Arrivederci, Amalfi

My Mom and Dad toured Italy several years ago and raved about the Amalfi Coast.  Dear friends did the same.  "Nah, you don't really need to see that, it's nothing special" said no one, ever.  The Amalfi coast is unique, is stunning, is delicious, is aromatic, is warm, is refreshing, is relaxing, is an amazing place to put our feet up at the end of a long journey.  Only, it turns out, we don't put our feet up all that well- there is too much to explore.

The theater at Pompei.  Ian loved every minute of this tour.  Taking pictures of everything,
even the original frescoes that adorn each room of the brothel- a menu of services, if you will.
 Luckily tastefully done in ancient Pompei, such that he didn't "get" it!   

Original paved roads in Pompei; astonishing engineers, from the lead piping
for water to the houses themselves- one house was 9,000 square feet! With original
frescos and mosaics and statues.  It did not take much imagination to envision life in this
incredibly "civilized" city.  

Still a pagan city at the time of the explosion and eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D., this  temple
was dedicated to Jupiter.  Bust still completely intact.  Vesuvius, in the background, now at about
4000ft tall, stood twice that tall prior to the '79 eruption.  

The explosion of Vesuvius robbed the air of Pompei of oxygen and suffocated people with
noxious gas within minutes.  The ash softly fell on Pompei in the eruption that followed, encasing this huge
and vibrant city in time.  During the hundreds of years of excavation since Pompei's discovery in the 1700's,
archeologists would fill the molds where the bodies had decomposed with plaster, making these incredibly detailed casts of the victims.  You can see the expressions on their faces, which is of course eerie, but leaves you with a deep sense of the humanity in this place.  A rare gift when visiting such ancient ruins.  Again we were worried how the kids would take this sight, but as usual, we underestimate their understanding of life and death.

The frescoes are original in Pompei, another way of seeing the livelihood of this place. The ancient Romans had
a skilled use of perspective in their painting, something that would not be seen again until the Renaissance.  

The bath house at Pompei, with cold, warm and hot rooms, was luxurious.  They charged women more to enter because they spent more time there than men on average! They had hollow floors and walls to circulate steam through the steam room. Radiant floor heating, over 2000 years ago! The floors were all original mosaic, these sculptures line the entire room.  They had a specially designed ceiling to prevent the condensation from falling on heads.  Unbelievable engineers, with a lot of slave labor.

The crater atop Vesuvius.  Still an active volcano, the dangerous type which doesn't ooze but rather explodes, they promised us that they monitor activity looking for warning signs of imminent explosion... and it is only a matter of time.  They built the city of Naples, which is a huge metropolitan area, just a few miles from this volcano.  The current evacuation plan calls for evacuating 700,000 people- I don't see how!

The view from atop Vesuvius, Mediterranean Sea below with the Island of Capri in the distance.

Taking in the view after a hot and dusty hike up to the crater.  It was only 1km from the bus,
but it was straight up on loose basalt gravel.  The view was worth it!

A lovely walk to the beach

A gorgeous place for a refreshing swim.  Water so salty and calm
you can float almost effortlessly.  

Mozzarella smoked in lemon leaves in the middle.  I won the prize for healthy
dinner of the night, but it was long overdue after a lot of pasta and pizza!

No words... Jay Hurley, wish you were here.

The beautiful local ceramic craft.  If only I had just one more suitcase! 

Took a bus ride up to the beautiful hill town of Ravello; this view is the reward!

Amalfi has been the perfect place to say Arrivederci, or until we meet again, to Italy.  While I'm ready to be home after almost 7 weeks away, I am not done with Italy. There will be a next time!