Climbing Mt. Vesuvius

Mt. Vesuvius. What a name, right? It’s a mountain most people would recognize as the volcano that erupted and killed thousands of citizens of the ancient city of Pompeii. It was a horrible tragedy that is also the sole reason we have one of the best preserved cities from all of the ancient world available to see today. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

My Italy trip was by no means a cross-country trip. We booked the trip to Rome with no plans of seeing any other cities… except Pompeii. We booked a day trip to Pompeii through a company called Viator, which I’d never heard of at the time, but based on my experience, I’d recommend it. It included a bus trip from Rome to Pompeii and back with our fellow tourists, a stop in Naples for pizza, a climb up Mt. Vesuvius and a tour through the ancient ruins of Pompeii.

We managed to schedule our day trip for the last day they allow people to hike up Mt. Vesuvius for the season. After that the weather is too cold and unpredictable, especially at the top of a mountain. By the time we made it up a significant portion of the mountain on the bus (terrifying, by the way), we were told by the park rangers that it was too windy for us to hike it. I didn’t really understand how wind would make hiking unsafe, but they said we could drive to the beginning of the trail, get out, walk around, then drive back down.

When we got off the bus, it was freezing. I mean really cold. We were all just in hoodies, and the wind was blowing so hard it felt like my ears were going to fall off. What a rip off! We came all this way risking our lives (or at least that’s how it felt) as our bus navigated tiny, winding roads on cliff sides of an active volcano that could erupt at any moment, so that we could climb up that stinking mountain! And now we couldn’t just because of a little (okay, maybe a lottle) wind?! We were all standing around shivering, looking at the parking lot while our guide talked to some of the rangers. Pretty soon he was telling us that they were allowing us up the mountain after all! The catch was we only had a half hour.

So not only was it freezing, and not only were we hiking uphill, we were freaking booking it trying to make it to the top with enough time to look around. I kept stopping along the way, partly to take photos and partly to catch my breath, but I felt like if I stood too close to the edge, the wind would blow me right over to my death. Granted, I’m a dramatic person in general, but the wind was blowing really hard! Just trust me! I suddenly understood why perhaps wind could make hiking up a mountain unsafe.

I took a photo as close to the edge as possible to terrify my mother later. Peep the formerly cute infinity scarf clutched over my frozen ears.

When we finally made it to the top, it was amazing. The view was spectacular, but we knew it would be, because it just kept getting better and better the higher up we hiked. What was just as incredible was looking into the volcano. You can see from a distance that the mountain is kind of missing it’s top. That’s because it literally blew it off in 79 A.D. when it erupted and buried the city of Pompeii.

When I looked in, I wasn’t exactly expecting to see a big hole, like the one Juni and Carmen fell into in Spy Kids 2 (I bet it’s been a while since you’ve read a nice Spy Kids reference), but it really was an active volcano! It was steaming and everything! And it was crazy to think that the rubble sitting around my feet as I peered into the volcano came from the exact mountain that buried the city I was about to see!

But more on that city in my next post...