The volcano erupts...

Sunday 1^st June

Today we visited Pompeii. The whole town was wiped out and buried by the eruption of the volcano, Vesuvius, in 79AD.  It is quite amazing to see so many buildings still standing (after being uncovered) and this is 2000 years later. We spent most of the day here and by the end of it were just putting one foot in front of the other to get to the exit. It probably didn't help being the fourth long day in a row on our feet.

The grand theatre at Pompei.
Amazing to be able to hear people in the stage area
speaking quite clearly at the back of the theatre.

Sundial at one of the temples.

One of the beds in the brothel - I believe there was a mattress
but still pretty uncomfortable I'd guess. 

Some of the 'erotic' paintings on the wall. The story is that they were a
bit of a menu and you could point at what it was you desired.

Plaster molds of some of the bodies found in the excavation.
They appeared to have been fleeing away from the lava and ash flow. 

The Amphitheater. Inside...

..and outside.

Now we are staying at a hotel in a place called Vico Equense which is on the Amalfi coast. The hotel is up a steep and narrow road with just enough room for two cars to pass. We made it up the hill with no problems but I’m not too keen to do that drive too often. We stood on our balcony looking out over the Mediterranean and watched, and heard, the public bus (small size) come up the hill, tooting at each corner. Then amazingly we saw a full size tour bus arrive at the hotel. It had a police escort up the hill that had come through in advance and stopped all traffic at the top of the hill. Rob overheard a couple of people talking at dinner tonight about the driver having scraped the front of the bus on one of the corners on the way up. 

The view from our hotel room.

While waiting for dinner tonight we heard loud bangs and eventually saw cannons firing on the hill across from the hotel. When we asked if it was something special they told us, no, it was just the Italians celebrating that it was Sunday. As we were eating dinner there were a couple of fireworks shows down in the villages.