We thought about travelling through Italy for a long time. It is a country with a lot to offer: nature, architecture, cuisine, and history, so it wasn’t difficult to decide that a two-week long holiday should be enough to get a taste of what the country is really like.
Our first plan was to rent a car and road trip the whole west coast, however, we eventually realized that for our itinerary, it would make more sense to use public transport. And so in June 2022, Dominik and I packed our bags and took a plane from Dublin Airport to Naples International Airport.
The drive to our hotel in Naples was insane. We took a taxi and I was cursing under my breath the whole ride because we were sure we were going to die. There was no order on the road. Our driver, who was singing and laughing when seeing our horrified faces, drove like a maniac. “Welcome to Napoli,” he said, smiling from ear to ear, when dropping us off at our hotel.
After we calmed down, we checked into our hotel and took a train to Pompei, a place I dreamt of visiting since I was a child.
It was a bit strange to walk through the city that was once destroyed by a volcano, but I didn’t expect it to be so beautiful. It was clean and charming, the perfect touristy destination! We walked around a little bit and then headed towards the entrance of the Ruins of Pompeii.
We visited the amphitheatre and walked the old streets. We also found an incredible view of the whole place. It felt a bit bittersweet, though. I was happy to be there, the weather was pleasant, and the place wasn’t overcrowded, yet I realized that the place was technically a graveyard.
After a couple of hours of exploring the ruins, we decided it was time for a snack. We bought a slushie and then headed to the city for quick lunch. Looking back at the whole trip, the food we ordered in Pompei was one of the best we had in Italy. I often find myself thinking about how delicious it was. Dominik ordered spaghetti carbonara and I went for gnocchi. The waiter recommended to order the food in pizza dough, which made it unforgettable, because we had never seen the option anywhere else after!
We spent the night in a hotel back in Naples, had the best pizza of our life there and the next morning, we took a train to Rome!