YOU DON'T SCARE ME

YOU DON’T SCARE ME – I CLIMBED VESUVIUS

Up early this morning for our day trip to Vesuvius and Pompeii.  What a trip it was; talk about ‘Bucket List’! So far this trip we knocked off 4 of our bucket list dreams. Swimming with dolphins, the Colosseum, Vatican City (including the Sistine Chapel, St Peters Basilica and the Vatican Museum) and now Pompeii and Vesuvius.

As we said in the previous post the weather here in Rome started out with rain but now the weather is glorious. Almost like home! Anyway, I digress.

Our trip started with a 3 hour drive in a terrific coach, with a fantastic tour guide called Darios. He talked us through the sights and customs of the route. Boy, did he have a wealth of knowledge and his passion for his country was matched only by his wealth of knowledge. He studied languages and is now fluent in four, with plans to study German.

He tells us that Italy has in the region of 80% of the worlds historical heritage and is continuously discovering new artefacts, with a consensus of belief that they have currently unearthed only around 50% of the available buildings and artifacts. One example he gave is the attempts by Rome to build a third subway line. It is hopelessly behind schedule and grossly over-budget because they keep unearthing new finds. The archaeologists then take over the site and often the government has to re-route the tunnel.

OK, enough  of my history lesson; sorry 'bout that! Back to our jaunt to Vesuvius.

We arrived before 10-30 am with the bus taking us up the  first 1000 meters of the mountain. The final 250 or so meters was on foot, a tough call for this unfit old fart! I made it though and was able to peer into the crater. Talk about a mind fuck! And the views of Napoli below was awesome to say the least.

Next stop was for lunch of pizza and salad with drinks included before we continued our way to Pompeii. Also tried the local brew, Lemonchella. Made with Solerno lemons it is a real treat to the taste buds for sure.

What an awesome place to visit and so well preserved considering its’ 2 millenia existence. To think we walked the same ground that the people of Jesus’ time was humbling and scary.

There is little I can say about Pompeii - it's all been written in the history books and for sure more will be written by better men than me. All I can do is post a few pics and hope you like them.

R.I.P. MY FRIEND