Under the Ashes

We had a late pick-up in Naples and it did not take long for us to disembark as the port is in the middle of the city.

Our driver and guide (Maximo) were waiting for us near the big Penis (Peace) statue in honour of immigrants. We headed straight to Pompeii through the former industrial area of Naples while Maximo educated us about the wealth of Northern Italy vs the poverty in Southern Italy. This was formerly a very “blue collar” area, mainly steel and cement.

We drove around Vesuvius, where we learned about the explosion in 77AD and how the area is prepared for emergency responses since there are still lots of people in the red and orange zones that don’t really take it seriously.

We arrived at the entrance which used to be the port for the city of 15,000 people and everyone took a pee break while Maximo bought our tickets. We started our tour and quickly realized that it would be a tough walk on the bumpy cobblestone for Marlene and Barry.

We began by touring the massive main square that was divided into areas with shops, markets, political buildings and basilica. Maximo explained that all significant statues have been removed and are displayed in other museums. There were casts of cavities of a dead woman, man, child and dog.

We were really impressed with the work that had been done. The area was huge and we walked quite a way down one of he streets that was a mile long.  The tour inside the baths, the upper class home and the amphitheatre were great.

We loaded back into the van after some souvenir purchases and headed back to Naples. Maximo arranged two stops overlooking a harbour and another overlooking the city. At some point the driver had to cut Bill’s bag free from under the second row seat. The strap had become logged under the seat at one of our stops and we could not yank it free.

Maximo dropped us off at a great spot for lunch. Our pizza did not disappoint and we all ordered way too much food, but it was worth it. Bill had the traditional Margarita pizza and I had a pizza with prosciutto, cheese and pistachios, along with a tuna salad.

We then did a short walk through the city and Maximo treated us to espressos in the former ghettos (used to be an area for prostitution when it was a residence for the army) and I really enjoyed it.

We stopped in a nearby area while viewing the beautiful architecture of the city for traditional Naples sweets. I really enjoyed the pastry and did not like the rum cake as much.

Maximo and our driver returned us to the port and reboarded the ship with plenty of time for dinner.

I tried to exercise a bit in our room since we did not do too much walking. We all met early for our meal at Taste before going to see the Priscilla Queen of the Desert show. The show was well done and I enjoyed the music. Marlene really enjoyed the costumes.