Salerno – November 8th

This stop was another one of our “must sees” on this trip.  Salerno is a port city that was important

1st view of Pompeii from parking lot

for us because we had signed up for a tour of Pompeii, about  an hour and a quarter bus ride out of town.  Thankfully, our tour guide turned out to be excellent, and, in spite of having heard about Pompeii and Vesuvius all our lives, we were impressed by the very detailed tour of these amazing ruins.  Needless to say, this was another of David’s favorites!

Our tour began in the afternoon – an unusual occurrence for us.  This unfortunately precluded having lunch ashore which we like to do because it gives us an opportunity to meet the locals and get a feel for a bit of the local culture.

Original entry gates-imagine all the people
who went through these before us!

Pompeii was much bigger and more elaborate than we had imagined.  Excavations have been going on for almost 200 years, and a large area is exposed.  There is no sense of it having once been buried because in the areas we saw the volcanic ash has been completely removed and some restoration has been done. 

 

 

 

That being said, the details of the town’s life are

Note the wheel ruts

Various artifacts in storage

there – ruts worn in the paving stones of the streets by the iron-rimmed cart wheels, frescos on the walls, casts of the bodies of some of the victims, various household furnishings, etc.  There are streets laid out in a grid between the walls of buildings that stretch away in all directions.  One gets the sense of the size and prosperity of the town before its destruction in 79AD by the eruption of Mt Vesuvius.  

The mountain still looms over the town, and over 30 eruptions have been recorded since 79AD. Some of those eruptions have destroyed villages and killed people.  The most recent one, in 1944, destroyed a US airbase.  Nevertheless, at least 750,000 people currently live in the shadow of Mt Vesuvius. 

Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background

After the tour and before our return to Salerno and the ship, our tour group stopped for a chance to buy souvenirs, get a quick bit of food, or, in our case, enjoy a leisurely glass of wine and the company of our hosts in the café.    Unfortunately, we were a little too leisurely because it was time to climb back in the bus before we finished our wine.  What to do?  We obviously couldn’t take our glasses onto the bus, and we each had about half a glass of nice red wine left.  But, the folks at the café saw our dilemma and came to our rescue with disposable cups.  They poured our wine into the cups, and, after lots of “grazies” and “arrivedercis” we were on our way, sipping our wine during the ride back to the ship.