Journey with Jeff and Deb

We woke up today to a beautiful view of Naples, Italy.  The sailing has been smooth and quiet. It is
amazing how one does not even know that they are aboard a ship.

We ate breakfast early and departed the ship for our
excursion.  We met our fellow tour participants
at 8 AM – Jack, Bobbie, Barry, and Karen. We met Genarro, our driver, who was
supposed to be English speaking.  From
the beginning it was apparent that his English was limited. We did not start
out on the right foot because when he pointed out an old fort and I began with
my usual question, “ What year it was is built?” Not good. That was beyond his
English vocabulary.  He simply repeated
the name of the fort several times, each time followed by “yes?”  Genarro was very friendly and tried hard to
answer our questions and understand our plan for the day, but his Italian
accent was very heavy and communication was limited.  He was, however, a good driver – more on that
later.

We travelled from Naples, the third largest city and second
largest port in Italy, down along the absolutely beautiful Amalfi coast.  My words cannot describe, and even the
pictures will not do justice to, it’s beauty! The day started out hazy, then became
sunny, and finally ended with a thunderstorm. 
Genarro said that this was a typical day in Naples.

At our first stop we had a view of Mt. Vesuvius, which is
the only active volcano Italy.

We then continued on through another town until we arrived
at Sorrento, one of the larger towns on the coast.

On we continued to another stunningly picturesque town –
Positano, a small (pop. 4,000) beautiful town on the side of a cliff.  Here we stopped, shopped, (yes, something, I
like to do – trying to find the right thing for everyone), and had a gelati (Of
course we had gelati.  We are still in
Italy.)  Sophia Loren has a cliff-side
mansion here which she can not use because she is unable to return to Italy due
to tax evasion – so it’s available.

We continued south to the town of Amalfi.  The road along the coast to Amalfi is narrow,
very curvy and treacherous, filled with traffic of all kinds – cars, vans,
turcks, large tour buses, and of course…scooters with crazy drivers, winding in
and out of traffic!  You never knew what
would be coming around the next curve, or on which side of the road it would
be.  [ I (Jeff) was riding in the front
with Genarro, which was awesome.  I would
like to come back to Italy and drive on this road.  Deb says no way! ]  Genarro, although not good in English, was a
great driver, maneuvering along this road effortlessly and calmly – he has been
doing this for 22 years. 

In Amalfi, we turned and headed for Pompeii.  In and around Amalfi are countless lemon
groves, trees filled with some of the largest lemons we have ever
seen!  This entire region is known for
its limoncello liquor.

On the way to Pompeii
we came across a young goat herder alongside the road. Unfortunately the camera
was on a wrong setting so we do not have any pictures. He had large black and
white goats with long ears, some with cowbells. One with a very large, 12-inch
bronze cowbell (I guess they were goat bells)! Perhaps he was the lead goat.
Also there were two white goat-shepherd dogs. I assume they were goatherds
rather then shepherds since these were herding goats. They were very attentive
to keep the goats from the road, but they themselves were reprimanded by their
master for going into the road.

When we arrived at our destination of Pompeii, we toured
this vast ancient sight for 2 ½ hours, which was not nearly enough time for all
there was to see. This city of 20,000 was unexpectedly covered with volcanic
ashes and soot on June 24, 79 AD, when the volcano that formed Mount Vesuvius
unexpectedly erupted.  Apparently, it was
not know to the inhabitants that this nearby mountain was actually a volcano.
The city was covered with more than 21 feet of volcanic material which fell
from the sky.  Interestingly, no lava
flow reached Pompeii, but did cover nearby Herculaneum. The city was forgotten
and lay covered with dense vegetation until 1738 when someone was digging a
well in 1738, and found the first remains of the city.  Extensive excavation revealed a remarkably well-preserved
Roman city, exactly as it had looked in 79 AD.

Pompeii road

The Roman roads within the city are dotted with tiny white
stones that reflected the moonlight to help light the path at night. You can actually
see the chariot grooves in the stones that had been in place for more than 500
years before the eruption. They placed stepping-stones to cross the streets,
which allowed for water to be channeled down the street when there were heavy
rains. There were houses, some very large with bedrooms, elaborate courtyards, and
gardens within the house.  The streets
were lined with gardens, shops, a bakery, brothel, men and women’s public baths
with separate facilities for men and women, and a huge theater. The Gran Teatro
was built in the 2nd century BC and held 5000 people. This building
held various events from drama to gladiatorial contests.

Houses

Bakery

courtyard in a large home

Theater

The Foro (the large town square) was surrounded by the temples to the Roman gods – the temples of Apollo, Jupiter, and Vespasian – along with public buildings, food markets, and the basilica (government offices).

Temple of Jupiter

Pompeii forum

Life in this city existed from 500 BC until 79 AD.  What amazed us was the level of preservation
of this town – the structures, the artifacts that told of life in the city at
this time: a snapshot in time of the lives of these people – people living in
community, working, and worshipping – no different than our world today.

Seeing the evidence of the their worship of Roman gods
reminded me of what Paul and the apostles encountered as they went out from
Jerusalem with the message of the Good News. They entered towns where there was
no temple to the true God. Was there any synagogue in this city? Paul probably
never visited this city. But there were many Christians who resided in the city
of Rome as we know from Paul’s letter to the Romans, so perhaps the message of
the crucified, risen Jesus Christ had come to this city prior to it’s
destruction.

We then drove back to Naples in time to get on board the
ship and get dressed for formal night in the main dining room.  We enjoyed our day with our new-found friends from New York and Bluffton, SC (it’s a small world).  The
entertainment in the theater was the Captain’s welcome aboard toast, where we
were introduced to the Captain and crew. The Captain is Dimitrios Kafetzis from
Athens, Greece, a very entertaining, humorous 39 years plus 24 months old man (as
he told it).  The entertainment was a
compilation of musical numbers from Broadway shows. Not Jeff’s favorite, but I
enjoyed most of the songs.

We are back to retiring after midnight…we are getting too
old for this.

Buona Notte.