April 3, 2019
Pompeii and Sorento
We drove from Rome to visit Pompeii, Amalfi
coast, Sorrento, and had lunch at a lemon farm. The tour of Pompeii
was very good. We walked on uneven ground and through ruins for 2
hours. Of course it rained on us near the end of the tour making
walking slippery and hazardous. Fortunately
we had no accidents.
We were unable to drive to Amalfi Coast due to rain. Very
disappointing. We ate lunch at a lemon farm in
Sorrento. We would say the lunch
was good but not spectacular like Farm lunch in Tuscany. We did
manage to buy some limoncello:-).
Walked around Sorrento in the rain and bought sweets
for ourselves and our most awesome dogsitter, Jerry.
The entire tour from Rome was 12 and 1/2 hours and roughly 8 of
those were in the car. Would not do this again.
History: Pompei
Pompeii was an ancient Roman city near modern
Naples in the Campania region of Italy, in the territory of the
comune of Pompei. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many
villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae),
was buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of volcanic ash and
pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Volcanic ash
typically buried inhabitants who did not escape the lethal
effects of the earthquake and eruption.
Largely preserved under the ash, the excavated city offers a
unique snapshot of Roman life, frozen at the moment it was
buried and providing an extraordinarily detailed insight into
the everyday life of its inhabitants. Organic remains, including
wooden objects and human bodies, were entombed in the ash and
decayed away, making natural molds; and excavators used these to
make plaster casts, unique and often gruesome figures from the
last minutes of the catastrophe. The numerous graffiti carved on
the walls and inside rooms provides a wealth of examples of the
largely lost Vulgar Latin spoken colloquially, contrasting with
the formal language of the classical writers.
Excavations recommenced in several unexplored areas of the city,
and in 2018 new discoveries were reported.
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Mount Vesuvius in the distance
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The Pompeii Forum
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Lou and our tour guide
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Statuary
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Stones were spaced so that chariot wheels could drive through.
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We stopped at an overlook on the way to Sorrento
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Sorrento!
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Rome 2019
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