Pickup at our hotel at 8am with first stop being at Herculaneum.
In 79 AD a massive eruption of Mt Vesuvius covered this area with approximately 25 metres of pyroclastic lave flow and mud. The flow was moving at over 80 miles an hour and records indicate that people died in the are within minutes if not instantaneously from the explosion amd gases. A very samll portion of the old town has now need uncovered and is being painstakingly restored but the majority of it is still buried deep below the surface. The current suburban area of Naples is all built on top of what used to ne Herculaneum. What was interesting to note was the shoreline of the time amd how much further inland it would have been from what it is now. The whole site is of historic significance of course but much of the site will never be oncovered with multistorey residences now perched on top.
Many of the roadworks in the Naples vicinity often grind to a halt or need to be diverted as new ruins are discovered so the whole city is a mass of roadworks and teeming with traffic – it really is a chaotic place and we realise we would not like to dscover this region on our own. One definitely needs a guide.
From Herculaneum we head to a local Cameo manufacturing factory where we were shown how cameos are made. Many of the worlds cameos come from this Italian workshop and although our purchases were tiny, there were some magnificent Cameos in the showroom. I really had no idea how a cameo was made – as they say – “you learn something every day’ so today was not a total waste!
On then to the archealogical area of Pompeii which most of us today, now know of. Pompeii was a seemingly huge city of it’s day and although not buried wuite as deep as Herulaneum, Pompeii was still buried under about 7 or 8 metres of ash from the volcanic eruption. It must have been a horrific death to be drowned in ash. The Pompeii historic site holds a numer of unearthed relics but also some casts of the people who have been found. Many of them are housed in the museum (we didn’t get to see) but it was an eerie sight seeing the huddled carbonised bodies of a few. The site is still a work in progress with archaelogists still chipping away and slowly digging as we watched. They have their work cut out for many years to come!!!
A bit to eat for lunch then the reaminder of our day was spent driving along the Sorrento coastline which runs around the bay of Naples – some magnificent scenic shots were taken by each of us – then over the hills and tunnels to the other side of the range to the Amalfi Coast. Wow! This whole coastline is extremely rugged but scattered everywhere with houses, villages, shops etc all built tiered into the mountainside. That being said, the roadway was another thing!!! Thank goodness for a great driver but I would HATE to be here in summer. It is a slow very windy and narrow drive the whole 150kms – we took a good couple of hours but the number of tourists in summer can stretch this drive anything up to 4 – 5 hours. Tourist buses are the biggest killer for traffic here – they are only as wide as the road so makes for a very awkward journet for all. As such this is winter, the tourists are almost zero – but we had the most magnificent day – about 19 – 20 degrees and full sunshine. Couldn’t have asked for a better winters day in the region.
A recommendation for anyone visiting Italy – Don’t do it at peak tourist season in the summer. The whole country has small everything and thousands of tourists in the heat of summer must surely be a nightmare for all concerned!
Anyway a long day over again after a magnificent drive.
