Due to the metro strike we have booked to head to the buried ancient city of Pompeii. The bus leaves at 7am (and we need to be early) which is normally fine except our new alarm clock, the pretty red butterfly, did not go off. Luckily Shona, who went to bed listening to Mikes advice, (think 'wake up at 5:30am, wake up at 5:30am') woke up... at 6:20am. Yikes that is cutting it close. However we manage to both shower and be ready to board the bus at 6:58am. Our guide Paola is very good telling us about the different highways we are on, the abbeys on the road, the mountain ranges and just anything that can make our 3 hour drive to Pompeii more exciting. Shona d
ecides that she would like to live in the Campania region because they invented the pizza pie, and limoncello. It is also renowned for making amazing pasta, gelato and mozzarella (with buffalo milk). Because we are not allowed to eat on the bus (and there was no time for breakfast) it doesn't help to hear this information given our stomachs are rumbling. Needless to say the coffee and roll at the comfort stop went down rather quickly. Another fact about the Campania region is that it is one of three areas in Italy which grows tobacco. In Italy the sale of tobacco is monitored and as such you can't buy it from the supermarket, rather you have to go to a tobacco store! We arrive in Pompeii to meet our local guide (due to Italian law you must always have a local guide and Paola is not local). Our guide is Ciro (chi-row) and he reminds Shona of Willy Wonka with his curly haircut. The city of Pompeii was built at the foot of Mt Vesuvius (an active volcano), however they did not know this. In 79AD Vesuvius erupted in similar style to Mt St Helens in 1981, unpredictable and very explosive. First of all there was pumice stone which buried the city 3m deep, followed by polycystic clouds which killed anything still living, and finally dust and ash which settled on the city sealing it away for thousands of years. To this day only 2/3r
ds have been excavated so the actual amount of deaths is still unknown. Excavations of the city have revealed a number of interesting facts. Pompeii was a very civilised place where you could walk the streets stopping at shops to purchase hot food kept in stone vessels. Large stones were put across the streets to help pedestrians walk from one side to the other, but they were low enough and spaced correctly to allow the chariots to pass. In fact you can see the chariot marks in some of the stones. Art on the walls show that Pompeii was ruled by the Romans at the time of the eruption, however they were strongly influenced by the Egyptians and their ancestors were the Greeks. It was nearer the bay of Naples than today
and as such many sailors came to town. When the sailors came to town they would be guided to the only curved street in the city by street stones carved with penis' on them (curved so that you could not see who was and what was happening down there). The brothel has been excavated and you know this is what it was by the stone beds in the five rooms and the artwork containing various positions on the walls. The sailors did not always speak the same language so they could point to what they wanted. Needless to say prostitution was legal even if the women were exotic slaves. You might also
find the image of a penis proudly on display outside or inside a persons house. It was a sign of fertility and the people of Pompeii were very superstitious. As such you would have this image on display to bring the god of fertility to your
house. Dave/Dad - Shona stood under one just for you... but don't get your hopes up :-) We were fascinated with Pompeii, from running water in some places, the fact that all streets have a water fountain as the street sign and the theatres were built with perfect acoustics for performances. Everything screamed civilisation and it would be amazing to go back in time and really see what it was like. Unfortunately our tour only lasted 1 hour 40 minutes meaning we saw a small portion of what has been uncovered and we would love to come back someday to explore the whole place at our own leisure.The tour offers a light lunch for 12euro. However as our breakfast of apples and pringles weren't eaten we decide (like most other people) to do our own thing. Sounds like a good option because the lunch was not worth 12euro according to sources. Anyway after lunch we board the bus and
Ciro guides through the city of Naples (or Napoli to Italians). Shona LOVES a Napoli pizza (mozzarella, olives and anchovies) but the city can only be described as slumsville or a sh*thole. We are pleased the bus only stops once high on a hill to let us take photos of the bay. Why is it so bad, well there are 800,000 people in the region - yes that is right, they are under an active volcano which is unpredictable and it is estimated that when the big one occurs some 300,000 people will die. To house all these people are heaps of unloved apartment buildings everywhere. The bus bumps about on the dreadful roads and it can only be assumed that maintenance is not a priority. You feel unsafe looking at the place and as Ciro says beware of pickpockets and robbers because there are plenty. Despite this awful feeling Naples is home to a stunning bay, where on a clear day you can see the Isle of Capri and the world's oldest opera house. We are pleased to have seen Naples (where the drivers are worse than in Rome), because if we come back to Italy we'll know not to base ourselves there... even though the Amalfi coast is just down the road.We
say goodbye to Ciro and drop him off at the train station before heading back along the three different highways to Rome. As we approach Rome we see the big blue Busabout bus pulled over on the right hand side of the road (remember we are in Europe and they drive on the opposite side). Uh Oh, have they had an accident? That is our bus that we are leaving tomorrow - what is going on? We need not worry, they pull up behind us at the hostel and friends tell us that they had gone into a toll gate (they are on all the highways in Europe, why won't NZ catch up and have decent roads...) but the automatic pass did not work so they reversed out. The driver reversed into a car and just touched their bumper. He did not realise so went through the toll gate. The driver of the car flashed them down and that was why they were pulled over on the side of the road. There was no damage to either bus nor car and that was great news for us . Dinner was rolls filled with ham, cheese and tomato from the supermarket across the road. The rolls are old and awful, but hey it is a cheap way to end an expensive day (the trip was 48euros each). We fall asleep hoping that the butterfly alarm clock works in the morning.
