It was our first major excursion. We were headed to Pompeii.
Josh and I honeymooned in Paris and Rome after getting married back in October of 2014. We originally had interest in going to Iceland for our honeymoon (to see the Northern Lights), but after visiting two Travel Agencies, that tried to dissuade us from there (because it would be cold), we relented and chose somewhere else.
Now, we 100% loved Paris and Rome, but I won’t lie we were slightly annoyed that these agents felt the need to talk us out of Iceland. Their concern for the cold was, well…. nice. But it wasn’t like they were joining us on the trip, so if we didn’t care, why should they?
But, Paris and Rome it was. And we feel incredibly blessed to have had that opportunity. (Iceland is still on the bucket list as of this point!)
When planning our honeymoon, I used a site called Viator to plan our different excursions/tours that we wanted to do, and one of those was visiting the island of Pompeii, and hiking Mount Vesuvius.
The historical tale of Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption has fascinated me for a long time. When I saw the opportunity for us to actually visit the area I didn’t have to think twice.
We spent the first half of the day walking through the ancient city, viewing the ruins, and what still remains. Before heading to Mt. Vesuvius, the tour took us to a pizza place (because it’s Italy, of course.) I ate my Margherita, and I’ll be honest I can not remember which type Josh had.
After lunch, we all piled back into the bus and were off to Vesuvius. So far up the road, the bus stops, and we all climbed out. The guide pointed a head, and instructed us to follow that trail to reach the top.
So we started our hike.
Driving in, it seemed like Mt. Vesuvius would give us some gorgeous views of the surrounding country, but as we began the hike, fog started to set in around us. Fairly quickly, the hike that we hoped would hold breathtaking sights, became a dense trek of cloudy white. We couldn’t see more than a few hundred feet in front of us.
The hike was grueling to put it lightly. For two people that had just eaten pizzas, and were not in the athletic practice of hiking, we did pretty amazing. But the entire time we kept asking ourselves why we weren’t sitting on a beach somewhere right now? How had we signed up for this treacherous hike on our honeymoon?!
When we finally reached the top, our excitement was gone. The hope of any countryside views lost in the dense fog that impaired our vision. So there we were, standing at the top of Vesuvius, newlyweds, wondering why in-the-world we just did that hike.
We laugh about it now, and it’s a bit of a joke that we don’t know how to take “relaxing vacations” because we are always choosing some sort of “adventure”.
If you’re planning your honeymoon to Italy, and plan to visit Vesuvius, my only recommendation would be — check the weather first.
