Cruise Day 8 - Pompeii

On Monday, June 20th, we ported in Naples.  This was another port I was very excited about, I have heard many stories about it and it sounded awesome!!!  Naples is the 3rd biggest city in Italy.  It was Europe's capital in 1800.  In 1861, they joined with Italy and they became a lot poorer and the unemployment rate went up.  Many of the citizens were not happy in joining with Italy.

It seemed like everyday it took longer for us to get off the boat, so we decided to sit down this time.

Michael with the pizza guy, Italy - pizza.

Al and Julie in Naples!!!

Our bus wasn't quite there, so this is how we passed our time!

In 1879, Mt Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii which is 170 acres.  It is the most dangerous volcano in Europe and still active.  It is 3,900 feet.  It as 9,000 feet before the eruption and there are over 900,000 people that live around it.  When it erupted, it erupted for three days up in the sky and 7.5 miles deep of lava and ash.

The coastline here is beautiful!

As we were driving, we saw this great ship out in the water!!

This is their monument for people lost in WWI and WWII.

The four of us up on a bluff outside of Naples.

These are called Rooster islands.  They have villas on them that cost 150,000 euros a week or 40,000 euros a day!  I can't even imagine paying that fee!  As you can imagine, it is for the rich and famous.

The Almafi coast is 31 miles long and has 1,700 towns along it.  This road took from 1811-1855 to build.  It reminded us a little of Highway 101 down the west coast of the US, very beautiful and scenic!

More beautiful purple flowers and look at that coast line!!!

Mom and Dad along the coastline!

Check out the houses down there, I didn't see any road that made it all the way down there.  I wouldn't want to haul things up and down that mountain.

We headed to a town called Positano.

I love to see what pictures that the kids take when they have a camera!

And to see what happens in the back of the bus while we are up front listening to the tour guide.  :-)

Check out the steepness and skinnies of these stairs!

After going through some very, very small roads, we parked and headed into town.  It is basically a big tourist town now, but used to be one of the main ports in Southern Italy.

Mom and Dad decided to enjoy a local beer while the rest of us headed down to the bottom of the city.

The beautiful walkway down to the sea, nice shade and pretty to look at!

We finally made it down to the bottom of the town and as you can see it is really, really steep.  You would be in great shape if you had to walk up and down this town everyday.

The cousins on the beach, thought they kept asking why we didn't bring swimsuits so they could go swimming.

Kaitlyn serenading us!!

You can see the volcano behind the mountains.  The Vesuvius volcano did not form overnight, of course. In fact, scholars say that the mountain is hundreds of thousands of years old and had been erupting for generations. In about 1780 B.C., for example, an unusually violent eruption (known today as the “Avellino eruption”) shot millions of tons of superheated lava, ash and rocks about 22 miles into the sky. That prehistoric catastrophe destroyed almost every village, house and farm within 15 miles of the mountain.

After our great walk in Positano, we headed to Sorrento for some lunch!

Uncle David and Kaitlyn having a stare off, guess who won?!?!  Yep, Uncle David.  Though I love Kaitlyn's expression!

Most of us decided to have some pizza and AJ had pizza with French fries on it.  He said it was good!

And look what we found, David's ice cream shop!!!  Unfortunately we were all too full to eat ice cream, so we had to pass.

And I thought the stairs were bad in Positano.

St. Francis of Assisi is the beloved saint in the Catholic church who founded the Franciscan order.  He was known as the patron saint of animals and the environment.  He is also the patron saint of Italy.

Checking out the coastline of Sorrento.

They might not have beaches, but they try and get a place for tourists to be able to lay in the sun.  Me, I would rather find a good beach.

This green truck is called a "Bee."  It is only 50cc and could be driven like a scooter.  They used these all the time in 1970s.  Our guide said it can get up to 25 mph on a straight away.  This was one type of vehicle you were permitted to drive before you received your driver's license.

This tunnel is 5 km, or 3.3 miles, long.  It is the longest tunnel and it took from 1982-2014 to build because they had problems with money.  The government sent them money for it and then the next day it was gone.  They have lots of problems with mafia down there in the south and that is what is rumored happened to the first money.  So it took a lot longer to build, since they had to pay for it twice.

This is a pomegranate tree, which is the symbol of fertility.

The town of Pompeii was only built 90 feet above sea level.  Ever since the ancient Greeks settled in the area in the 8th century B.C., the region around Mount Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples attracted wealthy vacationers who wanted to soak up the sun and the scenery. By the turn of the first century A.D., the town of Pompeii, located about five miles from the mountain, was a flourishing resort for Rome’s most distinguished citizens.

There used to be water coming out of this spout.  There used to be water up to this town.

Here we are heading into the porta marina.

As you look back and think about all the people that came through this entry.  There was a massive earthquake in 63 AD, but that didn't phase the inhabitants.  Pompeii grew more crowded every year.

Sixteen years after that telltale earthquake, in August 79 A.D., Mount Vesuvius erupted again. The blast sent a plume of ashes, pumice and other rocks, and scorching-hot volcanic gases so high into the sky that people could see it for hundreds of miles around.  For three days and two nights dust was brought down on the city.  It was buried by dust not lava.  Most stayed behind and didn't think it was lethal.  But the ash fell, clogged the air, making it difficult to breath.  Then a 100-miles-per-hour surge of superheated poison gas and pulverized rock-poured down the side of the mountain and swallowed everything and everyone in its path.  The dust solidified to rock before the bodies decomposed.

Here you can see the buildings that were left.

The streets were built like donkey back - high in middle so the rain water goes on the side.  There are also white stones you see on the street.  They reflected the oil lamp when someone arrived during the night to show them the way.  I think that is very smart!

Here you can see the how they built the columns.  They started out with bricks and then plaster on it.  There was no marble, just plaster.  There were seven layers of plaster but on them and then the color was put in them.

You can see how high they built the town.

The top of the columns are very decorative, and very well preserved.

This was one of the main squares.

This is the temple of Zeus.  You can see his head in the middle.

When they rediscovered Pompeii in 1748 when a group of explorers looking for ancient artifacts.  They found that Pompeii was exactly as it was.  After they started digging they found holes and realized they were casts of the people, etc that lived there.  They stopped that and started to fill the holes with plaster and get casts as seen here.

As you can see here most of the town was well preserved and they found many articles.

They found small children and dogs as well in the city.  They said they didn't know how many people actually lived there, but they estimated around 20,000 people that lived there and they aren't sure of the number that died.

The exit from the main square.

This is how they could tell what part of the city they were in.  Since this city was so large, these were the street signs.

This was one of the bigger streets.

This is the spa, which means health by water.  They had different sections just like modern spas.  The holes on the left were one for lockers.

The stripes on the ceiling helped with the condensation.

This was a big basin for warm water.  It is like a bottle, they heat it with fire, fills the bath and steams like a sauna.  This basin was paid for by two political men, the words around the basin state their name and how much they paid for it.  It was old time advertising at its best.

The kids taking a little break during our tour.  This is the entrance to the house.  All of the houses are the same.  They have small entrances, little corridor, then atrium, enter of the house and then surrounded by bedrooms.

This was our AWESOME tour guide!!!  She was so informational and I LOVED her attitude!!!  On a side note, she said that during WWII her father was starving and she was 5 years old and they would ask the American soldiers if they could shine their shoes for money.  It was the first chocolate he ever tasted was from and American soldier.

This was the older days fast food restaurant.  They made soups in the holes.  People would either eat standing or take it away.

This is a public fountain.  You can't see it really well, but there is an animal on top of the spicket.  There are 44 fountains around Pompeii.  If you wanted to meet somebody, you would just tell them what animal to meet by.

This is one of the many bakeries that was in the city.  They found 81 loaves of bread carbonized still in the ovens and also jars of fruit when they excavated it.  There were 35 bakeries in Pompeii.

The ruts in the road were worn down by al of the wagons and carts that went through here.  It is amazing to think thousands of years ago, all those vehicles making these ruts.

Here is another fast food restaurant.  They are like McDonald's and Burger King, on every corner.  There were 89 of them in this city.

You can see that they have sidewalks as well that were elevated to keep their feet somewhat dry and clean.

You can tell this is the house of a rich man.  He has the fake shelves up top.

And it has the mosaic at the entrance.

This house being a wealthy one was almost the whole block, about 3,000 meters squared.  Behind these pillars is where the head of the house receives people.  This family would have 20-25 people with slaves.

This is a start to catch rain water for baths and there is a cistern under it.  It would start to get stagnant so they put eels in the water to make it drinkable.

Here you can really see the difference in height from the street to the sidewalk.

The family in front of the house of Zeus!

I thought this was very cool, you can tie your horse up here.  They thought of everything back then!

Another family photo heading out of Pompeii.

Here is a look back at part of it.  We only walked through a very small portion of Pompeii, but it was so amazing to see how well everything was preserved.

Dad was always worried about getting back to the ship before it set sailed, and thankfully we made it yet again!!!  Gabby here is such a great cousin, holding Michael's hand and making sure he is taken care of!!!!

Outside of our ship we saw two different military ships.  It was a long day of touring, but fantastic!!  I could have stayed in the area at least another two or three days checking it out.  But I am glad I was able to get there and have a taste of the area.