On another fabulous Roman Day, at 715AM, I picked up Jane and we headed to Piazza Popolo to meet up wit a tour group that was going to take us to Pompei and the infamous volcano of continental Europe Mt. Vesuvius.
It was a long way to Pompei – approximately 3.5 hours with a 30 minute bathroom break and a stragically located casino/gift shop. The ride over was very entertaining. The two guides – Robert from the US and Andy from Australia, were very knowledgeable about the history and art of Italy.One of the highlights of the drive was a view of the Appian way which was dotted by Pine Hat trees. Amazing that is the original road the Romans took and the Pine Hat trees were brought from North Africa to provide shade to the soldiers. As Jane says, I guess many art majors end up being tour guides but great tour guides.
We arrived at Pompei safe and sound and then was met with a local guide – Lucia. The busload of tourists from English speaking countries were separated into the orange and blue group. We were with Lucia in the blue group. She was very very knowledgeable about the area.
What makes Pompei interesting to me, is the size ( you have to go there to see how big the town was ) and the details of what we know what happened because Pliny, a young aristocratic man saw what happened from the distance and documented it. Something I learned - the first eruption was “bad” but not so bad that made the folks from Pompei evacuated. The city was covered in ashes some 5-6 feet high. They know this because bodies were found in between 2 piles of ash. If only folks evacuated after the first eruption. Also, not everyone perished thank god! The second thing I learned was that Vesuvius grew 60 meters from the eruption!
We had a thorough tour of the ruins. When visiting (which I highly recommend) you can see what a beautiful and rich town it must have been. The views were sensational.
After our tour it was time for a Napoli pizza at a restaurant that becomes a disco at night. The pizza was OK but I guess you cannot ask for more when you are on a tour!
After lunch, it was time for us to explore the infamous Mt. Vesuvius. The bus dropped us off near the top, but we still had to huff and puff for about 30 minutes to get up to the top. What made us so lucky, was the sky cleared so we had a great view of the bay of Napoli.
After sweating and then slowly going down the hill so I don’t destroy my already bad knees, it was time for the long drive back. We ended up getting back a little after 830pm and then met Bob and Rick for another wonderful dinner. (I’ll blog just about the food later).
The tour and our tour guides were FANTASTIC. Highly recommend the tour.
Pompei!
Bath House
A victim
Warning Dog in Residence
View of Napoli from Vesuvius
Vesuvius is Alive
Comments