We climbed it on 29 September 2016. You drive up through the Vesuvius National Park, and the road alone gives you the Bay of Naples from an angle you don’t expect. From the car park a path goes to the top: half an hour to an hour, depending on your pace. It isn’t a climb, but it’s uphill all the way, on volcanic gravel.
As you go, the vegetation thins out and only rock is left. At the top you look down into the crater: Vesuvius is an active volcano, it has been asleep since 1944, and fumaroles still leak from the walls. Watching steam come out of the ground is the moment you understand where you are.
From up there you see the bay, the Sorrento peninsula and, on a clear day, Capri. And you see Pompeii, small, down below — and what happened there suddenly becomes a matter of distance.
