In the hands of Vesuvius

On the morning of Friday August 31, officially the last day of the European high season, it was time to leave Naples, hooray! We battled the delegates for a spot at breakfast one last time, and checked out. We fetched our car from the car park cave (they had moved it and not told us where it was so we were literally wandering through the caves trying to see any flash of light or hear the car doors unlock with the remote key). Having thoroughly pre-studied the route back to the autostrada, we only had to deal with the mad traffic for a little while before we were safely back on the 130km/h freeway, phew! We high-tailed it straight to Pompeii where we would spend the day and stay overnight.

The ruins of Pompeii, with Mt Vesuvius looming guiltily in the background

Not everyone has heard of Herculaneum, but unless you're living under tonnes of ash you would know about Pompeii. Partially destroyed by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in AD 79, Pompeii was buried under 4-6 metres of ash and pumice, and forgotten about until its excavation began in 1748 (I still haven't worked out why it took that long - the eruption of Vesuvius on that day was documented, so they knew that these towns were buried, but apparently they "were abandoned and their names and locations forgotten"?!). Today though, the Pompeii ruins offer a unique snapshot of a town frozen in time on that particular day.

Pompers

So after less than half an hour, we had already arrived in Pompeii and were able to check in to our little hotel, a 5 minute walk from the back entrance of the ruins. Soon we headed out for lunch in the new Pompeii, which is quite a nice looking town. Ryan had a spaghetti carbonara and I had a plate of clams (both OK, but have both had better), and then soon we set off for the ruins. Just before we got there we got talked into getting a map and audio guide by 2 young and innocent looking girls, and it wasn't too expensive (and ended up being quite helpful) so I don't think we got scammed!

I'm definitely putting a marble kitchen into my house - that stuff stands the test of time (and volcanoes)

The amazing thing about Pompeii is the sheer size of it. While Herculaneum is perhaps better preserved and has more impressive frescoes, Pompeii is a large town, complete with ampitheatres, forums and a brothel (although the little stone beds did not look very comfortable). Oh, and there's also now an Autogrill in the middle of it too. You could spend the whole day walking around the sights, but we did a 2-3 hour wander of various highlights we wanted to see, which was plenty of time, being the warm and sunny day that you can see pictured. This was my second time here, and it is still one of the most interesting places I have ever been in my life.

Reidi in the ruins

They say that Mt Vesuvius is currently dormant, but it occasionally emits lava streams (the last being in the 1950's), and now it is officially 15 years past the time of expected activity. Apparently with today's geophysics technology they would have about 10 days notice before anything major happened, but still, it has happened before... I think they are some brave people living in those towns. Apparently property is very good value (!), but I wonder what the insurance premiums are like?!

A plaster cast of a victim - I find these all very spooky

That evening after washing all the dirt and ash off ourselves, we went back into town for dinner. We went in search of a restaurant that had good reviews on trip advisor, but it didn't seem to exist, so we stopped in at a cocktail bar (I had an awesome coconut mojito!) and by this time a storm had suddenly come upon us (surprising given the skies in the photos above) and so, luckily for us, the accompanying aperitivos supplied with the cocktails were more than substantial, so we were satisified with them and just made it home before the storm hit! It was quite the light show from our balcony though I must say.

The town of Sorrento

The next morning it was time to move onto a place I was really looking forward to, Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast. I had booked us into Villa Monica, the #1 B&B in Sorrento according to trip advisor, and I must agree. The owner, Pasquale, called us the day before and said to give him a buzz when we arrived in town and he would meet us and guide us up the hill to the B&B. How very nice, although Sorrento was crawling with cars, scooters and people, so finding a place to pull into in the narrow streets (without clipping any other vehicles, which we did, but no one seems to care because it is inevitable) was difficult. So we decided to wing it, and get there on our own. It was a pretty hairy and steep street but after bumping into Pasquale's wife (not literally), we got there A.O.K! And the view from our balcony was tremendous!

Buffalo mozarella 4 ways - this is what I will picture when I come home and hit the gym 4 days a week, because it was worth it :)

Even though the weather was overcast and a little bit drizzly at the time, the view was simply breathtaking. And once we met Pasquale, we knew we were in good hands. He was a helpful yet really funny guy, and he would shuttle his guests to and from the main part of Sorrento town whenever they wanted. He recommended a restaurant to us,  Inn Bufalito, which I had already spied on trip advisor (being the buffalo mozzarella addict that I now am), so after a brief walk around town before some rain set in, we got a table at Inn Bufalito. We shared the buffalo mozzarella tasting platter for entree (pictured above) which was one of the most creamy and delicious things I have ever tasted. It was more than enough, but we had already ordered mains (I had a stuffed squid, which was yum and something I hadn't seen offered at many other places, while Ryan had a buffalo ragu, which was simply delicious). Because it had been so good and we are complete fatties, we also shared a panna cotta for dessert (and Ryan had his first taste of limoncello!). Superb meal overall.

And then the next morning we woke up to this view from our balcony:

Ridiculous way to wake up in the morning