On a day when you are in Naples Italy, and you look up and see the bluest of skies, normally after a fresh rain, you know it’s time to head to the top of Mt. Vesuvius. Especially if you want to see out over all of Naples.

There’s actually not too much walking involved in this endeavor, just a nice stroll at the top unless you are feeling adventurous and want to sneak up onto the crater rim when no one is looking. 😉

On a clear day the drive is marvelous darling, you can see across Naples. On this day, it was almost hard to see where the blue sky meets the blue ocean.

Once you park your car illegally and cattycorner somewhere between the buses that are constantly driving by, you can just start walking. You’ll pay a couple euros at the entrance (I forget how many but 10 euros or so), and Italians will try to bamboozle you, but don’t let them.

Hiking, hiking, hiking. With that view in the background you won’t even notice the incline.

Miguel! What are you doing back there, hurry up!

Man, I can’t tell you how rare a clear sky in Naples is.

After a short stroll up the mountain you can look directly down into the crater. Such a different landscape from Naples proper.

Hiking along the trail, you can actually make a loop around the crater and head to the other side.

Volcanic rock in the crater.
A little bit of moss.

At the top, there was a group of students who were walking around the rim of the volcano. I love to be a little rebellious, so after quite some convincing I told Miguel we must do that too.

But first, this view!

Hi Miguel!

Definitely one of my favorite photos of the day. Man, this world has some crazy beautiful sights.

Then Miguel decided that he needed to clean his camera with a pipette. Seriously?! Who brings a pipette on a day hike? Meanwhile, I picked out my favorite Mt. Vesuvius volcanic rock magnet.

Standing at the top of one of the craters, Mt. Vesuvius. When do you think the next eruption will be?

Naples, Italy from Mt. Vesuvius on a clear blue day. #hotdamn

Turning back, we went to the area where we saw the students with the guide climb up the rim, and we started the climb. Except the weather can change in a moment in an area like this, and the winds picked up considerably the closer we got up the narrow rim of the crater. At one point I had to crouch down because the winds were so strong. In the end, we opted to get a few quick photos and head back down.

The crater rim of Mt. Vesuvius, above the typical walkway. This was the day before I left Italy for America. I wonder if I’ll ever get back to Naples?

A picture of Miguel being a rebel, after quite some coaxing I might add. haha.

After hiking back down to the car, and enduring some mean mugs from a couple of Italian workers who saw us climb up to the rim without a guide, we got back to the car and stopped for lunch at a restaurant on the hillside. A place that was not parked up by tourist buses.

The entire trip only takes a couple of hours, and could be done in a morning.

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