16 days ago
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Posted On: October 20th 2026, 07:20 pm
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📍Southern Italy 🇮🇹
With cabins and assigned seats long sold out for the 14 hour overnight ferry passage from Sardinia to Napoli, there was a mad dash of people staking out any available inch of space in the common lounge areas upon boarding the totally overbooked vessel. Air mattresses, blankets, and bodies were laid out everywhere on the floors making it difficult to walk around, and there were even tents pitched on the sundeck—clearly they weren’t rookies like us. We cobbled together a few hours of sleep across two dining chairs when the restaurant closed. Oh well, it was our bad for making the trip during peak tourist season!
Disembarking in a groggy haze, we still had a short push to Pompeii where we explored the archeological site of the ancient Roman city, which was immaculately preserved under six meters of volcanic ash following the violent eruption of Mount Vesuvius around 2000 years ago. We got a fascinating glimpse into life back then—not just the grand villas of the rich or the religious architecture that usually get the highlight, but the everyday life of a working class city. Their brilliant engineering and infrastructure were all visible, making us realize how much of it served as the foundation for modern life. At the same time, thinking about the horror that the people of Pompeii experienced on the fateful eruption day made the heart heavy. One of the most striking details for me was the flooring. The intricacies of the stone mosaics were beautiful and completely timeless in design—any of them would look so chic in a home today!
With our Schengen zone travel visas quickly expiring and tickets for our next ferry to Albania booked, we had to ditch our usual meandering mountain trails and instead opt for the most flat and direct route across Puglia. The dry farmland views were a bit monotonous, but interactions with warmhearted and chatty Italians more than made up for this! It was also through here that we scored perhaps the best meal of the trip at an agriturismo, surrounded by the best farm dogs. Grateful for this sweet doggy hang, especially after days of being chased by snarling guard dogs charging out of farm gates at every blind turn😰
With cabins and assigned seats long sold out for the 14 hour overnight ferry passage from Sardinia to Napoli, there was a mad dash of people staking out any available inch of space in the common lounge areas upon boarding the totally overbooked vessel. Air mattresses, blankets, and bodies were laid out everywhere on the floors making it difficult to walk around, and there were even tents pitched on the sundeck—clearly they weren’t rookies like us. We cobbled together a few hours of sleep across two dining chairs when the restaurant closed. Oh well, it was our bad for making the trip during peak tourist season!
Disembarking in a groggy haze, we still had a short push to Pompeii where we explored the archeological site of the ancient Roman city, which was immaculately preserved under six meters of volcanic ash following the violent eruption of Mount Vesuvius around 2000 years ago. We got a fascinating glimpse into life back then—not just the grand villas of the rich or the religious architecture that usually get the highlight, but the everyday life of a working class city. Their brilliant engineering and infrastructure were all visible, making us realize how much of it served as the foundation for modern life. At the same time, thinking about the horror that the people of Pompeii experienced on the fateful eruption day made the heart heavy. One of the most striking details for me was the flooring. The intricacies of the stone mosaics were beautiful and completely timeless in design—any of them would look so chic in a home today!
With our Schengen zone travel visas quickly expiring and tickets for our next ferry to Albania booked, we had to ditch our usual meandering mountain trails and instead opt for the most flat and direct route across Puglia. The dry farmland views were a bit monotonous, but interactions with warmhearted and chatty Italians more than made up for this! It was also through here that we scored perhaps the best meal of the trip at an agriturismo, surrounded by the best farm dogs. Grateful for this sweet doggy hang, especially after days of being chased by snarling guard dogs charging out of farm gates at every blind turn😰
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