This is our 4th day in Rome. We have already been through three days of grueling, exhausting visits to all the exciting places that, this museum of a city, Rome offers. When we booked the tour, they told us we leave at 7.30 am. We thought that was early, but we could manage. After 3 days of Rome, 7.30 am sounded like midnight. The lady at the tour company told us yesterday that they will pick us up at the hotel at 6.15 am. I was like, are you out of your mind ? No, I did not actually say that. Breaking the news to the girls was a very carefully planned maneuver.

Well, here we are at 7.15 am sitting in the tour bus, yes we are all sitting together, waiting for the adventure to begin…..

Our host / captain for the day, Kristina, is a short Greek looking, middle aged woman, who speaks English, Italian, Spanish very fluently, but all in the same accent. Very difficult to figure out when she switches languages.

The drive was very comfortable. The highway system in Italy seems quite good. Well laid out roads and excellent rest areas along the way. People are quite disciplined on the road, slower vehicles (like our extra long tour bus) in the right lane and the faster (and much smaller cars) to the left.

Our first stop at 9 am  is a quick breakfast / restroom break at a small town called Pontecorvo. Had a nice cup of Americano Kaffe to wake me up.

As we left Pontecorvo, the guide walked us through the plan for the day. Sounds very exciting – city of scenic Naples, drive by Mt Vesuvius and then onto the ruins of Pompei.

As we drive south on E45, the mountains of Apennine are on both sides of the highway. Up in the mountains  was the Cassino, which was like a fort or a castle. This was very strategic site during the Second World War, was completely destroyed by the Allied ( Battles of Monte Cassino) due to several reasons, strategic importance militarily and also this was a religious site. Managed to capture a picture of the Cassino as we continued our drive.

We soon start to see signs of approaching a large city, perhaps Naples. We get a view of the Mt. Vesuvius, “mountain that spits fire” (the 3rd most active volcano in the world).

Our first stop is Naples, which is the 3rd largest city in Italy after Rome and Milan. It is in southern Italy and has a population of 1.5 M. It is a coastal city located on the shores of Tyrrhenian Sea about 2 hours south of Rome. Adriatic Sea and Ionian Sea are the other two seas that surround the southern Italy. Naples was discovered by Greek sailors (Naples is New Port in Greek). Naples was the capital of the kingdom before Italy was born. Italy was born in 1861.

It is now about 10.45 am as we enter the city of Naples. We are joined by our guide, a sprightly, energetic older gentleman in his mid sixties. He brought a lot of energy to the group, pretty much woke up everyone from their slumber. The tour of Naples is now underway. Our guide is firing away about the history of Naples, facts, stats, too fast for our still tired and numb minds to fully absorb (remember we have drinking history from the proverbial firehouse for 3 days now). Here are some facts that I could absorb;
– Naples was discovered by Greek  sailors (Naples is “New Port” in Greek).
– Naples was the capital of the kingdom before Italy was born. Italy was born in 1861.
– University of Naples is over 800 years old.
– The opera house in Napoli is the oldest in the world, built in 1737. Being refurbished now.

After snaking our way through the city of Naples, getting a quick glimpse at historic buildings, monuments and fountains. We are now off to Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii. Naples is a very pretty coastal city, lot of history and beautiful sights.

The road from Naples to Pompei (about 18 miles) is one of the oldest highways in Europe.

The New town of Pompei originated in 1879. It has a population of 55K. The original settlements of Pompei were wiped out when Mt.Vesuvius erupted. People in Pompei died not because of the Lava, but from the poisonous gases from the eruption. The city then got buried by the lava.

We arrive in Pompei at 1.15 pm after a commercial stop at a factory that produces precious items carved shells – cameos (again, a lot of history behind this)

Lunch was a very typical, traditional Italian spread – Pizza, Pasta, Caprice and desert.

After lunch and some shopping in the shops on the street, we are back on the bus heading to the famous ruins of Pompei.

What we began to see as we walked into the ruins was amazing. I had no idea of the magnitude of these ruins. I had expected that there may be a few houses and some pottery etc that were found. What we saw was incredible. It was an entire city that was found. This included homes, streets, palaces, markets, brothels, spas, water fountains, and yes, pottery as well. The entire city of Pompei, about 4-5 sq miles was buried under the lava from Mt Vesuvius in the year 79 AD. The population of the city was about 25,000 at that time. The archeologists found about 1,100 bodies in a mummified state, they 2-3 of them on display. It was chilling !! The guide described the eruption as having the power of 7 atomic bombs, lava that shot up 15,000 ft in the air (in 160 sec) and spread out over 7 miles flowing all the way to the ocean.

We walked through the ruins for about 2 hours, looking inside homes, a spa and a brothel as well. The brothel was frequented by sailors who came to Pompei. The spa was quite elaborate as well. Left us wondering how did they build all of this so many years ago, marble / mosaic flooring, paintings on walls in bright colors etc. How did all of this survive the big event and how was all of this found and restored so immaculately.  The realization that we were not walking through a museum where some pots and pans were being displayed, but actually walking through an entire city from so many years ago, was just incredible. Needs to be seen and experienced.

After the tour, we had time for some refreshments and of course, souvenirs. We started our ride back to Rome at around 5.30 pm. After a 30 min refreshment break, we arrived in Rome at 8.30 pm. We will now get some dinner and head back to the hotel.

An amazing tour comes to an end. Lovely Naples and amazing Pompei!!

Ciao