Greg and I woke up super early to catch an 8am train from Naples to Pompeii and walked from the Pompeii station about a mile to get to the infamous ruins. On our way we stopped at a really cute cafe and sat outside drinking minuscule lattes and eating warm Italian pastries. Luckily when we got to the ruins they had a free luggage check so we threw our bags in and went out to explore the ancient city! Since we got there so early it wasn't that crowded but boy was it hot! It was definitely the best weather thus far on the trip and walking around for a few hours produced a baller tan. :-)
After walking around Pompeii we took a bus to the summit of Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that caused the city of Pompeii to be covered in molten lava. The bus ride up took about an hour and a half on this tiny, curvy road. Every time the driver went around a corner he honked to warn drivers coming the other way that we were there. When we got to the drop off it was another half hour walk to look into the crater. It was really dip and we even saw a bit of steam coming out! The view was amazing and we could see all of Naples, all the way to Sorrento, our next destination.
Once we got back to Pompeii we hopped on a train to Sorrento, got off in the gorgeous city, bought some groceries, found the bus to our campsite and finally made it there. Campsites in Italy are very interesting. They're basically a place for people with camper vans to go but they also have little cabins that have no heat and a few beds. There's a big bathroom facility with showers and toilets and everything as well as a mini-market, restaurant and a rec room. Within 5 minutes of us arriving at the campsite we met our neighbor, Angela and she asked us if we wanted to go to Easter mass that night. We jumped on the opportunity and left to go into town at about 9:30pm. The service started outside, the priest said a bunch of stuff in Italian that we couldn't understand, they lit the palms and we moved inside. The church was dark inside but had amazing chandeliers and paintings on the walls. At midnight, the official start of Easter day, the lights turned on to signify the beginning of Easter. I understood a few words here and there that have similar meanings in French. After the service we went to an Irish pub to watch a final four basketball game and Angela and Greg were saying that it was weird not understanding the service but I kind of liked it. It reminded me of going to synagogue. It was a great way to spend my first Easter celebration and a really cool way to experience the religious side of Italian culture.
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