Let it flow like pompeii or herculaneum! (Don't let your lava love flow turn to stone)

I will try to be briefer here, as I hit you all with a big update just a bit ago, but now we talk about today.

I went to Pompei and Mt. Vesuvius, the volcano that like totally destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum like 2000 years ago when it exploded on them! Those cities got totally wasted! Like so much that they didn't even get like discovered until 500 years ago and not excavated until the 18th century!

Of course getting there was not as easy as I would have liked.

You should all be happy to know that I broke down and got some cash out of my credit card this morning (200 Euro, as, if things go properly, I will be leaving Italy in a day anyway and I will be receiving my cash card in the mail as well). This felt much better, although it took checking out 5-6 banks until I found one that would do a cash advance. The teller girl looked totally annoyed and flustered by the task of advancing cash, which I could understand, as when I was a bank teller I found this to be one of the hardest and my time consuming of activities. And I always looked at the customer suspiciously: "This person is so desperate for cash that he is taking money out of his credit card? Eeek!" But I did NOT appreciate her attitude. The tellers at all the other banks (that were unable to perform the cash advance) were friendly, but this one was super mean and cold!)

[Deleted long and unnecessary rant about Italy, mostly in light of how friendly and helpful the people working at last night's bed and breakfast have been. There is a lot about Italy I don't like, but I feel bad insulting it considering some of the very excellent Italians I have met.]

Oh yeah, Pompeii and Vesuvius' crater.

Beautiful. Really. Saw the crater, steam coming out of it.

Saw the buried and now uncovered city. Amazing. Sun was setting against the ancient columns. Saw the oldest freestanding amphitheatre (from something or another B.C.)

I'm sorry. Paragraphs of complaint about Italy and then 2 lines about some of the world's most famous sights. I'm just a bit exhausted right now, and you can read anything you want about Pompeii in a history book. Or on Wikipedia.

Got back safely to Naples, pushed my tired legs through the streets to a Pizzeria that (according to Let's Go Europe), Bill Clinton once attended. It was delicious. I was so starved from the day of walking up the volcano that I drank a whole Coke and a beer WITH the whole pizza.

Yum.

I like Italy, really! Just certain things about it really get on my nerves. There is no reason for it to be so inefficient. Inefficient is not charming. If I have to spend 2 hours getting money, that means that much less time looking at a Duomo...