Heading South to Sorrento & Pompeii

We wrote this two days ago but due to lack of internet availability we haven’t posted it till now…

Yesterday we continued south to the Bay of Napals. We left Rome at the regular time – seriously no rest on this trip (I’m sure your hearts are all bleeding for us) and hit the autostrada for a few hours till we started hitting the coastal areas.

 As we hit the bay of Naples, we steadily climbed around some windy cliffs which looked down on some of the most expensive (and somewhat average looking) beaches in Italy. I say average looking but I guess the concept of paying to sit on a beach seems a bit outrageous to me, especially when it’s a stony one – but I guess the Italians (and apparently the Germans) see it differently and at 25 euro a day they are welcome too.

Anyway, despite what I thought of the beaches the area really was quite stunning. Old buildings and hotels say on the cliff side and there funny we olive groves creeping between them. Many of the owners don’t even pick the olives, rather the spread nets out underneath them. That way when they fall from the tree the bounce down the nets to a pocket at the bottom of the hill.

We got into Sorrento at about mid-day and had the afternoon to spend looking around the little village most of which stretched along a single street going in both directions from a Square in the middle. Parallel to the main street was a little alcove full of little shops selling gelato, leather belts, ceramics and other souvenirish things. The area is quite famous for its large lemons, which grow to the size of grapefruits and are used in a spirit called limoncello – which apparently was mixed with their other local liquor call grappa and used as fuel for the original moon landing… I joke but boy that stuff was strong. We had a nice time exploring the streets and finding little court yards that looked out over the coastal cliffs.  That evening we had a nice dinner back at the hotel with pasta, free fish and salad accompanied by some local wines.

Today was an interesting day to say the least. Overnight our coach has been struck by a viral stomach bug, so a few people were looking rather green today – everyone is being very cautious with hand washing as it really looks nasty and we are driving considerable distances most days, so not fun. It’s a bit of a shame really because this morning we did one of the tour highlights, we visited Pompeii. This once bustling (and rather sleezy) Roman city was established in 7BC and then buried in 25ft of volcanic debris from  Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. Excavation started there around the 1800’s and continues today. I’m not ashamed to say that I was rather interested in the place after watching a Pink Floyd concert that they played in the amphitheater there in 1972.

The tour was pretty good, the guide wasn't the best and his English was a little hard to understand but we got to see some really amazing stuff including the remains of a Roman bathhouse which contained plaster molds of bodies that had been preserved over the last 2000 years. I say the bodies had been preserved but they weren't, the volcanic rock covered the bodies and solidified quickly enough that when they eventually decayed a cavity was left in the shape of a body. In the mounds you could very clearly see the shape of the clothes that they were wearing. 

In the red light district they took us through a few ancient brothels where they had excavated preserved artwork on the walls which detailed the various services that were provided in the establishment. The city also had remnants of ancient graffiti which helps local historians understand what went on there.