Med Trip - May 31

We left at 7:15 for what we thought was a half day tour of Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius. It was a beautiful, hot day. We were picked up by taxi at the end of our staired walkway and driven to the pick up location in Sorrento. Turned the tour was actually a full day tour. Not bad for 47 euros. We had a nice tour bus and first drove ip Mount Vesuvius, Vesuvio as it is known here. There was a long walk up to get from the parking lot to the rim of the crater at the top. (Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, covering the city of Pompeii in over 7 metres of ash. There was also a crater for Mt. Montezuma, which erupted some years later.). It was wonderful. There were great views of Napoli, Naples, and Sorrento across the water from Napoli. The crater was very large, and you could see vents with steam wafting out. Napoli residents living within 10 kilometres of the crater, a good chunk of Napoli, may receive 3 days warning if an eruption is expected. Unfortunately, the roads around this area are so narrow and slow, it is doubtful all the residents could get away within 3 days. After a few hours on the mountain, we drove down to Pompeii, at the base of the mountain, and had lunch. Though we had to pay ourselves, 14 euros, we had reserved seats, a selection of items to choose from, our choice of beverage, and ice cream. It was well organized and went smoothly. There were about 40 people on our tour. From the restaurant we walked a few blocks to the Pompeii excavation site and spent over two hours getting a tour of the site. The area is huge, over 60 acres. There were many, many blocks, complete with original old Roman streets. While entire structures were not found due to the destruction by the ash, there were partial walks and complete walls on most lots. There was a theatre, a street with shop stalls, several brothels, one with erotic scenes painted on the walls still visible, a forum area, etc. It was very impressive. Of course what everyone wanted to see were some plastercized people caught at the moment of their death. The ash fell and fleeing residents, and animals, were covered in the ash, suffocating from the gases, their remains preserved by the ash. A few hundred years ago, someone found a way of plastercizing the bodies to preserve them. There were 3 on display, others are in museums, etc. The tour was great. We returned to Sorrento at about 5:30, and we abandoned our plan to explore Sorrento and eat dinner there. We were all bagged and looking forward to getting back to Positano so we went right to the bus depot and were back in Positano at 7 PM. We stopped for dinner at a restaurant along our walk back, one we ate at a few days earlier. We ended a long day with showers and packing.


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