27 May

Getting out of Rome was a minor adventure. We went to the fancy lounge in the station, but our ticket wouldn't open the door, so we tagged along behind a business-suited man. There was a line at the counter that never seemed to move, so we took off our packs and sat down. We reasoned that they would tell us if we weren't supposed to be there. Sure enough, before long they told us. This was the "members only" lounge. It didn't even have any sort of refreshments, so it was no huge deal, but seats are nearly non-existent in the Rome station. We did manage to swipe an English language newspaper on the way out. That'll show 'em! We finally found the first class waiting room, which was pretty bleak, but at least it had seats and insulated us from the beggars and grifters.

The ride to Naples was fine, and we were only there a few minutes before catching our connecting train to Pompei. We rented a "bungalow" in an RV park for 35 Euros a night. It's pretty basic, not much worse than our Rome hotel. It's right across the road from the ruins of Pompei and we toured them this afternoon. If we had to choose between Rome & Pompei, we'd take Pompei every time. After the ruins closed for the night, we bought groceries for tomorrow and ate pizza from another RV park's café.