Herculaneum

 Named after Hercules, this is the other city besides Pompeii that was destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. Most people have heard of Pompeii and would plan to visit there to experience this history. We learned that Herculaneum is actually better preserve, but mainly, it was on our route. 

The main difference we learned about the preservation is that, in Pompeii, those who excavated and restored the site used a technique to inject plaster into the places where the skeletons were found. This acted like a mold and the results are more lifelike figures of all the people who perished in Pompeii. Herculaneum did not use this technique. The skeletons are still in their natural state and therefore, provide more scientific history. 

Think about it ... if you visit a cemetery, there may be hundreds of lives represented there, but they are from different places and they died at different times. In Pompeii and Herculaneum, you have thousands of people all killed at the same time. Their remains give us a picture of a moment in time for entire families - the children, parents, grandparents, etc. Scientists studying these sites were able to learn a lot about the culture in 79AD. 

If you're interested in learning more, that means me :-) Here are some links:

• The website for Herculaneum Archaeological park
• Wikipedia page for the Eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD
• A travel site compares Pompeii and Herculaneum for sightseers

The first think you notice at Herculaneum is the depth to which it was buried. In this photo you can see how far down they had to dig to expose the ruins. (that's Mt. Vesuvius in the distance behind the trees at the top right.

We had a nice day on our visit, a bit overcast, but then it wasn't too hot. It was interesting to see Mt. Vesuvius in the background.

After walking down and down the long walkway, the first sight is the rooms full of skeletons. It's hard to imagine the horror.

Jim on the streets of Herculaneum

The documentation said this was some kind of pub, and those inset bowls were for buffet food.

We did a fair amount of walking to get from the train station to our room, then to the Archaeological site. Getting our steps in today - about 15,000.

We really like our bags from Rick Steves.

After Herculaneum, we're back on the train, headed for Rome!

Amalfi Coast

 Towns built on steep hillsides. I've heard about Cinque Terre and the Amalfi coast from friends for many years. Cinque Terre is in the north and will have to wait until a future trip, but Amalfi was in our sites for this trip. At the front desk of our hotel, they had information on a boat tour that would take us to Amalfi and Positano. Capri and the Blue Grotto is also nearby, but we would need another day for that. 

We signed up for the boat tour, using the Hotels' service because a bus would pick us up right at the front door. The drive to the boat was interesting - spectacular views were so common that even the parking lots had them!

It was a nice day for a boat ride, not too hot, not too cold. The tour guide told us when we were passing by rocks said to be the place where the sirens lured Ullyses with their singing to crash on the rocks.

The tour gave us a couple hours to wander up and down in Amalfi, and get some refreshments.

An interesting fountain, eh?

Then we got back in the boat and hugged the coast up to Positano, which I think was even more picturesque.

Beautiful Positano

Everybody back in the boat. Going back to the bus then the hotel after a very full day on the Amalfi Coast.

Ferry to Sorrento

It was a phone call to my friend Arynne last month. She has been to Italy a few years ago and loved it. But there was one thing she would change if she were to do it again. Instead of the train from Naples to Sorrento, she would take the ferry. We checked it out and, sure enough, the ferry looked like a great way to go. We're always up for a boat ride.

Ferry ride from Naples to Sorrento. That's Mt Vesuvius out our window.

Once we got to Sorrento, it was a bit of a hike to the bus station where we would catch a bus up the mountainside to our hotel.

The first part of the walk

We had to walk up all these steps! This is the one place I took advantage of my carry-on's ability to be used like a backpack.

The trek was definitely worth it! Check out this view from our hotel at La Vue d'Or

The dining room at La Vue d'Or

The view from the balcony of our room

Naples

When the taxi dropped us off at our hotel we stood on the sidewalk for a while, looking around for a sign for Bovio Modern Suite. We saw none. hmmm, I remember this hide and seek from the last time in Europe. Sometimes there is a little door (the one for people), inside a big door (the one for cars), and once you're thru it you see a big courtyard and lots more doors. We opened one such door and went wandering around - still no sign for Bovio. We went back out to the sidewalk and Jim scoured the walls until he found a phone panel with a button for Bovio. He pressed it and someone answered! We heard a buzzer in a nearby door and we opened it and went thru. Shortly a woman appeared at the end of the courtyard and waved us in. Here is what it looked like from the inside as we went out the next day. The light you see in the distance is the doorway back out to the street. It's very Harry Potter-ish, a neighborhood inside another neighborhood.

And, here's what our room looked like

The breakfast room. 

We made good use of our one evening and next morning in Naples.  Wine ... check,  Gelato ... check, pizza... check. 

We're so happy that we learned to pack light. All we have is our little carry on suitcases so it's pretty easy to walk around, even on these rough cobblestone streets and wheel them behind us. If needed we can even wear them as backpacks.

The Geeks are in Europe! Naples, Italy to be more precise.

Off to Italy Jet lag/no jet lag

I know it's crazy to have two major trips so close together but we didn't have much choice. The Maldives trip was twice postponed from 2020 and then Italy trip is based on CaryTennis.com writers workshop. This is the same workshop we came to in 2017 and I immediately knew I wanted to do it again. It hasn't been offered for the last couple years.

We suffered greatly with jet lag on the Maldives trip. I believe the lack of sleep - especially for the 15 hour layover in Dubai- was a major factor in my catching a cold. Then, coming back to the states, our bodies just couldn't get in sync. We would be out cold by 7pm regardless of our best efforts.

On our way to Italy, via Istanbul, because we're flying Turkish Air

I'm not sure if we learned how to handle it better, or we're just lucky , but in Italy we've slept great. We even had a few hours of sleep on the plane and we feel good. The flight was 11 hours from Miami to Istanbul, 2 hours in Istanbul, then 2.5 hours to Naples. We got in to Naples about 7pm and Giuseppe was there to meet us and take us to our lodging. We got settled, then took a short walk around the neighborhood, found a couple glasses of wine with our name on them, went back to our room and slept solid till 10 the next morning. 💤 😴 🛌 

Exactly as I imagined it, within a block of our hotel was a hole-in-the-wall wine bar. We hesitantly stepped in and started to look around. A young man said, "Welcome" and motioned where we could sit down. We looked around more and saw a chalk board with a list of various wines. As we were studying it, we also watched the young man and heard him say, "Buona Serra" to the next people to venture in. So ... he could just look at people and know whether to speak English or Italian?! Turns out his name is Daniel and he was SO friendly and accomodating. The wine was delicious, and free tapas came with each glass of wine. We had such fun chatting with Daniel that I didn't want to leave!

Daniel, a joyful spirit!

Really good wine! Made at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius