NAPLES, POMPEI, SORRENTO

Day 72

Naples, Napoli's to the Romans!

We fought the Italian train system and finally arrived in Naples after the Italian wait of an hour because the train broke down :-) Oh and also got scammed by a new idea...a distraught women came knocking on the train window, °need change, can't change my 100 Euros!' She then came INTO the train..and just as we were almost conned..a lady beside us said it was a game. And it was, later on, she was back..when she thought we'd gone (but didn't cos the train was delayed) she was back with the same distresing story!!! We've become accustomed to this, beggars and scammers with all their ploys, and weirdly, we've now become, as others have also, immune to it!

Afer having a 'free breakfast' of panini neopolata (don't know why they said we could have it free...) And decided we'd go from Naples straight to Pompei to see the RUINS. Then to Sorrento...And come back to Naples by night. Good thing we did..

Pompei needed a whole day....what an amazing city. It's the old city that was destroyed by the volcano Vesuvious in 79AD. Apparently there had been an earthquake that destroyed some of the buildings earlier in 62AD but this later volcanic eruption actually destroyed the city!

Which is good for us..because when it got uncovered we could actually see what the old Roman city looked like. The rulers always seem to bole over cites when they came into rule so if this had not been covered by the volcano lava and ash, it would have been destroyed like the others and we wouldnàt be able to see anything!

There were even plaster casts of people from the time that got uncovered. (this is where the first plaster casts were made, by mistake, but thatàs how a lot of stuff is discovered anyway!).

So old. And so big. There were 45 hectares that have been opened to the public and we walked the lot!!!! (yes, 'the bloody foot' is holding up thanks!).

We also realised why we were getting things free ie free entry to monuments etc...It's CULTURAL WEEK in Italy. So all entries are free for a week. Cool. I wonder if it extends to Sicilly, where we will be next week!

Gelato at the end of our Pompei visit was very deserving. One thing is, in Italy, we're not faced with all the skinny jeaned bums....we feel like the skinny ones here!! :-) So! We can eat! Eat! EAT! BELLISIMO! (And would regardless! The FOOD here is divine!)

SORRENTO

We then went to beautiful Sorrento!

Lemons abound. Coastline beckons. Tulips peek out. Olive groves scatter the surrounds..

And what a gorgeous place is Sorrento!....The coast line (amalfi coast) is equisite. Our timing was impeccable. We managed to catch a hop on hop off bus as soon as we arrived at the beach (where we headed first) and off we went! To the music off, 'i want to return to sorrento' on the headphones!

We saw the island of Capri from the distance. Love to go there! Next time!

We found a gorgeous cafe after and ate biscotti and drank espresso....

NAPLES

And arrived in Naples at night...

Saw the castel....and the old smelly streets which we were told the Mafia rule...and the very cheap clothing shops...the hawkers..

Ate pizza....

And crawled into bed way after midnight....

Thinking i was a magical day! Especially Sorrento...where we could easily return for a holiday.....

I LOVE ROMA and its wonderful neibouring cities!