Day 20 Mediterranean Adventures: Naples, Sorrento and Pompeii

 

We are nearing the end of our adventure as we head back up the Eastern Italian coast for the second time, stopping this time at Naples. We have been advised to skip most of Naples, so our tour takes us to Sorrento and then on to Pompeii. It is a full day tour for 8 hours, only our second all day tour.  The other was Ephesus with a private guide. 

As we leave the port, we are advised that Naples has 1.6 million people and the port is one of the the busiest cruise ship ports in Italy, second only to Genoa. As usual, there are several ships on port the same time we are. The city of Naples has been around since 800 BC.

Sorrento is about 50 km south of Naples along the beautiful Amalfi coast. Soon on our left we pass Mount Vesuvius at 4,000 ft high.   There are almost always clouds derived from the high temperatures coming from the volcano.   This  volcano was the one that erupted in 79 AD and covered everything in volcanic ash.  This, along with many previous eruptions provide the rich volcanic soils used for growing all the fruits and vegetables of the region.  Sorrento was founded by the Greeks in 500 BC along the Bay of Naples.  The ride to get there is one switchback after another, meeting all kinds of traffic, but the views are stunning. It takes well over an hour to arrive in this seaside town of only 25,000 inhabitants. Our first stop is to a factory that makes the beautiful inlaid wood furniture and other wooden pieces. We enjoy a short demonstration, a tasty snack of pastries and coffee and then have time to shop and browse.  Our next stop is the main street of Sorrento with a myriad of shops.  Our guide has arranged for a relaxing, typical Italian lunch in an outdoor restaurant.  The vines overhead provide a cool respite from the midday heat.

After lunch our tour moves back toward the port of Naples   with a long-awaited stop at the ruins of Pompeii. The crowds are supposed to be less in the afternoon, but you wouldn't know that by all the buses.Before we enter the ruins, we visit a cameo production factory. This process is quite intensive. This gentleman has been carving for nearly 70 years.  In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted sending 75 foot blanket of ashes upon the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Most of the deaths were from gas poisoning--smelling like sulphur. Many of the people had been evacuated, but skeletal remains were found of at least 2,000 residents.  The area of the city that has been uncovered is 67 acres. This is the plaster preserved remains of a pregnant woman on her stomach. Our guide said it would take all day to see everything.  While we were able to see many archeological features left at the site, many of the smaller items uncovered are housed in the National Archeological Museum in Naples.  We did not go there, but it would have been interesting after visiting the ruins first.  They have determined that 70% of the buried city have been uncovered with more excavating underway.

It has been a long day and we are happy to return to the comforts of our ship.  We say good by to all the staff who have been special to us and retire early to pack our bags to  leave outside our cabin overnight.