Italy day 2-- pompeii

Woke up at about 11, after 12 hours of sleep. Walked to a nearby cafe for a sandwich and then to the termini station to try and find our way to Naples and then to Pompeii. The one hour train was 50€ a person. Yikes! One way!! But there was a slower two hour train for 27€ a person. Opted for that. Rode the train with ac and figured out there was a private train that for 2€ brings you to Pompeii scavi, the station 100m from the entrance to Pompeii in a half hour. Sold. Train arrived to Naples and we meandered our way to the other train station and got on board the train. Half hour later we were arriving to Pompeii. Pompeii closes at 8 pm but the last 2 hour train from Naples to Rome departs at 831pm. Which means we need to leave Pompeii at 7. We entered the park and meandered through the ruins. It's amazing how well the volcano preserved everything. We hiked out to an old rich persons home and then back to the coliseum and theater round. The houses still had the wall paintings preserved. Then before we knew it it was 630 and we had to start our hike back to the train station.

Arrived a little after 7 for our 725 train. Which was delayed. Then at the next station entirely shut down. Not sure what happened but everyone pointed to us to get onto the other train headed towards Naples. A half hour later we were finally departing. Noting we were probably going to miss the two hour slow train, I tried looking up other routes home. 845 is a 3 hour slow train for 11,60€. 901 is a two hour train with an exchange for 40€ and 950 was a night train with an exchange not able to price out. We figured we should arrive to the private train station at 830, which gives us 10 minutes to run to the other station, buy tickets, find the train platform and board.

We arrived to the station at 832. And off we ran. I bought the tickets, matt looked at the platform and looked for a validation machine. 842 we boarded the non air conditioned three hour slow train to Rome termini. Three long hours. But we were heading home. In the mean time jenny and nicole were boarding their plane to come to Italy!

We arrived back to Roma termini about 1150, starving and dehydrated. We found a place to buy a kabob box and a bottle of beer and returns to our hotel to meet up with jenny and nicole to hit up the Vatican the next day.