Like dating at work, some lessons you have (hope) to learn twice. For the second year in a row, I learned why flights are so cheap out of London in January- in January, Europe is closed. Or should I say, chiuso. For $75 round-trip, I flew to Naples last Friday. I should have seen it coming when I boarded a bus from the airport filled with only three, clearly local, other passengers and headed to Sorrento. The last off the bus at the end of the line, I wandered into a ghost town. Lucky for me there was one flea-ridden hotel and one half-baked pizzeria open for business. With a bed and well fed, I hit-up the nightlife- which consisted of seven old men fishing in the harbour. With nothing else to do, I decided to join them and batted my hook with a bottle, or three, of Italy's finest 3 euro wine.

With a shattered head, I boarded a similarly conditioned "jet-boat" on Saturday morning and headed to Capri. Things smelled fishy on arrival when I realised that my dream of cruising the island on a rented scooter would go unrealised and that postcards would be harder to find than another tourist. Capri was closed. Public transport- closed. TI- closed. Hotels, restaurants, everything- closed, closed, closed. So I walked and I walked. Now I'm a walker, and I have to say, I did some serious walking. All the way from the port, to Capri Town, to Anticapri. I walked and walked for hours and hours. Truth be told, I was having a great time- very peaceful and very beautiful. I walked all the way to the entrance of the famous grotta azzurra, which was, you guessed it, closed. On my scan that found only one single soul was within eyesight, I spotted this sign which thwarted my plan.

Deciding not to tempt fate in the second most romantic grotto on earth (the first being Heff's of course), I walked 2 hours back to Anticapri.

Do you ever wonder how postcard photographers get those great shots of mega-tourististy places with no people in them? I did. And now I know, it's because they take them in January.

I came to the harsh realisation around 5 pm that there was absolutely no hope of finding food or accomodations on the island, so I hopped a boat to Naples- oh Naples!

What a shithole. Seriously, I think all travellers should be required to spend at least one night in Naples. With the aroma and beauty of the Port of Tacoma, a night in Naples makes one appreciate every other city in the world. Cheating death, I wandered through the armpit of Italy and picked up a new pair 5 euro Ray-Bonds before calling it a night.

Sunday morning I took a train half an hour outside of Naples into the shadow of the formidable Mount Vesuvius to the ancient ruin of Pompeii. Pompeii is simply amazing- a 2500 year old city nearly as well preserved as Naples. So well persevered is Pompeii that it is easy to envision how the ancient BC folks lived. Perhaps the best preserved building in the whole of the city is the lupanare- the home of the women nicknamed lupe, or she-wolves. A wonder inside the original lupe-house reveals five simple rooms with stone beds and pillows. The faded frescoes above the doors advertised the services offered inside...

An evening bottle of wine on the Sorrento breakfront, a daytime march across the island of Capri, and a morning wander through Pompeii- not bad for a weekend away. Maybe like dating at work, some lessons are worth learning over and over (and over)...