This post is part 17 of a series of stories recounting all the ups and downs of my ~6 year journey around the world to all seven continents and seven seas.
My five-month contract on the Anthem came to an end in July of 2017 and by September I was back at sea on the Freedom.
I was ecstatic with this ship’s Mediterranean itinerary and Barcelona home port.
While I usually make somewhat of an effort to visit the main tourist attraction in each city or country I’m in, sometimes it’s just so anticlimactic that the trouble I have to go through to get there just doesn’t seem worth it.
Such was the case in Naples.
The ruins of Pompeii are one of the main attractions there and having found a cheap bus ticket, I thought, “Why not?”
The long waits, crowded lines, and worst of all, the sight of every tourists’ phones, cameras, and iPads competing to be held up higher than the next, clamoring to capture the exact same picture was frustrating.
I never liked tours or crowds, but I thought it would be worth it to see the area.
Sadly, the payoff just wasn’t there.
Also, there’s nothing worse than a guest recognizing you off the ship and attempting to talk to you.
The likelihood of this happening only increases in popular sightseeing spots.
The following few visits to Naples, all I did was find a hole-in-the-wall shop where I could eat an entire pizza alone in as much silence as possible followed by a trip to my favorite gelateria.
In one of our last times stopping in Naples, however, a couple friends invited me to spend the day with them and we ended up climbing a series of never-ending stairs, higher and higher up the mountain until we found a scenic spot to stop at.
The views were mesmerizing.
While it was still a stop for bus tours, it was much less crowded compared to Pompeii or the Trevi Fountain in Rome.
I couldn’t imagine very many cruise guests willing to make the one or two-hour hike up a steep mountainside that mainly consisted of stairs and that’s all the reassurance I needed to make sure I wouldn’t be running into any people I didn’t want to see in my downtime.
It was a good reminder that sometimes the best views are in places that aren’t the most popular or that take a bit of effort to get to.
It might not be easy, but it could be fun, and it’ll probably be worth it.
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