Headed away at a leisurely 10am. Not much on the agenda for the day for a change. Drove the few km to Sant’Agata church cemetery which was closed yesterday. Absolutely amazing. We wanted to check out names, e.g. of Nelson Italian families and were blown away by the incredible marble monuments/mausoleums and gravestones we came across. Two storied buildings containing row on row of marble faced tombs containing the remains of family members, all lit by lamps. There were a large number of Nelson family names among them and it was quite an eerie experience.
That crossed off the list of work-stuff for the day. We didn’t have to drop the car off at Naples port until 4.30pm so we had decided to head to the Roman remains at Herculaneum. We had visited Pompeii in 1982 and, though it is much bigger than Herculaneum, thought we would go for the smaller version. Unfortunately, we hadn’t reckoned on a traffic jam on the highway getting in towards Naples and lost over an hour crawling a small number of km. Checked on our GPS which had the closer turn-off off the highway, Pompeii or Herculaneum. Pompeii won hands down, only 2km instead of about 12km, so turned off when we could. Found the site finally, after a few wrong-turns because of screwy roadsigns confusing us. It had been raining on and off but down to a light drizzle. 
Decided we could get our money’s worth of the large entry fee if we walked around the site at a fast pace. The sun came out, it got pretty hot, we got pretty hot, the almost complete lack of signposting caused us much confusion, and overall we were pretty disappointed with the place. It was in a poor condition, e.g. weeds and shrubs growing on the top and sides of walls. We couldn’t understand why they don’t at least spray the ruins with weedkiller to try and help preserve them. One of the mosaics which we had particularly enjoyed on our 1982 visit, that of a dog and lettering saying “Cave Canem” (Beware of the dog) was in grubby condition on this trip. Quite sad. We are not surprised that one of the walls fell down recently and prompted reaction from the Ministry of Culture to spend more money on upkeep of the place. They could make so much more of the amazing ruins of Pompeii.
Because of the traffic jam, change of plan to whip around Pompeii (which took us two hours), the rain etc. we hadn’t had any lunch. Survived on a few nut bars and an apple each. Had to dash off to get the car back in time and it was no mean feat navigating our way through Naples to and along the port road, even with the GPS. Really chaotic, and not made any easier with cobble roads which were so undulating and potholed that our teeth rattled. Finally rolled up at the hirecar place at 4.30pm. Phew. Feeling a bit hungry by now. We wanted to check which pier our ferry was to leave from at 8pm so trundled our bags over to the nearby (relatively speaking) Siremar counter. Oh no. Our ferry had been cancelled, apparently due to adverse weather. It was rescheduled for noon tomorrow. Not only that but it was no longer calling in at Stromboli , and we would have to backtrack by hydrofoil (thankfully at no extra cost). No choice but to drag our bags back into Napoli and try and find a cheap hotel. J left K guarding the bags in one of the main squares while he bravely set off to find a bed for the night. No luck. Finally found a backpackers’ hostel and got their last room. Pretty basic but at least our own bathroom. Gobbled the bread and bits we had bought earlier for food on the ferry and collapsed into bed.
