Sorrento and Pompeii

Friday May 8, 2009
Naples, Italy
5:15 PM

Another wonderful day and this is the last full day of the cruise. We landed in the industrial harbor of Naples around 7 AM. Marlene, Charlotte and I had breakfast at the cafeteria and were ready to go on our tour by 8 AM. We were on bus 11 for the full day tour of Sorrento and Pompeii. Again we got on the 2nd bus of the 5 going there and were underway by 8:15. About all we saw of Naples was the port area and then we hit the road to Sorrento about and hour and 15 minutes away. The traffic was a little hectic as we took a narrow scenic route driving along the coast past Mount Vesuvius and then along what is called Amalfi coast. The bus dropped us near the center of town where we had a short demonstration of how the designs are put on that fine Italian furniture. The demonstration piece of furniture was a beautiful card table that had multiple hidden features like a backgammon board, a crap table, a black jack surface and finally a roulette table and wheel. Marlene thought it might make a nice gift for Chad but alas we never did price it. The main shopping area of Sorrento was very close and we had an hour or more to stroll and look at beautiful flowers scores of lemon and orange trees and thousands of motor scooter. We were successful in finding some napkin rings and some other Italian mementos.

We had an early lunch in a very excellent nearby restaurant. We sat on a patio in a garden under grape arbors surrounded by lemon trees. By the way lemon tress bear fruit most all the year here because of the climate. There are also lots of olive trees which are harvested at the end of October. We had an Italian meal of Cannelloni and Veal Scallopini of with a bottle of very good white win for the four of us. Our guide Ezio was helpful in Marlene making a call to Rome confirming our taxi for tomorrow and was good enough to pose for a picture with both Charlotte and Marlene (He is a very handsome Italian man and I would not be surprised if those photos make the scrapbooks.

After lunch a little more strolling and shopping. I finally bought a bottle of Lemoncello after looking at all the lemons and being tempted in almost every store.

We then bussed back towards Naples to Pompeii. Ezio was well versed in this site which was built by the Romans had an estimated population of 20,000 people and was destroyed in 79 AD when Mt. Vesuvius erupted Lava did not covered Pompeii it flowed the other way but cut off any escape, however three days of ash emitting sulfur fumes suffocated any people who had not evacuated and covered the town with 10 to 28 feet of ash and pumice. The town was discovered in the 1700s and was excavated for amount 200 years until about 20 years ago. About 75% of town has been recovered and the ruins were the very finest we have seen. We truly enjoyed the visit.

A quick commercial stop at a cameo factory was the last stop before returning to the ship at 4:45 PM.

So it is time to pack and get ready to leave ship in the morning. I am out on the Veranda and the ship has not left port and now the very warm sun is in my eyes. We are finishing the bottle of excellent wine we bought in Florence. It looks like we may have too much stuff to fit in the suitcases so some of you may be disappointed. We have decided to go to the formal dinner one last time at 8. Before that I will send this blog and try to use up my internet minutes which are bout 40. We also have to redeem out dam dollars for more souvenirs.

Tomorrow we are staying at the Courtyard near the Rome airport. Charlotte and I have booked the Vantage day tour but Lyle and Marlene are going to stay at the hotel and rest.

I may to try to send a couple of pictures either tonight or tomorrow.
Well the sun has now made typing this very difficult so Ciao ciao…