Day 1 (Sunday) – 05/28/2017

We left Rome with our rental car at Termini train station around noon and drove for 2 hours about 200 km to the city of Caserta, a wonderful tip that the Lonely Planet guide gave me.

In this city is the beautiful Royal Palace (or Reggia di Caserta for Italians), one of the greatest and last achievements of Italian Baroque architecture – my favorite. In short, it is the Palace of Versailles in Italy. A wonderful tip, isn't it?

Summary of the Royal Palace of Caserta

In 1752, King Charles VII of Bourbon demanded a palace to rival Versailles and commissioned Luigi Vanvitelli to build one larger than its rival. With 1,200 rooms (!!!), 1,790 windows, 34 staircases and a massive 250-meter façade, it is believed to have been the the largest building in Europe in the 18th century. Impressive, right?

(If you're a Star Wars fan, you've probably seen the palace in two Star Wars films – The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. The interior scenes of Queen Amidala's residence were filmed there. If you're not a fan, it also appeared in Mission: Impossible III).

Lunch in Caserta

Anyway…after reading this information in the guide while still in Dublin, I made sure to include it in our itinerary and so off we went to visit it. When we arrived in the little town, which is nothing special, I confess that my expectations were quite low. We struggled a bit to park and took the opportunity to have lunch before going into the city. palazzo node Trattoria Chichibio, one of the few restaurants open in the city because of the opening hours, and despite the poor service, we really enjoyed the food.

Getting to know the Palace

We then went to the palace and WOW – what a giant building!!! Maybe you can understand from the photos:

We paid 12 euros per person to visit the gardens and the royal apartments (see more information at website official) and although the internal courtyards and gardens didn't impress at first, since they weren't well maintained, I fell in LOVE with the staircases and the rooms on the second floor. Each one is more beautiful than the last, take a look:

We left there happy with the visit. 🙂

Our accommodation in Pompeii

We had ice cream in the little square next door (so hot!!!) and drove about 50 km to the city of Pompeii, where we slept. We stayed in a bed & breakfast very fair and super well located, the B&B Elena, with very cute decoration. Check it out:

Dining in Pompeii

The best of all is that the owner gave us a tip about a simply DIVINE pizzeria that is a 5-minute walk away, Matti's Pizzeria. What a good and cheap pizza (less than 10 euros!), guys, and what a pleasant atmosphere… I recommend it!!!

Day 2 (Monday) – 05/29/2017

We had breakfast calmly, we did the checkout and we drove to the Pompeii Ruins, the city's main attraction. As we had booked a tour in English at the B&B itself, the owner of the B&B gave us a tip on where to park (inside a camping near the entrance) and where to find our guide. We did as explained and when we found the guide, we found the scheme to be a mess.

Discovering the Ruins of Pompeii

To start, you must pay the tour guide in cash and pray that she has change. If she doesn't, it's a long wait until you get it sorted. We wasted a lot of time waiting for everyone to pay, get their change and get their tickets to go through the turnstiles, but when the tour started, we thought it was really cool. She explained several details about the ruins to us and of course now, almost 2 months after the trip, I don't remember that much.

It is important for you to know that these ruins exist because In the year 79 AD, the volcano Vesuvius completely destroyed the city that existed there, leaving it with a layer of ash (bagacina) that led to the death of around 2 thousand people. Some people think that the city was taken over by lava from the volcano, because it seems that there is a famous film about the catastrophe that is wrong, so the guide keeps pointing out that people died from asphyxiation and not from burning.

This place is considered the most impressive archaeological site in Europe, because it was possible to excavate the region and the result of the work is a well-preserved slice of ancient life (and ancient at that!). It is possible to walk through the Roman streets, enter the houses, baths and even a brothel and see some impressive details, such as drawings on the walls and holes in the floor for tying up horses.

PS. Look at the city brothel:

The tour lasts about two hours and is definitely an unmissable experience.

Our accommodation in Vico Equense

We left there and drove less than 20 km to our hotel in Vico Equense. Another strange city, right? Well, I explained node post summary why we made this unknown little town our base on the Amalfi Coast, but here is one of the reasons, besides the affordable price:

Want to know more about the continuation of the trip along the Amalfi Coast? Read more in this article.

Want to know more about THIS TRIP? See the posts below:

• Italy – Rome, Amalfi Coast, Capri, Pompeii and Caserta (10 days – SUMMARY)
• Italy – Caserta and Pompeii (1 day)
• Italy – Amalfi Coast (3 days)
• Italy – Capri and Anacapri (3 days)
• Italy – Rome and Vatican (2 days)

If you want to know more about our other trips around Italy, see below:

• Italy – Rome, Tuscany, Bologna and Cinque Terre (14 days -SUMMARY)
• Italy – Rome and Vatican (4 days)
• Italy – Bologna (1 day)
• Italy – Tuscany – Summary (4 days)
• Italy – Tuscany – San Gimignano and Volterra (1 day)
• Italy – Tuscany – Florence (2 days)
• Italy – Tuscany – Lucca (1 day)
• Italy – Tuscany – Monteriggioni and Siena (1 day)
• Italy – Tuscany – Montepulciano and Cortona (1 day)
• Italy – Tuscany – Pisa (1 day)
• Italy – Cinque Terre (2 days)

If you are looking for tours in Italy, check out the suggestions from our partner Civitatis: