Day 25: Pompeii, Italy

Rose at 9am and after eating a fantastic breakfast in the hotel’s beautiful breakfast room we set off for Pompeii.

What a great day this was! At its end we were exhausted from walking kilometers around Pompeii but it was worth every aching muscle.

We were not prepared for how large Pompeii was nor how well preserved it was or how advanced they were as a civilization. We were told that every part of Pompeii that had been filled with volcanic ash (some 8-12 feet) was preserved while the rest was blown away by the pyroclastic cloud that engulfed the city.

We hired a private tour guide who took us on a 2 hour excursion around the city and was passionate to teach us about the culture and people of they day. They were people who for their day were wealthy, lived for the day and wanted the best of everything. We were shown the underground sewer system, how they transferred fresh water all around the city trough lead pipes and pumped it up into the second floor of buildings via terracotta pipes. There were streets for selling everything and each was clearly marked via frescos and sculptures on buildings.
We were able to wander in many homes that were remarkably well preserved and saw many painted walls, fountains, baths, shops, ceramic entrances, some sculptures and bronze statues.

Left at closing and ate dinner at the diner just outside the gates and then headed in the dark back to Sorrento. On the way back we had the scare of our life in a narrow tunnel we were met by 3 motorbike riders riding abreast of each other and overtaking a car right in front of us and in the wrong side of the road. We just missed them – Holy Cow!!!