ecides that she would like to live in the Campania region because they invented the pizza pie, and limoncello. It is also renowned for making amazing pasta, gelato and mozzarella (with buffalo milk). Because we are not allowed to eat on the bus (and there was no time for breakfast) it doesn't help to hear this information given our stomachs are rumbling. Needless to say the coffee and roll at the comfort stop went down rather quickly. Another fact about the Campania region is that it is one of three areas in Italy which grows tobacco. In Italy the sale of tobacco is monitored and as such you can't buy it from the supermarket, rather you have to go to a tobacco store! We arrive in Pompeii to meet our local guide (due to Italian law you must always have a local guide and Paola is not local). Our guide is Ciro (chi-row) and he reminds Shona of Willy Wonka with his curly haircut. The city of Pompeii was built at the foot of Mt Vesuvius (an active volcano), however they did not know this. In 79AD Vesuvius erupted in similar style to Mt St Helens in 1981, unpredictable and very explosive. First of all there was pumice stone which buried the city 3m deep, followed by polycystic clouds which killed anything still living, and finally dust and ash which settled on the city sealing it away for thousands of years. To this day only 2/3r
ds have been excavated so the actual amount of deaths is still unknown. Excavations of the city have revealed a number of interesting facts. Pompeii was a very civilised place where you could walk the streets stopping at shops to purchase hot food kept in stone vessels. Large stones were put across the streets to help pedestrians walk from one side to the other, but they were low enough and spaced correctly to allow the chariots to pass. In fact you can see the chariot marks in some of the stones. Art on the walls show that Pompeii was ruled by the Romans at the time of the eruption, however they were strongly influenced by the Egyptians and their ancestors were the Greeks. It was nearer the bay of Naples than today 
and as such many sailors came to town. When the sailors came to town they would be guided to the only curved street in the city by street stones carved with penis' on them (curved so that you could not see who was and what was happening down there). The brothel has been excavated and you know this is what it was by the stone beds in the five rooms and the artwork containing various positions on the walls. The sailors did not always speak the same language so they could point to what they wanted. Needless to say prostitution was legal even if the women were exotic slaves. You might also 
find the image of a penis proudly on display outside or inside a persons house. It was a sign of fertility and the people of Pompeii were very superstitious. As such you would have this image on display to bring the god of fertility to your 
house. Dave/Dad - Shona stood under one just for you... but don't get your hopes up :-) We were fascinated with Pompeii, from running water in some places, the fact that all streets have a water fountain as the street sign and the theatres were built with perfect acoustics for performances. Everything screamed civilisation and it would be amazing to go back in time and really see what it was like. Unfortunately our tour only lasted 1 hour 40 minutes meaning we saw a small portion of what has been uncovered and we would love to come back someday to explore the whole place at our own leisure.The tour offers a light lunch for 12euro. However as our breakfast of apples and pringles weren't eaten we decide (like most other people) to do our own thing. Sounds like a good option because the lunch was not worth 12euro according to sources. Anyway after lunch we board the bus and 
Ciro guides through the city of Naples (or Napoli to Italians). Shona LOVES a Napoli pizza (mozzarella, olives and anchovies) but the city can only be described as slumsville or a sh*thole. We are pleased the bus only stops once high on a hill to let us take photos of the bay. Why is it so bad, well there are 800,000 people in the region - yes that is right, they are under an active volcano which is unpredictable and it is estimated that when the big one occurs some 300,000 people will die. To house all these people are heaps of unloved apartment buildings everywhere. The bus bumps about on the dreadful roads and it can only be assumed that maintenance is not a priority. You feel unsafe looking at the place and as Ciro says beware of pickpockets and robbers because there are plenty. Despite this awful feeling Naples is home to a stunning bay, where on a clear day you can see the Isle of Capri and the world's oldest opera house. We are pleased to have seen Naples (where the drivers are worse than in Rome), because if we come back to Italy we'll know not to base ourselves there... even though the Amalfi coast is just down the road.We 
say goodbye to Ciro and drop him off at the train station before heading back along the three different highways to Rome. As we approach Rome we see the big blue Busabout bus pulled over on the right hand side of the road (remember we are in Europe and they drive on the opposite side). Uh Oh, have they had an accident? That is our bus that we are leaving tomorrow - what is going on? We need not worry, they pull up behind us at the hostel and friends tell us that they had gone into a toll gate (they are on all the highways in Europe, why won't NZ catch up and have decent roads...) but the automatic pass did not work so they reversed out. The driver reversed into a car and just touched their bumper. He did not realise so went through the toll gate. The driver of the car flashed them down and that was why they were pulled over on the side of the road. There was no damage to either bus nor car and that was great news for us . Dinner was rolls filled with ham, cheese and tomato from the supermarket across the road. The rolls are old and awful, but hey it is a cheap way to end an expensive day (the trip was 48euros each). We fall asleep hoping that the butterfly alarm clock works in the morning.
.JPG)
Wow - Pompeii sounds amazing - I must go there one day! (like most of the places you've been)
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