Italian Holiday :: Day 8 :: Naples (Cruise)

This morning, we had a lovely lazy sleep-in with breakfast in bed.  We had ordered our Australian newspaper to be delivered each morning, when we first arrived on board, although for some reason we couldn't get the Herald Sun, only The Age.  So, we sat in bed eating croissants and drinking cuppas whilst catching up on a bit of news from home.

At 11:15, the ship docked in Naples and we met Shane & Zoe in the Sports Bar, where we joined about ten other people to go on a bus trip through Naples, past Mt Vesuvius to Pompeii and then to Sorrento.

Shane is on the right and Zoe next to him, talking with our guide.

Pompeii was amazing!  A whole city of 20,000 which was covered by a 5m layer of ash in one day when the Mt Vesuvius volcano erupted in 79AD.  Most of the inhabitants had a day's warning and evacuated, but some chose not to for some reason and about 2,000 were killed by the toxic cloud in 1-1/2 to 2 minutes, before they were covered in the ash.

The archeologists who uncovered the city were able to recover the bodies by filling the cavity where the ash had hardened around them with liquid plaster and making a mold of their shape.

There were models of a man ...

Thus, rather than remains of skeletons, there are models of the full bodies of the victims on display.

... a pregnant woman ...

... and a young boy (approximately 16 yo),
who died in a fetal position with
his hands covering his nose and mouth. 

... the temple of Apollo, the Greek god of the sun and music,
where there is a sun dial (on top of the white pillar) ...

We also saw lots of different buildings of this ancient city, which has been preserved by the layer of ash over the centuries ...

... some of the streets were for one-way traffic only as they were
not wide enough to handle two chariots and the direction
of traffic was indicated by a picture of a goat on the wall,
with its head pointing which way to drive ...

... a bath house with rooms for cool, warm and hot baths,
which the patrons would process through in order,
and then return to the cool bath before leaving ...

... a bakery with oven and flour mills ...

... water fountains in the streets with
different pictures on them, to help
the inhabitants locate themselves
in the city (I think the tap may have
been added later!) ...

... and a brothel with a sign of a penis.

After a couple of hours of winding through this fantastic archeological site, we went to a nearby restaurant for lunch and met with a lovely couple of ladies on our tour - Brenda & Mary - who were from the Isle of Man, near England.  They were able to tell us all about the major motorcycle grand prix which is held every May on their island, which was extremely interesting, especially for Shane & Wayne.  They, and many other residents on the island, let their homes as B&Bs to guests during the time, as there are over 20,000 visitors during the two weeks of the race.



After lunch, we reboarded our bus and travelled to the seaside town of Sorrento, where we had an hour or so of free time to explore and shop.

Zoe & I bought some gorgeous leather bags, and we saw some beautiful inlaid wood pieces, clocks, tables, musical boxes and much more.  We looked through clothes shops and ate delicious ice cream cones and had a really fun time.


Just after 5:00pm, we gathered again and climbed on the bus for our trip back to the ship.  I had a light tea in the Yacht Club buffet, while Wayne and I checked our emails and uploaded our photos to the computer, then we met Zoe & Shane for a drink in the Manhattan Bar for a drink.

At 9:00, I went off to bed while the others went to dinner.  I was way too exhausted for that!