Happy Easter!
Today we have two adventures. I went riding with my mom and TA took Dan and my dad hiking.
We are both tackling Vesuvius.
Look how happy she is int he back seat trying to take dad's space.
Vesuvius adventure #1
Dan dropped mom and me off at our pickup point and we headed off to go on a trail ride. We were the first to arrive, so we waited inside. We had been forewarned that it might rain.
After the other group showed up we headed off. Our guide was a native Neapolitan but he sounded like he came straight off a ranch in Montana or Idaho. Turns out he worked out there and learned a lot of his English there. He must have studied very hard because he had no Italian accent at all.
Like I said, he sounded like a stereotypical American cowboy (actual cowboy, not redneck).
I am adjusting my backpack, but also am clearly not sure about something.
Here's the line up. Mom was in the back taking photos. The trail ride up was very narrow, very steep, and the ground was very soft. It was kind of amazing that the horses didn't stumble or trip.
We made it to.....a rest stop. It's not the top, but it's where we turned around to go back down.
Horses in the scrub brush.
Here is a view from our stop looking out and down into the Bay of Pozzouli (I think).
See all that darkness on the left. That is a storm coming in.
Weeeeee! We're on a volcano!
Weeeeee! We're on horses on a volcano!
Also behind us is where the lava flow went when Vesuvius erupted in the 1940's.
At this point we turned around and headed back down the trail. I think normally the ride goes father up Vesuvius, but guide saw the same storm you just saw and decided to take us back down. I'll spare you the suspense. We got soaked. 5 minutes from this photo the rain started pouring down.
We got back to the corral and dried off as best as we could. We then got taken back to our meeting point and waited for Ta, Dan, and dad.
Vesuvius Adventure #2
Apparently when you hike Vesuvius, you go to a parking lot, pay 5 euro to park, and then 10 euro to climb up the steep tourist path. All the other hiking paths in the park are closed.
You already saw the weather mom and I had, so the hiking adventure didn't have much of a view.
Ta is pulling dad up the hill. There is a bit of zig-zagging trail and then a trail that goes halfway around the caldera at the top. There are junky tourist stands every.....200 meters or so.
Look at that amazing view of a cloud.
There are probably beautiful vistas beyond it, but who knows?
(People who came on clear days probably)
And there's looking into the caldera. Or into the nothingness of a cloud where the caldera should be.
The hiking adventure was not terribly exciting, but they can now say they've climbed Vesuvius. They did not get wet.
The timing worked out fairly well and we all joined up again within about 10-15 minutes of mom and me being dropped off. Going home and getting dry clothes was the primary priority. After that we just hung out for the rest of the day.
This concludes our adventures for today.
