May 8 May 9 May 10 May 11 May 12 May 13 May 14 May 15 May 16 May 17 May 18 May 19 May 20 May 21 May 22 May 23 May 24 May 25 May 26 May 27 May 28 May 29 May 30	Friday 5/11/07 We actually set the alarm clock for this morning, as the tour guide place is sending someone to pick us up for the day. In fact, the pickup time was before breakfast, which was all right. We didn't need to do much to get started on our day. The driver showed up on time and we got into the van which took us to the tour company's headquarters. There we waited for a while. The worst part of any of the guided tours was waiting for the whole thing to get started! Our bus finally arrived and the boarding process started. Then we had to wait while the tour guide, bus driver, and office manager argued about just what the route was to be for the day. You'd think they'd work these things out ahead of time. Well, it seems that they only had a small group heading for Capri and, since there was room on our bus and we were scheduled to drive through Naples anyway, they combined the excursions... We were finally on our way and arrived in Naples after only one rest stop along the way. It took close to three hours to get from Rome to Naples. There, we drove down to the waterfront area to drop off the six people going to Capri, then wound our way back into traffic, which was very heavy, for our Naples stop, which consisted of driving through crowded streets to a parking lot with an overview of the rest of the city, parking there for ten minutes, then getting stuck in traffic on the way back out... We saw more of Naples than we expected - just the same portion three times... The photo to the left above shows the Bay of Naples from the parking lot mentioned above. The photo on the right above was taken just steps from the other and shows some of the traffic and downtown Naples. Finally, we were on our way to the primary destination - Pompeii. First stop, however, was in the cameo factory to see how cameos are made. It was a very short demonstration followed by a half hour to browse their showroom... Very pretty, but too expensive. Finally, it was time for lunch. We had a decent lunch, then worked our way to the entrance to Pompeii. It was now 2:00 and we still hadn't gotten to Pompeii proper. To the entrance gates and everyone went through the turnstile. Well, almost everyone. One person got stuck on the wrong side of the turnstile. Seems the officials there had set the turnstiles to admit the number of people who were in our group. Someone who was not in our group managed to slip through in the middle of our group, so the count was off. We then spent the next half hour being counted and recounted by just about everyone in the area, until the official finally decided that the tour company wasn't cheating him and he let us continue. It was laughable, eventually. Our guide was a bit grumpy after the diversion and I think it may have affected the rest of the afternoon. I'd hate to think she was that grumpy normally. She didn't really want to be there that day. She was informative, yes, but she was short and short tempered and she'd start talking before even half of the group had assembled at the next stopping point. Then, just when it started getting interesting, she'd send us on to the next point while she repeated everything for the two French people in the group... It got irritating after a while. And she seemed to think she didn't need any amplification for this group of close to 50 people. Think again. I had trouble hearing her most of the time and finally just gave up and enjoyed the surroundings. Carl was a better guide than she was. The photo on the left above was our initial view of Pompeii, as we approached the entrance to the ruins themselves. Some of this wall has been reconstructed. The other two photos show one of the large public areas, perhaps an early market. The photos on the left and center above show the small theater in Pompeii, while the photo on the right shows the large one. The large one has had the seating section reconstructed using steel supports. The photo on the left above shows some of the recovered ruins. These are probably a set of storerooms for the back portion of a house. The center photo shows the entrance area to a house. The tiled entrance was the formal entrance and it lead to an open courtyard, usually containing a fountain. The house was built around this central courtyard. The right photo shows an oven. The three photos above were taken in the area of the baths. The baths, in Roman Times, were a communal area for visiting, exercising, and getting clean. The women and men had separate areas. There was a large courtyard for athletic practice, swimming pools, cold water baths, hot water baths (similar to today's hot tubs), and areas similar to saunas. The photo on the left shows part of the interior wall of the courtyard area. It's highly decorated. The center photo shows the inside of the entrance arch. This was the entrance to the men's side of the baths. The head in the way is our grouchy tour guide. The photo on the right shows some of the columns along one side of the courtyard to the baths. The photo on the left above shows a wine vendor's stall. Jugs of wine were set into the holes in the countertop, which acted like a thermos bottle, keeping the wine cool. The center photo above shows a bakery, with the oven on the left. On the right is one of the large containers that bread was kept in before it was sold. The photo on the right above shows the interior courtyard of a private home. These courtyards were frequently painted to give the impression that the house was bigger than it appeared and that the view continued to the horizon. The preserved colors in this room were amazing! The two photos to the left above are typical streets in Pompeii. The street on the left is a more major thoroughfare for the town and shows the number of tourists that were there the same day as we were. The center one is a side street. The photo on the right above shows the old forum portion of Pompeii. Just visible through the haze is Mt. Vesuvius. If you extend the left and right slopes of the mountain that remains today, you'll see an approximation of what Mt. Vesuvius looked like before the eruption which buried Pompeii. The two photos on the left above show some of the intricate stonework from Pompeii. What they were used for is a guess. The photo on the right is of a block of stone that was probably cut this way to help the mortar hold it in place, but it sure reminded me of a Legos block... The photo on the left above is looking through an archway into the open portion of Pompeii's forum. The pavement in the foreground was probably for a porch area or for the building that the archway led into. Such areas were used for the business meetings of the day. The photos on the right above show two views of the storerooms stuffed with items found on the site. On the shelf in the center photo and on the pedestal of the right photo are two people caught by the ash from Mt. Vesuvius. These aren't really the actual people. After the people died, the ash formed a solid mold around them. As time passed, the organic remains dissolved, leaving an empty space. As the researchers found these open spaces, they would fill them with plaster or a similar substance, leaving a solid impression of the person who died there. The one in the center was probably knocked prone by the falling debris while the one on the right probably curled up in a corner trying to get as far away from the ash and heat as possible. As you can see, this person had their hands over their nose trying to keep the ash out. When we got to the end of the guided tour, our guide told us we were to meet at the hotel (where we ate lunch) at 4:45 to meet the bus, which only gave us 40 minutes of free time there. I could have stayed for another couple of days... The photo above shows our view as we left the archaeological grounds of Pompeii, reentering the world catering to tourists. We go to the meeting place, only to be told by the bus guide that, no, we were to assemble at the hotel at 5:15. So, another half hour wasted. We grabbed frozen lemonades and rested in the shade. All in all, I felt short changed on the tour. The trip back to Rome was mostly uneventful. We stopped at the same rest stop for a potty break, then on to Rome. The bus then dropped each of us off as close to our own hotels as possible. In fact, one of the highlights of the non-Pompeii part of the tour was watching the bus driver effortlessly drive this big tour bus through the narrow streets of historic Rome, missing cars, scooters, street signs, etc. We bot back to hotel just fine, dropped off our stuff, and headed for the Pantheon area for a late dinner. I had crepes and Carl had lasagne. And we stopped for cones of gelato for dessert. All in all, a very long day. The alarm had gone off at 5:30 and we didn't get the lights turned back off until after 11:30. Pompeii is on our list of places to return to some day and spend more time at. Next...