Since we already spent a week in Rome, we took a side trip away from the big crowds on a two hour bus ride to the medieval, hilltop town of Orvieto. The ride through the country side was very nice and when we got to the city, we took a funicolare (passanger tram) to the get to the top of the hill where he town was. From there we hopped a bus to the cathedral, supposedly one of the five finest in all of Italy. We spent a couple of hours walking the town and rested our legs at lunch in a café on one of the small streets. We got back to the ship in plenty of time to catch dinner at one of the better restaurants before the Rome tour crowds arrived back onboard.
Today after we docked in Naples, we took a tour bus to Pompeii to see the excavations of the city destroyed by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 AD. The city was founded in the 8th century BC and grew to around 20,000 before an earthquake struck and reduced the city to rubble in 62 AD. It was during the reconstruction 17 years later when Vesuvius erupted and doomed the city and remaining inhabitants with a coating of hot ash 20 ft deep. Much of the city is now excavated and tourists like us can wander (and trip over) the stone covered streets to see surprisingly how much remains of the homes and shops. We could easily see in front of us the grooves worn into the paving stones by ancient charriot wheels.
Tonight we got underway around 8:00 PM and sailed passed the Isle of Capri, where the best view was from our stateroom balcony. We round the tip of Italy’s boot early tomorrow morning on our way to the eastern Med. I don’t remember Naples as a pretty place from my navy visit in the 1970’s, but it sure looked great today sailing away just after dark.
Tonight we have a time zone change and spend tomorrrow at sea on our way to Mykonos on Friday. After 3 busy days of touring it’ll be so nice to sleep in tomorrow and enjoy the day relaxing aboard ship.
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