Volcano 'Ventures: Vesuvius! (March 7, Cont'd)

Hello there, Mt. Vesuvius!

Our original itinerary (courtesy of the H&K K-N Travel Agency) scheduled us to visit both Herculaneum and Vesuvius together, as a day trip from Naples to Ercolano.  In fact, the top of Vesuvius is often shrouded in mist in the morning (see above), and so makes a good afternoon excursion following a morning in Herculaneum.  

[Note:
Ercolano = The modern city

Herculaneum = The ancient city buried under Ercolano]

But Kee-Min and I are two of the slowest tourists ever, so we spent about 6 hours in Herculaneum the previous day, thereby missing the last bus up to Vesuvius in the afternoon.  We briefly considered skipping the Vesuvius climb entirely, but we had such an awesome time touring Herculaneum (described here and here) that we decided we really couldn't pass up a visit to the volcano that made it all possible.

So, after our run on Wednesday morning, we made our way to the main train station in Naples (Piazza Garibaldi).  Staying near the train station?  A slightly sketchy neighborhood, but extra-convenient for travel!  In case any of you are visiting the Naples area and want to retrace our steps to Herculaneum/Vesuvius, it's pretty simple:

1. Take the Circumvesuviana to the Ercolano Scavii stop.  This is 11 stops from Piazza Garibaldi, I think, but the stations are labeled - keep your eyes open, and you'll be fine).
2. Exit the Ercolano Scavii station.  Stop.

3. Look to the left and find a small storefront with a sign in the window: "Vesuvius Bus", or similar - there isn't much in Ercolano, so it's impossible to miss.  There will also be a 15 passenger van nearby - this is also impossible to miss.  

4. Pay ~18 euros apiece.  This includes a bus ride up to the highest point on Vesuvius that is reachable by road, and your "entry fee" to hike the rest of the way to the top.  

I won't lie - this bus thing definitely feels like a tourist trap.  But according to our research and experience, it's the easiest and most efficient way to get to Vesuvius.  First of all, the mountain is some distance from the train stations.  Second, none of the local public transit goes to the top (as far as I know).  Third, we were unable to find any reliable information on how to get to the base, or on hiking paths/trails we could take to the top.

So, we took the bus.  And the bus went us up, up, twist, up, turn, turn, up, twist-turn, up, up, up the switchbacks of this Italian mountainside.  We drove through forest, past a speckling of ramshackle roadside restaurants and tiny, nearly-hidden inns, and eventually emerged in a parking lot full of vans and RVs.  We disembarked, were told to be back in 2 hours, and off we went.

First, a sign to commemorate the trip:

Yes, indeed. We were there for the visit to the crater.

We started our walk.  The path was wide and even:

It quickly became clear that, despite any warnings we'd read, this was NOT going to be a repeat of our Mt. Ngauruhoe expedition.  The roughest bits looked like (prepare yourself) this:

Again, we were lucky enough to be in Italy at the perfect time - the weather was cold on the mountain, but comfortable at sea level, and early March is just a tad before tourist season.  I imagine that, in the summer months, this path is packed with people - and broiling hot under the summer sun.  But on this particular day, we had the place just about to ourselves.  We hiked comfortably, enjoying the views out to the ocean:

There was a bit of haze on the mountain, but it actually looks worse in the photo than it did in person.

After about 20 minutes, we were high enough to see into the crater.  Hello, enormous hole-in-the-mountain:

Let's back up for a second, for a slightly broader view:

And, just in case you doubted that this is an active volcano, I give you:

Real, live, active-volcano steam

How did I manage to not freak out while hiking up the side of an active volcano?  Well, first of all, I tried not to think about it (much).  Second, I trusted science:

You can really only see the solar panels,
but they are charging science-y, volcano-monitoring devices.

And really, the view was spectacular.  Stanley enjoyed it, too:

He did have to hold my hands very tightly, though - it was REALLY windy up there!

Could you imagine hiking Mt. Vesuvius as a school field trip??  Talk about crazy-cool!  Well, when we got to the top of the hiking path, this is what we found:

These kids constituted 95% of the people we saw on the hike.

There is also a walking path around the entire crater, but it was closed for repairs while we visited.  So we settled for a final photo:

US! ON MOUNT VESUVIUS! 
I think this one will have to get printed for our "Guess Where We Are?" photo wall!

Then, with frozen fingers and toes, we retraced our steps back down.  When all of our fellow passengers finished their descents, we piled back into the van and returned to the Ercolano bus station.

Overall, we highly recommend the excursion.  It only takes a few hours (we were finished by lunchtime), it is accessible to anyone who can walk uphill at a relatively modest pace for 30-40 minutes, and the "cool" factor is pretty high.  My only warning would be to any "adventure" travelers out there - done this way, the trip is very, very tame.  For us, the jaunt was totally worth it - but it was a casual walk, not an athletic adventure.

So, our challenge to any outdoor-adventuring readers heading to Italy themselves: See if you can find that elusive hiking path from the (very) bottom of the mountain.  And if/when you do, send us lots of details so we can retrace your steps in the future!