Naples, Italy, August 24, 2011

Day 3 of the three long days.  The tour desk manager, Louis, was so funny and charming as he directed us on these morning excursions, he told us if we survived today we could do anything.  Every morning at 6:30, he was in the theater cracking jokes and entertaining the crowds while we waited for the tour to be called.

 Ah, Napoli,..  Just the name is magical!  With only so much time and a million things to choose from we decided on a trip to Pompeii and a drive along the Amafali coast.  That meant we had to skip going to the Ilse of Capri, maybe next time.

We had a wonderful guide (as we did with all the excursions) who explained the meaning of "Mama Mia," it meant "Oh, my God."  Then she told us we were about to go on the Mama Mia road.  It was narrow with hair pin turns and crazy drivers, I said "Mama Mia" more than once.  Again I have to say that most of these pictures are taken from the window of a moving bus, so many of them have reflections and they aren't the best, not to mention that the day started extremely hazy.

The turns were a little scary, sometimes the bus driver honked and then just turned.  Once we had to wait on one of those turns because there was a movie crew filming.  We learned that the "Italian Job" was filmed on this coast.  Sophia Loren, one of the most beautiful women in the world lived somewhere below the Mama Mia road.  I remember it was a white house, I've included a picture (toward the end of this section) of a white house I can't promise it was hers but I think so.

The day was very hazy, that's Mt. Vesuvius.

In France we stopped in the Perfume store, later in Turkey we stop at the carpet store, here in Naples it was the furniture store.  The furniture and the intricate wood inlay designs were amazing but I doubt I could of gotten that table on the plane. 

This looks like a perfect bridge table.

The master woodworker

 

Back on the road.

Curbside gasoline

 

Check out the profile of the rock, looks like Neptune protecting Italy's coastline.

It's a long way down.

These islands look like a sleeping lady.

An expensive hotel, built right into those rocks.

Mama Mia!!

A beautiful bride with her bouquet?

I think Sophia Loren once owned this home but I can't promise.

I got lucky with this picture, notice the right hand mirror on the bus and how close we are to the edge.  MAMA MIA!

 With our drive coming to an end we stopped for lunch in the beautiful city of Positano.  I had heard so mush about the local lemon trees and the Limoncello, I bought a bottle and smuggled it aboard.  I'm glad I did, it really was delicious.  Postiano was a delightful little town, I enjoyed the people watching and the narrow streets with the great little shops.

The local seafood store

Limoncello

Attention, absolutely no guns allowed here!!

 

It's been many many years since I fit into any of these garments. 

This is the starter Speedo preparing him for adulthood.

 

Filling the water bottles, that young man seems to be enjoying it.

Across from the church is this fountain where you can fill your water bottle from these breasts, the Italians got it going on.

The church across the street.

Let's go to Pompeii and discover life in the Roman Empire in the year 79 AD.  This was one of my hubby's favorite stops, I loved it also.  We wandered the streets which were laid out much like any city.  There were merchant shops next to each other and then rows of homes.  I'm not sure exactly how the archeologist knew which was which but I'm not questioning them.  All of these ancient civilizations had three things in common, a theater, square or plaza and a house of ill repute.  The world's oldest profession was alive and well in Pompeii.

Pompeii

 

Homes of the merchants.

The bath house.

The amphitheater.

The ruts on this road are from the chariots.

Merchant stalls or buildings on the right.

Like a hallway from the amphitheater.

One of the problems of ancient civilizations was lead poisoning.  Lead was the earliest metal in use and was believe to be used as far back as 3000 BC.  The Romans made their water pipes out of lead, you can imagine the amount of early deaths that caused.  Many Romans including the aristocracy suffered from forms of lead poisoning.

Ancient Roman lead water pipe

Another use of the lead pipe

CAUTION: ADULT CONTENT  

Set a little away from the merchants and the homes was the local brothel. There are frescoes depicting different activities for sale.  This little corner of Pompeii was the most interesting, there were the beds, the bathroom and the paintings.  The more things change the more they stay the same, prostitution will survive as long as civilizations.

A stone bed, I hope they had plenty of straw.

The bathroom, no worries about him leaving the seat up.

We're going to the main square. On the left of the square are the rooms where the artifacts and the bodies are stored.  The bodies recovered are plaster molds, since the remains have decomposed.  There were only impressions in the ash, so the archeologists filled them with plaster to become a solid mass.  There are only about 5 on display in Pompeii many of the other bodies are on exhibit or in museums throughout the world.  Eerily, many of the photos have Mt. Vesuvius in the background, it's still an active volcano though it hasn't erupted since 1944.

The contorted body of a Roman doggie.

 

Imagine the terror.

 

A pregnant woman

 

It seems he should have more of a prominent position than on the shelf with the pottery.

And that was Pompeii, it was amazing and to think that 1/3 is still not excavated.  What amazing, back breaking, painstaking but rewarding work by the archeologists.  I've always loved history but the last three days have been beyond my comprehension.  How lucky am I?

Back aboard the beautiful Ruby Princess, tomorrow is a sea day and we can rest up, time to get out and party tonight. NOT!  We were very tired and made it a quick dinner and an early night.

 

As I said tomorrow is a sea day, I won't bore you with my mundane day at sea, believe me it was mundane.  A restful and refreshing day though, we didn't even go to formal night.  We found the buffet to be appetizing and the moonlight with the movies was something we couldn't refuse.  With all the hustle and bustle of the long days, we really enjoyed the quiet nights without the crowds.

Next stop Mykonos! If only I could drag that island out to the Gulf of Mexico and claim it as mine.