Vesuvius from Pompeii
When you're standing in Pompeii looking up at Vesuvius you wonder how the people got caught out and why so many died...but when you look from Vesuvius...it really becomes apparent...
But a slight rewind first. Mafia town is Naples...it has a reputation for theft from visitors... light-fingered pickpocket types...possibly no worse than your average big town or city..but it's all there for the easy going tourist...
Naples is...and I'm trying to be kind...a piss poor shithole...everything is graffiti covered, every car a monument to impatient Italian driving...dents, scratches, wing mirror-less...live by the horn drive by the horn...
The buildings, covered in graffiti that covers graffiti scream poor people...and many of them stand around idling time away... with their windy washing blowing from the balconies...a vision of pants and sheets...or ex sheety pants...
Fortunately we were armed with knowledge so we booked a place in Ercolano a few miles south...
Black Redstart in the garden
First bird up was Feral Pigeon...no surprise really... certainly plenty of food for them with waste everywhere...the daily rubbish collection leaving a lot to be desired...and theres rubbish laying around everywhere anyway......
Having booked in to our accommodation a quick look round the garden and patio area produced Black Redstart and Blackbird. There was a small orange grove to explore, about 20 trees though space for more....more Black Redstarts and a couple of days later a Jay was found here.
First day, being warm and the afternoon left to explore a bit we went to the beach, volcanic black sand, one part was clean the other with litter....nice.....Henry enjoyed a swim....we paddled....not warm enough for me to get in! Yellow-legged Gulls drifted by and after a while a Black-headed Gull landed.
That evening there was a fabulous thunderstorm. Sitting on the patio it provided a find display.
Off to Pompeii for the day....luckily we ended up on the train that stopped at the much quieter entrance on the opposite side of the site to the main entrance...on the advice of another ex-tourist (he had decided to stay for 16 years)....much easier to get in. The site was busy in places, mostly at the highlight spots, the Forum etc. Thankfully we visited the bodies early so avoided lots of people. During the visit there was another fabulous thunderstorm lasting about 20 minutes, after another 20 minutes it was dry and everyone was back to t-shirts. A warm day again.
I suppose you could say it was karma...having celebrated the God Vulcan the day before...and having ignored the various rumblings going on for weeks...that the people of Pompeii should be done for by their God is...I suppose...irony...
Highlight was Blue Rock Thrush at the gladiator school.
We left via the main entrance and the railway station next to it....it was packed so it must be heaving at the height of the tourist season.
Arriving home a Serin was on top of one of the trees near the patio.
Up Vesuvius on day three...no birds expected and I wasn't disappointed on that front. Its a blank canvas at the top...where the car park is for tourist drop off...I'm guessing the trees on the way up, if explored, would give up a reasonable array of birds over the year.
More gulls late afternoon at the beach...and whilst wandering off for an ice cream I spied a Peregrine Falcon sitting on top of an abandoned factory chimney...very nice.
Off to Sorento....a word....from north of Naples all the way to Sorento is built up...the 'romantic' Amalfi coast, to me, is just a nightmare of buildings. The only thing Sorento gives you is theres nowhere near as much graffiti for a start....its certainly safer...and the chance of a boat trip to Capri out in the bay...so at the right time a good trip for birding. But not for me...didn't have enough time and I would have been seasick anyway...lol...however, a Hooded Crow flew across the bay.
Last morning....a visit to Herculaneum which is located in the centre of Ercolano...and a lot of it is probably under Ercolano too....
...more Hooded Crows at Herculaneum...
Herculaneum is a fabulous site to visit. Loads of Black Redstarts again...but the site itself is quite wonderful. A real tourist treat. It was here that the poor locals, when Vesuvius erupted, headed to the port and hid in some of the storage areas...however....the pyroclastic blast sorted them out immediately...killing them instantly and the skeletons were piled up in their hiding places where they were found when the site was excavated...and there they remain...
...its the way I tell 'em...
So....having dragged a reasonable sized lump of lava from the top of the volcano I put it in my hand luggage...only being there for a few days there wasn't a need for any larger luggage...so it goes through the scanner and the man asks me to open up the bag...and confiscates the rock...'you cant take it with you on board, its not allowed'...hmmm...
Now...I did bring a bit back from Madeira...but that was in my hold luggage so that's probably why I got away with it. The strange thing is...there were people with bottles of alcohol on the plane they had purchased in duty free...now...they probably weighed the same as my rock...and if they had chosen they could have got drunk on the plane and created havoc...so why couldn't I bring a non alcoholic rock back...there seems to be little sense and probably even less sense in trying to make sense of it....
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