Day 4: Capri, Sorrento and Pompeii

Dearest readers, I apologize for the serious delay in the next part of our story.  Unfortunately both David and I have been struck with a terrible cold. And then work, and dinner parties, and well, you know - life.

Today's story begins in the town of Naples, Italy, where our ship docked for the first day at port. For our day in Naples, we opted to do a full-day excursion that began by taking a small transfer boat to the Isle of Capri, then another short boat ride to Sorrento, a small Italian town that is just outside of Pompeii, where our day concluded with a tour of Pompeii and finally a bus ride back to Naples to meet our ship.

When determining which tour to choose, David insisted we got to Pompeii because I had never been there.

(Editor's Note: I should inform you all that David's family took a trip to Italy that included Rome, Florance, Pompeii and Pisa.  I too have been to Italy, but my trip was exclusively to Rome.)


Our day started on the ship at 7:00am, where we were escorted off the boat to a small shuttle boat that would take us to Capri.  David has a history of sea-sickness so he took a Dramamine for the ride - which proved to be a great idea, as it was INCREDIBLY bumpy - unfortunately, many of the other passengers did not enjoy the ride as much - if you know what I mean.


Capri

When we arrived in Capri, the following was our view from the dock:

Capri is a rock island with only two towns.  The main town, of Capri, is located at the top of the island.  To travel up, we took a funicular - or a train designed to travel at 45-degrees.  The ride was very short - less than 10 minutes, and dropped us at one of the main town squares.

We took a walking tour of the town with our guide and learned that the island was a favorite spot of Caesar August, and the home of Roman Emperor Tiberius for the last 11 years of his life.  The town itself is very small - only about 3000 year-round residents, though in the summer, that number multiples ten-fold with people visiting for holiday.  The island survives on tourism but there are some small orchards, such as this one we passed on our tour:

We travel to the tip of the island and visited Augustus's Gardens:

And then climbed to the summit - where we were able to take in some WONDERFUL views:

Including this view of the road down to the coast.  I left the picture un-cropped so you can get a sense of how far down it is - in the bottom center you can see my sneaker - and then in the top center you can see the winding cobble stone road:

We walked down the entrance of the path, but sadly didn't have enough time to venture downward:

The town itself was very quaint and full of beautiful old hotels that were built in the 1800s as summer homes for European bourgeois:

Capri was also home of our first gelato:

As we wandered back to the funicular for our ride back down, we came across this breath-taking doorway:

Sorrento

We took a much shorter boat ride back to the mainland and docked in the town of Sorrento - the main town outside of the ruins at Pompeii.

Here we took a tour of a wood inlay factory - and learned about the process of creating wood inlay decorative pieces as well as furniture.  We fell in love with several pieces including a buffet and a writing desk - but sadly they were out of our price range.

While walking down the streets, we passed by orange trees in full bloom - just like we would have Bradford Pears lining sidewalks:

We also enjoyed lunch in a traditional Italian restaurant, complete with champagne, manicotti, yummy chicken, and a sweet Italian cream cake for dessert!

After lunch, we took a very short trip to the ruins at Pompeii.

Pompeii

Our final stop for the day was to visit the ruins of Pompeii.

(Editor's Note: If history tends to bore you, feel free to skip ahead a bit.  Also, I tried to check some of the main facts on Wikipedia - but some are just from D and I's memory of the tour.)
 
For those of you who are not history buffs (and trust me, I'm not either) - Pompeii is a town that was founded in the 6th to 7th centuries BC and was a prominent trade city on the coast of the Mediterranean.  It was conquered some 6 times in it's history by, among others the Greeks and later the Romans.  In 76 AD the town was covered in ash from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius:

The town went forgotten for for almost 1500 years, when the ruins were first discovered, buried by 65 feet of ash.  Only about 60% of the area has been excavated in some 400 years.  The general theory is that excavation technique has improved over time, and therefore some should remain untouched as new ways to improve the excavation are discovered.  Additionally, there is plenty to research in what has been dug up thus far.  Also, no power tools are permitted, only hand tools and brushes.

Interestingly, (or perhaps not - if history isn't your thing, feel free to skip ahead a bit), there were two other towns covered in the eruption, however, the other two were covered in lava, not just ash like Pompeii, and thus excavations have been significantly more difficult.

Our tour started in the gladiator training facility, complete with gladiator lockers:

We also got a glimpse of the main stadium, which is now used as a concert venue (note the lights in the photo):

The streets also had a number of these "fast-food restaurants" where the citizens would stop for lunch.  The terracotta pots helped keep the food warm for long periods of time:

We were able to tour one of smaller homes in the city (note - it was definitely bigger than D and I'd house!)  Here are a few shots of the house:

Below is a picture of a rain gutter, which were built into the walls of the house!

The last main area we toured was of the main town square.  If you note the double stacked columns in the picture below - it is believed that the entire square was surrounded by these at one time:

 

 

 

I took about 100 pictures at Pompeii alone, so this is just a splattering to give you a taste - I hope you all have the chance some day to visit - it was one of our favorite sights.

Until next time, when we venture onward to Roma: