We slept in and slowly packed. Checked out after 10 and left our bags at the hotel and headed out to explore the modern town of Pompeii. Walked up to the cafe that we’d stopped at on our first day and had coffee and pastries, just as good as the first time, then walked up to the main square by the Cathedral. There is a main shopping street which we strolled down and then up the next street, before finding a spot on a bench by the square and settling in the sun to watch people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We were comparing sitting there to being in the forum in Pompeii during Roman times. Lots of people walking dogs (the dogs were more interested in chasing pigeons or peeing on the Christmas tree), music from the Cathedral, people meeting up to chat, photos being taken of a young girl in a white dress (confirmation?), the party for her was happening at the bar across the way, people stopping to get photos, just all sorts happening and it was fun to watch. Several school groups came out of the Cathedral so we assumed it must have been the end of term thing. They posed in front of the Christmas tree for photos before heading off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having sat in the sun for a bit, we had a look around the Cathedral. Joe was grumpy about looking at a church until he came across the nativity scene which had all sorts happening. Not just the usual wisemen and shepherds but also sales people and bards. And right in front a man in a lab coat. Joe got a photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overall this week ee had very good weather, with only bit of cloudy, showery day on Tuesday. Otherwise sunshine and warmer than expected which was really nice!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We debated having a last drink at the hotel before leaving, but decided against it and walked to the bus stop. We had a lovely meat and cheese platter at the cafe right by the main entrance to the ruins (Ristorante Suisse), it included a lovely pot of honey and walnuts. A very filling late lunch. Then off to Naples airport again. We had a reservation at a hotel right by the airport, but did have to play hopper across the main road to get to it. It was a usual business\/conference hotel but suitable to make our flight the next morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We slept in and slowly packed. Checked out after 10 and left our bags at the hotel and headed out to explore the modern town of Pompeii. Walked up to the cafe that we’d stopped at on our first day and had coffee and pastries, just as good as the first time, then walked up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4T97-17o","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4294,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2025\/12\/15\/city-break\/","url_meta":{"origin":4302,"position":0},"title":"City Break","date":"Monday, 15 December 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Up early to head into Pompeii. Had breakfast at the hotel; the view from that cafe is amazing over the ruins and Vesuvius, especially in the morning with the sun rising onto the mountain. The hotel is right at the Amphitheatre entrance so we were early to the gate, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4298,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2025\/12\/17\/naples\/","url_meta":{"origin":4302,"position":1},"title":"Naples","date":"Wednesday, 17 December 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"So Joe, having heard me say 'this is a reproduction, the original is in the museum in Naples' many many many times while walking around Pompeii, said we had to go to The National Archaeological Museum of Naples. So he worked out the route which went from the main Pompeii\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4283,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2025\/12\/07\/seville-cathedral\/","url_meta":{"origin":4302,"position":2},"title":"Seville Cathedral","date":"Sunday, 7 December 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"We ended up sleeping for nearly 12 hours and then took a long slow start to the day. We had tickets for the Cathedral for 14:35 so had plenty of time. We had coffee in the room, sorted our bags and clothes, put stuff in the safe, and gathered together\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4296,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2025\/12\/16\/pompeii-revisited\/","url_meta":{"origin":4302,"position":3},"title":"Pompeii Revisited","date":"Tuesday, 16 December 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Up, breakfast, and off to the city again. This day's ticket had the Cave Canem mosaic on it. This time we went down to the path that goes around the city walls to see the Porta di Stabia and the mausoleums along that road. Then to see the small theatre\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4300,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2025\/12\/18\/herculaneum\/","url_meta":{"origin":4302,"position":4},"title":"Herculaneum","date":"Thursday, 18 December 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Up and out early to get to the Pompeii Santuario station for the train to Ercolano. Definitely not as nice as the main station and train to Naples. The trains were all running late and there was very little information available, but we got our train and headed off to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4292,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2025\/12\/14\/and-were-off-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":4302,"position":5},"title":"And we’re off again","date":"Sunday, 14 December 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Stayed at Gatwick again as the flight was very very early morning (06:40). We did the twilight bag drop, you can drop your bag between 20:00 and 22:00 if you have a flight before 8:30 which is very helpful. We still had to get up early, but could just go\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4302"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4302"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4303,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4302\/revisions\/4303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}