We have moved on to Naples, where we have a private tour. Naples
is one of the oldest cities in the world. Naples is the third largest city in
Italy. It has a population of about 3 million. There are both Greek and roman
ruins here. We first drove out to Sorrento. It is a very picturesque village
high up on cliffs although it was quite a bus ride to get there. In this part
of Italy they grow a lot of lemons and produce a liquor called Limoncello. It
is very good and of course we bought a bottle. We spent the morning walking
through the town. It was great.
For lunch we went to a 5 star hotel right on the cliff
overlooking the water. We started with a glass of champagne, followed by the
first course of cannoli stuffed with ricotta and spinach. Each table had a
bottle of wine and a bottle of water. The main course was chicken with
mozzarella and vegetables. And, we had dessert. It was very good.
The final stop was Pompeii. This was fabulous. We have seen
many ruins, but this was different, in that this was because of a volcano in 79
AD. The Earthquake occurred at 1 PM with the collapse of the crater and big plume
of black smoke. The residents ran into their houses to pray. The gas is what
killed them and the ash followed that. Following this was a 400 foot wave of
black hot mud that came out of the volcano. This flowed down to the city of
Herculaneum. The upper class Romans built their beautiful villas and maintained
luxurious properties in Herculaneum, most of them overlooking the sea.
Our guide was very good and told us a lot of great stories.
One was about when they were under a king. When someone got married, he would
host the wedding at his castle. For this he had the “right of the first night”,
which is where one of our words comes from. On the door would be the sign fornication
under consent of the king. She also told us about the
olive oil and the terms for the different types of olive oil. Once they have
drained the oil after pressing the olives it is inspected for acidity. The less
acid is extra virgin, the next is virgin and the other is olive oil. If you buy
extra virgin in a clear bottle, it will soon be plain olive oil.
Pompeii was very interesting. We saw each of the different
type of rooms they had in this town. Again, you could spend a very lot of time
here. We saw a typical house, the spa, the brothel, the auditorium and the
forum.
1 – Church across from the port
2 – Castle of the King I spoke of
3-7 View on way to Sorrento
8 – Alter in rock along the road
9-16 Sorrento
17-21 Hotel Parco dei Principi where we had lunch
22 – Mt. Vesuvius
23-26 Entrance to Pompeii
27-30 Theater that sat 20,000; Doors are where the gladiators
dressed
31 – Sculpture
32 – Stepping stone to cross the street; they did not have
the plumbing that they had in Ephesus so everything that was not recycled ended
up in the street. The stones were to allow you to cross. The were spaced so the
cart wheels could fit between them.
33 – Street
34-37 – House; roped off area is where they had the cistern;
those are the actual mosaics; garden
38 – Street
39 – A person who died here. Not a mummy, but they filled
the bodies with plaster.
40-43 Brothel; ceiling, bedroom, murals that they used to
pick what they wanted. Our guide compared it to Basken Robbins – you may not
all speak the same language but you can point to what you want.
44 – Fountain
45-46 Forum
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