O, Napoli!

Firstly, I want to apologize for forgetting my blog title mechanism…I forgot I was doing this in parts, and if any of you know me, you know that when I realized I had forgotten that for the last few titles, it really bothered me. Unfortunately I cannot change it now, and so enough with the parts and on to Naples!
We started the morning by being ready for our excursion today by 7:15am! Yay. Our tour started with a bus ride through Naples, and around Mount Vesuvius to the ruins of Pompeii. First our guide led us through a cameo factory where we got to see an artist in progress (fascinating!), and then got to look through their very extensive showroom. Like the Murano glass showroom, there was some beautiful jewelry, furniture, and other pieces of art, but they were quite over priced. Still nice to look though! So from there, we walked across the street (after getting our complimentary bottle of water…ooh!) to the old original entrance of the ruins of Pompeii. I really am not sure how to go about explaining this place, but it was really fascinating to see the things that had been preserved underneath 8 meters of ash after the massive eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the 1600s (our guide had an intense accent, we never could hear the actual date. Google it if you want to know). We got to see some old Roman temples, a house that had been preserved miraculously, the fish market, some shops, the city square, the whore house (complete with frescos above the doors letting customers know what they could expect in each room) and sadly some of the mummified remains of some of the victims. There were lots of things the people of Pompeii had in their city that were very advanced and it was really cool to see all that stuff.
So from there, we got back on our bus and traveled south along the beautiful Amalfi coast to the town of Salerno – the views on the way there were just breath-taking, and I would say probably some of the best in the world (at least the part of it that I’ve seen). From there we boarded a boat and had a nice relaxing cruise along the coastline to see all the little towns that dot the Amalfi coast. The architecture in this region is mind-blowing, with homes built right into the rocks of the cliffs, highways zig-zagging back and forth, tunnels going through mountain sides, and massive arches supporting tight curves overlooking nothing but the sea below. Sort of scary if you don’t know what you’re doing! Our boat ride was about a 45 minute trip to the town of Amalfi, where we docked and had some free time to roam the streets. Or should I say street, since there was really only one main street and one church. We didn’t do too much touring since we will be returning there in a few more days. We relaxed at a café and had a taste of some local limoncello (so strong!!) and a delicious margherita pizza, and then got back on the boat to head back to Salerno, and then back on the bus to go back to the ship.

We left Naples at around 6pm and are cruising (big time speed tonight) back to Civitavecchia and will dock at around 5am. The DiMantova’s are debarking at 7am to do a guided tour of Rome and the Vatican, so it promises to be lots of fun and very tiring! Big hugs for everyone, will write more as soon as we get someplace with cheap internet!