Hiking at Vesuvius

Hiking Vesuvius in Naples

I know this sounds very weird but besides being afraid of dogs I am a bit afraid of volcanos. One time in my life I got a panic attack and that was when I was at a volcano island just outside Auckland. Was 2007 so long time ago. After that I haven’t wanted to visit any volcanos but I when I got to Naples I thought it was time to conquer my fear at once and for all. I survived. Met up with some fellow travelers in the morning and we planned to go to Pompeii and first look at the ash burred town and go to the top of Naples from there, but hey. Corona made that impossible. So the plan A turned out to plan B and in the end everything got sorted out anyway with a happy ending like most of the times.

Going to the volcano

There are two places you can reach the volcano from with a bus in Naples. The first one is Pompeii and by combining that with seeing the old Pompeii we thought it was a perfect 2-1 for a day. But, it was Monday. So we couldn’t enter the sight to Pompeii. Well, wasn’t that interested so it wasn’t the end of the world and at least we got to see it from outside and talked to some people working there so we got a sneak peak although it was closed. Before that we checked out the bus table to Vesuvio but due to Corona public busses were not operating to the national park and the option was a taxi for a fortune. Thanks but no thanks so we thought let’s check if there are any other options while walking around Pompeii. And while walking around Pompeii being a bit disappointed about that the plan of the day was ruined we met some some other Italians saying that it’s not closed for the public to go up to Vesuvio, you just have to go to Ercolano on the same communtertrain line and from there you could go although Corona and there is also a smaller Pompeii site which is open on Monday. Perfect! Problem solved. So we took the train back there. Unfortunately the bus with available seats to the park was a bit to late for my fellow travelers since they had to catch their flight back to Stockholm but I made it to the top.

Hot hiking

Bought the bus ticket in Ercolano which was a great place with local vibe but had to wait until 1pm until the departure so had two hours to spend in the city. Had an ice cream and chilled a bit. The historical site didn’t looked like much for the world so we just sneakpeaked there and didn’t payed the entrance fee to get in. I have seen ruins before so its not a wow experience to me. The volcano was though. So at 1 we took off towards the highest point in the area. Perfect if you like the heat. Middle of the day when it is 31 degrees outside. Made for hiking don’t you think? I had a bit of water with me so was perfectly fine in the end and it was a bit of wind. But still hot.

National park

Vesuvius volcano is a national park so the hike was properly arranged. There wasn’t many people there at all and was quite easy to hike. Took around 45 minutes to get up and the same amount of time down without any stops. A pair of sneakers that you don’t care if they get dirty are more than enough for this hike.