we had the pick of the seats. We had paid nearly 80GBP last year for the organised coach excursion, but the local train return fare to Pompeii, was a mere 9 euro’s each… we were, however, amazed at the amount of beggars on the line, from musicians who get on the train at one stop… play, then offer the’cup‘, and get off at the next stop to catch another train going back… we also saw a woman with young kids get on, then send a young girl with a boom box along the passengers with the ‘cup‘..anyway… we arrived at Pompeii Station opposite the archaeological site, some 30 minutes later…
We had been warned by another couple at the hotel… that as you leave the station… touts ask you “Pompeii” ?… and if you say “Yes” in reply… point at a door in the station… to capture you for a ‘guided’ tour… armed with this advice… we came out of the station… smiled at the touts… and made our way to a local cafe by the station for a great morning coffee… before paying for and entering the site…
Artwork at the site…
Like last year… there are art sculptures at the site dotted along the paths and placed in dominant positions within Pompeii… However, I must admit, this years sculptures, were in my opinion, nothing to the superb positioning of Igor Mitoraj’s sculptures of last year (2017). Below is a favourite image I took, from last year…
Igor Mitoraj Sculpture
The sky and light levels, were not what I like for my infrared photography, as I like a bit of cloud structure… the day never had a cloud to be seen, so I had to use a big 1000nm filter to get a decent shot for my birthday…lol.
The Forum at Pompeii
Although there are crowds of tourists all over the site… the guides tend to lead them to the most popular destinations in the 1 square mile site… however, as with Venice… if you go a few metres off the ‘tourist’ routes… Pompeii can be a place of calm, in which you can lose yourself…
Ann in more quieter places of Pompeii
It really was a hot day at Pompeii… so after we had visited a few of the quieter places… we left the site, to catch the return trip by train to Sorrento… and get ready for my evening birthday dinner… lol.