Pompeii, Vesuvius and Hercolano

We took day trips to each of these sites from Sorrento, each was only a short train ride out of the city.  As an Anthropologist, and lover of history, these sites were of particular interest to me.  In fact, Pompeii was the main reason we decided to focus this trip on "southern" Italy (Rome and the Amalfi coast) instead of "northern" Italy - which would have included Florence and Venice....which I am also really looking forward to - someday:)

Pompeii was an incredible site.  The town was quite large, and you can walk throughout the entire thing.  So many homes and structures are still (somewhat) intact.  The frescoes and mosaics impressed me the most.  So many are still visibly beautiful; which, in it's own way, is quite sad.  The ability of this art to survive, through such a tragedy, is amazing.  That is survives still, after all this time - I found Pompeii to be a beautiful, peaceful, sad place.  Hercolano is a smaller site, also destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.  We visited both sites, here are some pictures - mostly from the Pompeii site.

 

  

  

  

  

Mt. Vesuvius was an amazing adventure as well.  We wanted to go up to the top and see the crater, we found a tour company that was ready to take a van full of tourists up to the top - the weather was questionable.  It was warm and fine in town - but cloudy up above....they warned us about visibility....but this was our only option to go up the volcano.  We decided to go for it.  The guy driving the van, while I'm sure experienced on that road, made me nervous.  He was an absolute nut-job.  The driving nearly made me sick. The roads were narrow, winding and very steep.  He sped up these roads as if he was in a race.  When we got to the top, the fog was so thick, we could barely see 20 feet in front of us.  We had to hike up the last few hundred feet, which was very steep....that combined with the altitude made it a slow and exhausting trip.  Walking through the cold fog was like getting a facial - our faces, clothes and hair were soaking wet by the time we reached the top......It was amazing to be up there, but the fog was so thick, we couldn't see inside the crater.  I am so glad we went to the top, but it would have been nice to see inside:)  We did get some nice postcards....so we know what it looks like, but here is what we saw: