Today we woke up early and grabbed some delicous croissants for breakfast -again, negotiated in Italian. We met our private driver at 7:30am. We BLEW down the highway, south towards Pompeii. We saw the Italian Alps, which were beautiful.
Then we arrived in Pompeii and met our private tour guide, Nello.
Adam is using an ancient crosswalk (so their feet didn't get mucky from the sewage water running down the town streets, down the hill).
I love the images of Mount Vesuvius looming in the distance. It's amazing to believe that this is still an active volcano and could bury the town as it did thousands of years ago. Here it is overlooking the Temple of Apollo.
So many artifacts have been discovered from 2,000 years ago!
The casts of all the bodies uncovered are so eerie and sad. Notice how they're often covering their mouths and noses. The ashes are what killed many Pompeii residents.
This was one of the public baths in Pompeii. It's amazing to me how modern their technology was 2,000 years ago. They had sewers, plumbing, heated baths, theaters, tickets, shops, markets, palaces, etc. It's difficult to fathom 2,000 years ago when comparing it to U.S. history!
The public theater... I cannot imagine excavating this... how many years that must've taken!
Next, we tried to drive to Sorrento, but got caught in holiday traffic. So, we hopped a train. We went through Naples, which was questionable, at best. It took us about 30 minutes to get to Sorrento. We ate lunch at a restaurant set up by Nello and had five-star service. He had a table all reserved for us and food ready to eat! This was Adam's favorite meal.
Then we shopped in a street market down an alley.
Just as we hopped in our van we looked over a railing right in town and saw the Deep Valley of the Mills. The photo cannot even do it justice. It looked as deep as the Grand Canyon, right in the middle of a flat town! If we didn't look down, we would've missed it!
We drove down the Amalfi Coast as the sky clouded up. It was a beautiful and nauseating drive!! Very winding roads right on the edge of land with steep cliffs to the ocean, taken at top speeds. We stopped at a lookout to see Positano and buy souvenirs.
We then headed back to Rome, and got stuck in traffic for three hours, unmoving. We nearly saw a brawl between two Italians, and one bullied the police into letting traffic through. Seems the police do not have much authority in Italy! After finally moving, we drove two more hours and got back around 10:15pm. Super LOOOONNNGGGG day. But, well worth it. That night we had dinner late at an outdoor pizza place under a tent. It was delicious! We were exhausted and had another big day ahead of us!
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