Pompeii

Theresa writes:
Day 44

I remember as a child learning about the eruption of Mt Vesuvius and how all its people were killed by the eruption and preserved in the lava. So I was excited to go and see this site today.  We set off early (for us) at 8am and arrived an hour later to queues and to find that they had already run out of English guidebooks. So we grabbed a couple of maps (in Italian) a guidebook (in French) along with a suggested itinerary from the internet (In English).  Of course none of them referred to each other and the names were all diffferent but we managed to muddle along.

The site is amazing - its huge in size and it is possible to imagine people living here.  We explored bathhouses with plunges pools and hot rooms, mansions and more ordinary houses.  There are lots of mosiac floors and painted walls to give you an insight into how they lived. The kids really enjoyed the Thermopolia (ancient snack bars).  The counters were still visible today with the holes for the containers of snack foods and the kids had a lot of fun playing shops.

After about three hours we had seen enough (albeit it was still only a small part of the site).  Sadly the ampitheatre was closed due to a concert by Pink Floyds guitarist that night so we couldn't go in...  After that we grabbed a very cheap lunch from a local breadshop.  Our GPS is a little unreliable and she took us into the back streets of Naples so we were shopping where the locals do.  The pizza, rolls and drinks cost us half what we have been paying in our tourist hotspots!

Then we went to Mt Vesuvius and climbed up the top to see into the crater.  This was a very hot journey - 35 degrees, no shade and climbing up on a stony path.  The kids did well to complete this; it was not a pleasant climb up. Of course once we had reached the top the views were great and it was  interesting to hear the guide talk about the still active volcano. 

The house we are staying in is lovely.We are staying in the hills behind Positano so its not touristy at all.  There is a smaller town Montepertuso nearby and I walked up there (about 500m) on the first night to visit the grocery store.  I passed by local people out for an evening stroll all saying buonosera  or just 'sera (good evening or evening), kids playing soccer and it was nice to see a small slice of Italian life. 

But by far the best part of our accomodation is our hosts Guisepina and Angelo.  They are spoiling us and the kids terribly, so far we have had fruit and veges each day from his garden, chocolates on arrival and the kids got sweets after breakfast yesterday.  Today we arrived home to small cakes - homemade shortbread biscuits five sandwiched with chocolate and five with custard. Yum.  Kids have declared this their favourite stop so far....