We went for a long weekend trip to Vesuvius and Pompeii in October of 2025. The weather was gorgeous. Trees were changing color in some areas. Flowers were still profusely blooming, and the lemon and pomegranete trees were ladden. Something I didn’t expect to see was what looked like prickly pear. I discovered that Italy has a variation of cactus that looks like Oputia. It desperately made me miss the Southwester US. I can fully see why areas of Italy were used for shooting Spaghetti Westerns now.
It’s a funny thing, the bucket lists we make for our selves. I don’t know what I got it in my head for, but I wanted to take Wren to see an actual volcano. We never did make it out to Yellowstone. I went there as a kid, but he’s never seen it. Yellowstone would have been closer, and more of an active thing to see, but as a super caldera, you kinda lose the scope of the thing. So, while we were waiting on clearances to get our dogs to us, we prioritized a couple of short trips around Europe. Seeing Vesuvius and Pompeii being one of them.
Amsterdam spoils us. The roads are well cared for, as also are the buildings and transportation networks. There’s a high standard to the area (if you ignore all the graffiti). Flying into Naples from Schiphol really set the tone to our first impression of Italy. It felt like an exceptionally over crowded version of some of the poor sections of New Mexico. Like really poor. I was hard pressed to compose pictures that weren’t centering on those instances without making people uncomfortable just due to how many people were out and about living their lives. And that is something I find unique to Europe that I just don’t see back in the U.S. Socialization. People at restaurants, in the plazas, walking to shops and greeting shopkeeps. It looks poor, and yet rich in a way the U.S. doesn’t. Not unless you’re in the tiny, tight-knit communities.
Pompeii made for a neat experience, coming from a place where the oldest artifacts I’ve seen are Anasazi and going to Italy to see them. I attended 2 weeks at University of Amsterdam for archaeology before figuring out their scheduling system and methodology were not for me. I got to handle some 5th century pottery from Rome at that time, which a visit to Pompeii encapsulated for me, and I’ll be grateful for that.
The next day after our visit in Pompeii, we took a tour bus up to Vesuvius and hiked to the cone. There are private tours that take you further, but we were all worn by the time we got all the way up and all the way back down. I am out of practice and have been working to get back to hiking form. Vesuvius reminded me of how few steep grades are in the Netherlands for proper arduous exercise. But Dutch staircases can make replicate Vesuvius’s grades pretty closely in some spots, so, just more going up and down the stairs I guess.
It was an interesting experience. I can’t say that I was enamored enough to go back soon. Maybe some day see Tuscany or the coast, but that’s probably a few years down the road.
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