Sorrento/Pompeii

We didn’t leave the train station in Naples, we headed downstairs to the Circumvesuvia train line that runs around the Bay of Naples to Sorrento.  After another hour on that train, we finally arrived in Sorrento.  I had a hard time finding hotels in Sorrento, but the bus system was supposedly easy to use.  Once we knew a little bit about the town, the buses were easier.  But that initial trip we had no idea where to go and the bus drivers were less than helpful.  We guessed at where to get off and asked someone where our hotel was.  His directions took us up the hill.  It seemed longer than I had anticipated, so we went into a different hotel and found out the guy had been wrong and our hotel was actually downhill.  But we finally found it.

Our room was down about 4 flights of stairs, the very farthest possible room in the whole hotel.  But they were fully booked and couldn’t move us.  That night this noise started (like a fan or machine running in another room).  The hotel people came and listened and tried very hard to find it and fix it, but to no avail.  They had a technician “fix it” the next day, but the noise still came on.  So they ended up booking us in the hotel next door for our last night, which had a much better view!

Our first night we had dinner right next to our hotel on a beautiful terrace overlooking Sorrento.  I was unhappy with the amount of travel time (and having been giving wrong directions, and having the farthest possible room where the wireless did not work - again), but this dinner made me relax and Stephen reminded me that I was complaining about our hotel in Italy, so I really had no right to complain.  I just want things to be perfect and it frustrates me when I can’t do that.

High above Sorrento

Mt Vesuvius in the background

The next day we went into Pompeii.  

The main gates: the one on the right was closed at night for security

The forum (main square)

Those columns aren't damaged by the volcano,

they were in the process of building them when the eruption happened.

You see brick because they would make the columns from brick and

then put marble on the very outside (much cheaper)

Those 3 stones in the road are the crosswalk.

Everyday they would flood the streets with water to clean them.

The  stones kept feet/sandals dry.  3 stones means major

thoroughfare.  (1 stone = one way, 2 stones = two ways)

They had running water from pipes that were very similar to ours, except we don’t use aqueducts and arches to get water pressure).

The water fountain (still used today)

the pipes

Many of the mosaic floors are intact

Two of the many plaster molds made of the bodies as archaeologists unburied Pompeii:

Cooktop (bbq style)

Some of the frescoes (paintings on the walls) were beautiful and still very much intact.

Ruts from years of horse carts

They had fast food places just like us.

Stephen works one of the fast food joints

Another one

The ampitheater

Stephen (sitting on the white) in the ampitheater

Then we walked around Sorrento for a while and headed back to the hotel.  We went down to the beach (partly by elevator, partly by stairs) to the Mediterranean.  

It was freezing, but I dived in anyway.  

The stones were really interesting, many of it looks like tile pieces

So now I can say I  swam in the Mediterranean.  Only briefly, but I did it.  There was internet down there, so we chatted with my mom, Stacey, and Stephen’s dad.  It was pretty cool to be on the beach of the Mediterranean and face timing/ichatting with people from home.

We went back to Sorrento for dinner and to watch the Champions League soccer game.  We found a pub that had set up a tv and tables out in a square that were full of people watching the game.  The English (and Stephen) were cheering on Manchester United, while the Spaniards cheered on their team.  I got a pizza from a place that does old fashioned brick oven pizzas and then got some gelato.  There was some internet at this place, but it was inconsistent. 

After the game we went to the bus stop to catch the last bus up to our hotel.  We were half an hour early for the bus, waited for an hour, and decided it wasn’t coming.  So we walked back to the hotel, uphill and at 11:30 at night.  Very early the next morning we went back to the bus stop (after being told there was a bus at 5:50), only to find there wasn’t a bus until 6:50 and we had a 6:20 train to catch.   Needless to say we had to walk back down into town to catch the train.  At least there were no crowds and it was downhill!

The view on our walk