Rome to Pompeii travel day!

Saturday, July 14th.  Travel day to Naples/Pompeii.

To alleviate some of the pressures and stress associated to travel, I had booked our train passage for all the "legs" of our journey for around noon.  This let us have a somewhat leisurely morning with lots of time to pack up and prepare for our train ride south.
We left the Casa Melinda, our wonderful apartment and home for our stay in Rome and with luggage

in tow, walked to our bus stop.  Not the 81, the 714!  The 714 arrived within minutes of us getting to the stop and being Saturday morning, was not packed with commuters on their way to work.  We had our original bus tickets in hand, but opted to test fate one more time and held off validating them!
11 minutes later we were at the Rome Termini Central station.
Our ride to Naples on the "fast" train was about 1 hour and 10 minutes.  The fast trains are fast, reaching speeds of 320kmph!
During the ride south, JT & Shannon were seated across from a devotchka (young lass from Russia) who they learned spoke impeccable english.  She was from Moscow and had a quick wit and some rather candid and farsighted views of her own country and the Russian society.  The Turgeon's enjoyed the chance encounter with this charming young lady with a maturity level that belied her physical years.
Munchie and I had the pleasure of meeting a young British couple from Manchester.  The young man was a journeyman carpenter and he and Munchie had an engaging exchange about the building industries in Canada and the UK.
When we arrived in Naples we had to walk over to another train terminal via an underground passage way to a regional carrier service to catch our train over to Pompeii.  The Campania Express train was a local train geared to moving tourists from Naples to Pompeii, Sorrento, and Salerno.  Unlike its
commuter counterpart, it has space, ac and fewer stops and only cost 6 euro (the commuter cost 1.50).  The 27 km ride took about 45 minutes (the 230km Rome to Naples took 70 minutes!).  Our station was across the road from the Pompeii archeological site and a 5 minute walk to our Hotel, the

Vittoria.  The hotel was a great old gem!  It had only 28 rooms.  It was a rather grand lobby area and from the exterior you would not expect it!  The wide marble staircase leading up to the rooms and art on the walls gave the place a touch of elegance.   As we walked up to the entrance we were greeted by a lady who it turned out was one of the owners.  She just happened to be walking by the entrance and escorted us to the lobby desk.  The staff at the Vittoria were awesome.  They were helpful, pleasant and accommodating!  When we had checked in one of the fellows at the desk insisted he show us to our rooms and help with the luggage.  At check in, we also met Nala.  This little dachshund had the run of the place and as we were to learn "was a princess, and knew it!".  Nala was the Vittoria's

"mascot" and even had postcards of an oil painting done of her by a friend of the owner!
After getting settled in our rooms we took a stroll around outside.  There was a small piazza next to the hotel and was full of vendors with trinkets and treasures for us tourists!  As it turns out the piazza and the Vittoria are rendezvous points for tours of the Pompeii excavation.  There were wall to wall people milling about waiting for their buses. 
We walked across the main road in front of the hotel and found a nice open air restaurant where we were able to sit down and enjoy our evening meal. 
The hustle and bustle of the days travel, combined with the heat and humidity had again taken its toll on us and we called it an early night. 
Our plan for Sunday was to visit the Pompeii excavations.  We had found a "skip the line" tour with an office at the train station right there and we would be catching the first tour in the morning.