Tuesday, August 1,2007

We made it to Naples! Home of Pompeii, Mt. Vesuvisus and Herculaneum!

Tuesday, 8/1/07

OMG! I have accomplished something that I have waited my whole life for. I remember I was 8 yrs old when I found out about a mysterious and ancient ruin that was recently (for time anyways) found – where a massive explosion had occurred in 79 A.D. I remember reading it in an Encylopedia Britannica edition that my father had for some reason order from a traveling salesman (remember those folks?) Anwway, they had one picture of an archeologist and he was excavating, so can you all imagine what it felt like to finally achieve something that I never thought I would be able to swing? I am in heaven.
Tuesday in Naples started off with me getting up at 6 – turns out I was SOOOO excited that when DH got up to use the bathroom (our alarm was set for 6:50) I just could not get back to sleep. Finally got up and caught up to my blog.
OK – for the sake of shortness here is a more condensed version – don’t want to bore people, got up at 6 am, typed then realized that it was 7:15 got everyone up and hightailed to Parrot Cay again. Ordered an omelet right off the bat, cheese, mushroom, tomato, bell peppers, ham and salsa – YUMMY! Rushed everyone off as by this time it was 8:15 and we were supposed to meet our private tour guide at the dock. I ran ahead since we were by now ½ hr late. At the bottom of the terminal steps – this was awesome – I again saw my name in big bold letter – ELLIOTT! What a relief. Our driver turned out to be Guillespe (spelling?) from www.prestigerent.com or at e-mail usa@prestigerent.com and he was adorned in a 2 pc suit, poor guy had long sleeves on and was sporting short long hair (is there such a thing?!!!!) LOL – who cares – he was cute! (if you like blonde, buff sorta type guys!) We introduced everyone and speed away – ok not speed but we were supposed to meet our other guide at Pompeii at 8:30. It was now 8:25. Skip little inconsequential details for now.
Got to Pompeii, our tour guide there was a wonderful lady by the name of Lorenza Greco. She was hired by prestigerent when I inquired about private guides. Her e-mail is: Lorenza_freco@virgilio.it . Her English was very understandable and I had no problems at all communicating with her. One or two MINOR delays but then the words came. All in all, both guides were great! Kudos to Prestigerent on hiring wonderful people.
Our day started at Pompeii at about 8:45. We ended up buying 2 tickets for Herculaneum and Pompeii for $20 Euros. A discount of 2 for buying a combo ticket. Lorenza started us off buying giving the rest of the group some history of the explosions which occurred the 1st time at 11 pm on the 24th of August 79 A.D. Pompeii was wonderful. We got to experience lots of sites including a bath house that had just reopened. The original tile, the original “sauna” and the original sweat room. I have pictures of the original marble “fountain” type where people would rinse their faces off before proceeding back out. According to our guide, it had just reopened after a 3 yr closure. We got to see a public fountain with a warrior spout. We walked the cobblestone streets that thousands of Romans, Egyptians and Greeks walked way back when. We spent about 3 hrs at Pompeii which was not nearly enough. Maybe one more hour would have been fantastic. We saw sights that were so amazing to behold. We even got to “walk” the local brothel where you could point at frescos at what you wanted. I have come to realize that the attitude regarding sexual relations were vastly unprudish - unlike us. Nothing major that probably isn’t alluded too but when you think that this was almost 2000 yrs ago, your mind is blown away at how advanced the Pompeiians were. The bath house was open to nobility and others (minus slaves) and were relatively cheap. The tile work and mosaic work is almost unbelievable and I hope that the pictures I took reflect that awesome detail that those artists put into the work even almost 2 millenniums later. We saw a plaster mode of bodies that still showed the teeth and nails down to a tee. I assume they were real as they were enclosed behind a glass partition. I even got to see the indentation on a fountain that showed how persons would put their hand down when they bent down and drink from the spout of the fountain. Amazing! We did not see the amphitheatre as our guide told us that it is under restoration and therefore closed.
We exited and found a small restaurant where we got to experience our first hand-made, wood brick oven pizza. Steve ordered 1 pizza with just cheese, extra sauce minus basil sauce and I ordered lasagna which was different than in the states – minus the ricotta cheese but still delicious. After, we managed to corral Lorenza into coming with us to Mt. Vesuvius and Herculaneum and act as our guide.
We managed to climb Mt. Vesuvius while it was slightly cool. OK , when Disney tells you it is a high active excursion-they are NOT kidding. We ended up buying tickets for the 6 of us and it costs $8 euros pr person. The climb is high and we were told at the end that it was 3 miles to the top and 3 miles back down. The climb is somewhat unstable and I would not recommend it to older people who tend to be unsteady on loose gravel. I was super careful and still managed to slip a couple of times on the way up. The key is to go slow. Of course, when Steve saw me struggling he had to prove he could climb it much faster than I. The guide reminded us to pace ourselves. I’m just glad that I had been doing cardio for the last 3 months, had I not – I think I would have passed out. It was definitely taxing!
We finally managed to get to the top about ½ hr later. We got to the top and Lorenza got us a guide to fill us in on the specifics of the explosion. We had about a 10 minute presentation and Steve tipped her about 10 euros for her help. We then decided to walk the rim which took us about another 20 minutes. Let me tell you we went at the perfect time. According to Lorenza, the previous week was SUPER HOT for the region. The entire time we were on Mt. Vesuvius it was rather cool and overcast. Perfect weather for hiking and tailor made for Steve. Otherwise, he would have been miserable. As we were leaving the mountain, the sun came out.
We then headed to Heculaneum where our guide told us that while Pompeii has been 90% excavated, Herculaneum has only been about 20% excavated. It is basically at a standstill as there are currently apartments and flats built over much of Herculaneum. We saw some burnt wood steps and wooden beams that managed to survive due to the way it was buried. While Pompeii was buried in about 7-10 meters of ash and pumice stone, Herculaneum was buried in 20 meters of hard molten lave which then harden into almost hard rock. This is the reason that Herculaneum is much better preserved than Pompeii. Herculaneum had about 4000 inhabitants and was mainly used as a villa for the rich and famous. More of a resort area for wealthy. By the time we finished with Herculaneum it was pretty much 4:30 and everyone was ready to go home. On the way, we made a quick stop at the cameo shop which is where we found that the word cameo actually means engraving as in engraving a cameo. We also found out that those cameos are made of seashells, brown, pink abalone and some other kinds. We got back to the ship and paid off our impromptu guide and the driver. All in all, I would highly recommend doing this port on your own. While a full day, we got back to the ship by 5 :15 and we managed to take a shower and relax before we left at 7:30. BTW, I found out later that the ship ended up leaving behind 3 persons who were not on ship at departure time so they are not kidding!
By the time dinner came around, I was dead tired and very goofy. I felt like I was high and my head was floating. I was totally exhausted and managed a fine version of the Cabo crawl back to my stateroom. And think, I didn’t even drink. I crawled into bed after brushing my teeth, realized that my mom had called and wanted to speak to us, I sent my apologies and laid my head down and viola! That is the last I remember until 3 am the next day. So my adventures continue on Wednesday in Olbia, Sardinia.