Saturday, March 19, 2011

 Awake at 5:00am to catch #910 bus to Stazione Termini for our tour to Naples and Pompeii. The hour was especially difficult as I'd kept myself awake for all but a couple of hours coughing. Blasted cold. But we made it with time to spare for a breakfast at a little bar near the bus: sweet roll for each, espresso for me and latte (order a latte here and you get milk only, no coffee) for Tenar.

We settled ourselves on the bus and in about 2.5 hours were in Naples, where we had an hour guided tour given by Victorio, who could speak English, German, Spanish, and of course, Italian. We saw the outside of Castel Nuovo, as well as a large galleria covered with a glass dome, and the public square outside of what used to be a palace and is now a museum. All nice and interesting, and I must admit I was most taken by how the outside walls of the high-rise apartment buildings were undulating wih all the laundry drying in the breeze.






Mt. Vesuvius

We were carefully counted as we got back on the bus. Finding all present, we departed for Pompeii, on the other side of Mt. Vesuvius. 

We stopped outside the walls of Pompeii in the tourist-centric square containing a large hotel, street vendors and small shops where they sell cameos and local limomcello (liquor), coral and the usual tourist tacky souvenirs.





Giant Lemons





The first thing I noticed was a hanging string of enormous lemons, as big as grapefruit, or bigger. Perhaps these are the special lemons to make the limoncello?





Cameo carver (or was he just pretending?)



We were led on a short tour of the hotel shops containing the real deal in coral and cameos. The cameos were lovely, carved from shells.











This was followed by a three course lunch at the hotel.



Street in Pompeii



 Finally we were led into the excavated Pompeii. What a fascinating place. More than a place, a town. We saw remnants of homes, shops, bars, restaurants and whorehouses The population was 22,000 when the volcano erupted and they had three whorehouses. Seems excessive, but what do I know? Out of the population of 22,000, 2,000 were killed, buried in the ash of Vesuvius. Why did they not get out? I guess we'll never know, except for the poor dog who was chained to a post and forgotten. And interesting is that over the years more people died from lead poisoning than from the volcano. The pipes taking the water into the homes of the wealthy were made of lead. The common people who had to fetch their water from the fresh-water well were much healthier and lived to an older age. Ironic.



We were led back to the tourist section and encouraged to support the local economy. I bought a small bottle of lemomcella in a bottle I thought might make a nice bud vase when empty. Back on the bus, Tenar and I were anxious to get home. Five a.m. had been an awfully long time ago. We arrived back at Stazione Termini at about 8 p.m. and found a little place (1 counter, 2 tables) for a quick slice of pizza, then caught #910 bus back to our apartment. PJs, hot tea and bed. Good Night!