Dave had gone out with his parents a few cruises back, but Marika had injured her foot the prior day so she and I (and Rio, who is less intrigued by historical sites and feels having seen Pompeii that he is good in this realm, so he did not want to go anyway) had to stay back.
This time, there were no injure feet, and the weather was perfect (partly cloudy, no rain, not too hot), so Dave, Marika and I headed out first thing to enjoy.
Now, I really like Naples as a cruise port because it is a gateway to many wonderful things. Things like Pompeii, Mt Vesuvius, Herculaneum, a wonderful archaeological museum and the Amalfi coast. Better yet, all of these things can be managed reality easily on your own for MUCH less than a ship excursion or private tour. I think this is one of the easiest "do it yourself" ports that still lets you see major, world renowned attractions.
That said, the city itself is not pleasant. Not in the least little bit. It is filthy. Truly. Trash is just dumped out on the street all the time, and you have to really watch that you are not walking in dog feces, broken glass, or general nastiness. Buildings, which might have been lovely at some point, are so covered in pollution they are just dismal. Traffic is the worst I have seen anywhere (yes, worse than New York, Paris, Rome or Istanbul by a long shot). I think this is the only port I have been to that I feel simply getting off the ship to wander and stopping at a local cafe would not result in a pleasant day for those who prefer not to plan. I took the photos below while testing somethign on the camera, not even thinking about writing this. This was in one of the cleaner spots in the city, where i felt comfortable being distracted by the camera (and it was a Sunday morning--meaning MUCH less traffic than the norm, which is the only reason being distracted while walking was a reasonable idea at all).
The other warning I would have for other future cruisers stopping in Naples is that the taxi drivers here are like vultures. As you first walk out of the cruise terminal you WILL be surrounded by at least a dozen drivers, all trying to get right in front of you to speak and sell their cabs, many telling you it is "2 miles" or even "10 miles" to the train station, and some feel pretty aggressive. We've been to a lot of ports, some in places that are supposed to be known for aggressive tactics (some ports in the Caribbean, Tunisia, Turkey, etc) and this one is the worst in our opinion--and one of only three that we ever fell truly like there is an edge of actual threatening from some of the drivers (Athens is the other major one in that respect, Tunisia was also to a lesser degree).
Just be prepared to walk through that. Warn kids, hold their hands, and keep walking, looking ahead and repeating "no thank you" firmly. In two or three minutes you will be through and (normally) have no more issue. On this most recent trip we actually did have one other issue. When we were about half way to the train station, a driver came up to us and offered "deals" to the ruins (for, I calculated later, 14 times what the train cost us). When we said "no thank you" and kept walking, he followed along with us and continued to try to sell things, at one point he even told us the trains were on strike and we would have to take a taxi (not true). He followed us for about 3 minutes before Dave very firmly said "please stop following us" at which point the driver got very loud "You want to fight?? Americans always want a fight! I'll fight you if you want!" However, thankfully, he was shouting without continuing to follow us and walked away thereafter--thank goodness.
Anyway--all the bad stuff is out of the way, so now lets get to the fun and adventure! If you are interested in going to Herculaneum (or Pompeii or Mnt Vesuvius or Sorrento) on your own, you'll want to walk (or take a taxi) to the train station. The closets station to the port, which works for all of these, is not the main station, it is the Circumvesuviana Station. To get there on foot, turn right once out of the port area and walk along the street which borders the waterfront for about one kilometer. When you reach "Corso Giuseppe Garibaldi" turn left and the station will be about 300 meters up on your right. You can also take a bus, but after three previous attempts to find the stop, we have decided it is simply faster and easier to walk (at least when eh weather is not overly hot).
Head into the main ticketing area and purchase roundtrip tickets to "Ercolano Scavi" On a weekday these should run you 2.10 Euro each way. As it was the weekend, we were able to get special weekend tickets for only 3.40 that allowed us to use the train that far as well as all public transit in Naples itself for 24 hours.
The trains are smallish and a little older, but generally clean, safe (well ,watch for pick pockets, of course, but that is the case in most tourist areas) and run very frequently. Here is a photo of Marika and David on the train, and one of the stop you are looking for (it is the first of the two Ercolano stops):
It's about a 15 minute ride to where we were heading (a bit further for Pompeii), after which you nee to walk 8 blocks straight downhill (follow the masses). I suggest stopping and buying a cold bottle of water for each person as you head down (the going rate was 1 euro a bottle, not bad at all in my option). Unlike Naples, everyone here was very friendly, by the way. Here is a photo of the walk, taken once we got to the utterance--the train station is there right at the top of the hill:
And here is Marika standing at the front entrance. You cannot miss it--the street dead ends right here.
Once through the utterance gates, you will pass over a long bridge that goes over the excavation site. This is BEFORE the cashier and you do not need a ticket to enter this area. While I HIGHLY recommend a true visit to down inside the ruins, if you were a very limited budget or had very limited time, you can still get a fairly good impression of the area simply from looking down from this bridge (see the 4 photos below the bridge photo).
Entry to the site is a reasonable 11 Euro for adults and 5.50 for children (those under 18 who live in the EU are free).
Herculaneum was a richer city than Pompeii, and it was and, being west of the Volcano and out of the prevailing initial winds, it was buried in ash from tech bottom up--this meant that upper stories of building did not collapse as they did in Pompeii. The result is a MUCH better preserved city, which already had more to offer in the way of extremely detailed mosaic floors, frescoes, etc.
A small selection of photos of some of the many impressive mosaic floors:
Another small collection (narrowing down the photos was HARD) of some of the amazingly well preserved wall paintings:
Really lovely wall mosaics:
A few of the columns:
Kitchen areas with storage pots:
Many of the homes had roofs that slanted inwards to collect water into a central bath area below:
Public Baths, with storage shelves for personal belongings
The boat houses that had been located right on the beach when this was a thriving town. Several hundred people who had not managed to evacuate the city were found having died here when a subsequent blast came through:
Other various rooms and areas:
The tunnel like entry/exit that we used as an exit. The suggested route has you go down in via this route and exit in full sun on the bridge. We reserved the suggestions so that we were in the shade when hiking uphill and in the hotter part of the day.
Personally, having now visited both Pompeii and Herculaneum, I would recommend that if you have the chance to see one, and only one, Heruclaneum is the much better choice. It is smaller, but that is almost an asset, Pompeii is so large it is overwhelming. It can be tiring and frustrating trying to find all of the "highlights" and most people will find that after 2-3 hours they are exhausted and have seen enough and leave anyway. It is also so much better preserved, and much less crowded--all of which makes for an excellent experience.
After about 3 hours exploring the excavation site (which was plenty of time to see everything), we were ready for some good pizza! There was a hole in the wall pizza place that gets great reviews right on the street that runs between the train and Herculaneum (all uphill on the way home--ugh!) . The reviewers did not lie, this is possibly the best pizza we have ever had--rivaling even the Italian truck stop pizza we have previously found to be the (surprising) best! I absolutely recommend a stop at Pizzeria Luna Caprese.
That 26 Euro bill was for three good sized pizzas (we initially ordered two to share around, but they were so good we HAD to have a third), a pretty good bottle of wine and two Cokes. Not at al ad for the best pizza ever, and right next to a world class tourist attraction!
--I hope you have enjoyed the photos, or if you are stopping in Naples any time soon that this information has helped you a bit with your planning.
--Hadley
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