Christmas is the season of goodwill and kindness to our fellow man.
Random acts of kindness are even more important and appreciated when travelling. The patience of the restaurant waiter who takes pains to explain a menu written in a language you don’t understand, the kind grandmother in our compartment who smiles and nods continuously while offering our teenage sons lollies during our three hour train journey, the hospitality of the owner of our apartment who takes us for coffee to explain the area where we are living in, things that we “must do”, the buses to take and those to avoid, and the intricacies of traversing the city are the things which demonstrate the goodwill and kindness of everyday people.
We were driving south from Rome. Our ultimate destination was Sicily, but we were taking our time getting there.
The ruins of Pompeii are captivating. Having wandered through them a few years before as part of a group, we were keen to visit again to see more of it. For the record, it was not a disappointment going back for more in-depth look. In fact, we realised that we had only skimmed through the first time.
Before, we got to Pompeii however, we had plans to stop and have a look at the smaller, less visited but better preserved UNESCO World Heritage site, Herculaneum in which the town of Ercolano now stands.
Our trusty TomTom which we take with us whenever we self-drive did a good job of making sure we took the right turn off. It had trouble, however, recognising “Herculaneum”. With no signage directing us to the ruins visible, we played a guessing game resulting in driving up and down the main street a couple of times entering from different ends after circumnavigating the central town area.
The main street of Ercolano
Ending up on a dead end street we decided to do the sensible thing of stopping to ask directions. A group of men are having a lively and animated discussion outside a cafe. They are gesticulating at each other. Fisticuffs are about to break out! We decide to distract them. In our limited Italian we asked the way to the “scarvi” (it means excavations In Italian).
They all looked at each other. We know what they were thinking “How to explain?”. Obviously we were nowhere near where we were supposed to be!
They looked at each other again and had another animated discussion between themselves, some smiling and some laughing. It looked like they had come up with a solution. Their argument is forgotten.
Two men directed us back into our car, put their motorbike helmets on and summoned us to follow. These two men guided us through the streets to the site of the ruins, directing us to where the entrance was before leading us into the public car park, ensuring we knew how and where to pay and then disappearing like genies before we had an opportunity to thank or give them a token of our appreciation.
Left to our own devices, it would be safe to assume that we would have given up our search for Herculaneum and missed out on spending a wonderful couple of hours wandering through this ancient city. Excavations have unearthed better preserved buildings and artefacts than Pompeii giving visitors a better idea of how life was lived in Roman times.
That evening He discovers that his watch keeps falling off his wrist. The watchband needs a replacement pin. Next morning we wander into a jewellery shop close to the Pompeii ruins. Using sign language we indicate the problem. The older gent takes a while. Hello. How much is this going to cost? We have heard of unscrupulous locals who take advantage of travellers. He hammers away with a little hammer. I hope he hasn’t broken the watch. Then he walks over from his workbench smiling. There you go! It’s all fixed. How much? No charge. Come on, He is happy to pay. No, you are visitors to our country! It’s our duty to be hospitable. Enjoy your travels!
These are all small gestures which allows us to see the good in all the people we meet, appreciate and fall in love with travel.
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