Salerno, Italy – Last port of call
Naples with a population of around 200,000, is located halfway between two volcanic areas, the volcano, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields. This is the gateway to the famously beautiful Amalfi Coast. The Amalfi Drive is one of the most spectacular drives in Europe. Mount Vesuvius is the only active volcano on the mainland of Europe. There have been many notable eruptions, but the most well known was the eruption in 79A.D which did so much damage to Pompeii and Herculaneum
Our tour today took us thru the hills to the city of Pompeii, about 14 miles east of Naples. Pompeii had been buried under ash for centuries but numerous excavations have taken place and it is now the best preserved specimen of an ancient Roman town in existence.
Walking through Pompeii you realize that it is a city caught in a moment in time. The city is really quite large. We walked down the main street and through the houses of many of the people and you could still see the paintings and decorations which they had. There were numerous storage rooms filled with ancient relics from the city. One minute the city was there and next minute it was gone. A very unsettling feeling. And of course the most eerie of sights were those bodies of the unsuspecting people frozen in position as they tried to escape the gases from the volcano and knew that death was eminent.
A fascinating tour and Naples is a beautiful city!
Tomorrow we spend our final day at sea as we make out way back up to Barcelona Spain where we will disembark on Tuesday. I’ll probably post those pictures after I return home.
I hope you have enjoyed sharing my trip with me as I have truly enjoyed sharing my adventure with you.
Until then, this is Urbandoggs - signing off
I’m Just Sayin
1 comment:
So glad you enjoyed this trip! You captured Pompeii so perfectly with your photos -- I almost feel as if I had been there and I certainly have a better understanding of what happened there. And only 14 miles for Napoli? My mother's family is from somewhere in this region but all the information about them is gone ...
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