Pompeii detour

A group of students from Hillsdale were in Rome last week. Dr. Jones, one of Eric's undergrad professors, and his wife Sally, were leading the bunch around. We were invited to join them on their trip to Pompeii. Perfect, we thought. The bus is faster, less stressful, and a way to see the highways that we miss on the train.

Unfortunately, the bus was hit in the back by an gentleman from the US Navy, who was stationed at the NATO base in Naples. We were 15 minutes from Pompeii. Apparently this was this serviceman's third car accident, so his superiors insisted he have his vehicle towed to the base, and NOT say anything. Well, that's fine. Except, no reports could be comleted without his input, meaning we sat pretty on the highway for hours.

To make matters more humourous, our serviceman didn't speak ANY Italian, and our bus driver, the police, the towers, and the insurance claim workers, didn't speak ANY English. Quite a funny dance of gestures was witnessed through the bus window.

One extra note, a policeman stepped onto the bus and waved the US Navyman's badge around in front of us, as if to say, "don't go blaming Italians for this mess." Okay fine, but that doesn't explain the 12 people we saw in uniform leaning against the guardrail while only 3 men were actually involved in getting us off of the highway. That does seem to be a completely other form of mess--and it is straight Italian.

We did manage to make the rest of the journey to Pompeii safely. And with 2 hours of daylight.