Rome - As a train service, the Circumvesuviana from Naples to Sorrento is pretty lousy. Most of the line is single-track, so a small delay can quickly lead to cancellations and overcrowding - and this is an important commuter service. The carriages - basically sheds on wheels - look and feel as though they have been in service since the line opened in 1949. But apart from the occasional frustration when filthy windows obscure fine views, the Circumvesuviana is the best little train ride in Europe.
The narrow-gauge line wins my vote partly for the panoramas during its 30-mile arcs around the western coastline of Italy, looking out to Capri and across the Tyrrhenian sea, but mostly for the calling points serving a succession of wonders. The journey starts, unpromisingly, underground at Porta Nolana station in Naples. In this profoundly religious city it would be a sin to leave without exploring the crumple of hills and mosaic of neighbourhoods that makes up Italy's third city (after Rome and Milan). Naples is a city of miracles, major and minor.
Spirituality takes two-dimensional shape with Caravaggio's tortured Seven Acts of Mercy in the Pio Monte della Misericordia, and three dimensions with Guiseppe Sanmartino's Cristo Velato in the Cappella Sansevero - the veiled body of Christ after he was removed from the cross.
Smaller wonders are equally rewarding: the shrine to ex-Napoli player Diego Maradona in the Bar Nilo, and the Pizzeria Di Matteo at Via dei Tribunali 94, easily identifiable from the queue of eager diners.
See Naples, and then dive below ground to take the next train. You will travel from the core of the Greek “new city” (Neapolis) into the heart of Roman “happy land” (campania felix) - which, two millennia ago, the rich transformed into their place in the sun. Unhappily, they created their luxurious villas in the shadow of Vesuvius, volcanic pressure valve for the tectonic collision between Eurasia and Africa. On 24 August AD79, an eruption smothered Pompeii into immortality with a 10ft-deep blanket of ash and pumice, and drowned Herculaneum in a high-velocity surge of mud. Tens of thousands perished, yet the minutiae of their lives is frozen in astonishing detail. The excavated sites (scavi) each get their own stations - as does the vividly preserved Villa Oplontis, a few minutes walk from Torre Annunziata.
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Continue to the end of the line, carried by crazy viaducts across the deep gashes in the coastline. Hop briefly off at Seiano station, which clings to a viaduct above a gorge and has a vertiginous platform that requires you to suspend disbelief. Ten minutes later, you emerge at Sorrento, a 21st-century happy land with fine hotels, restaurants and gelateria in abundance - together with a fast ferry back to Naples, for another perspective on one of Europe's greatest glories.
Travel essentials
From Capodichino airport, the Alibus airport shuttle runs to Napoli Centrale station, where you can board the Circumvesuviana.
An English-language website at bit. Ly/Circum gives fares and times for the Circumvesuviana.
In Naples, Simon Calder stayed in the B&B del Corso at Corso Garibaldi 340 (00 39 081 204 087; bnbnapoli.it); doubles from €49 (about R900), with breakfast.
In Sorrento, the Hotel Linda at Via degli Aranci 125 (hotellinda.it) has double rooms from €60 (breakfast an extra €5 per person). For more background, see Simon Calder's story on Pompeii and Herculaneum at bit. Ly/PompHerc.
The Independent