Italy Trip 2024 - Mnt Vesuvius and Pompeii
Last day of activity - tomorrow we spend the day getting back to Rome, the airport and then hotel at the airport for our early departure on Saturday. This involves 3 trains, and a national rail strike has been called for Sunday - so good timing!
Today we took a tour bus out of Naples to visit Mnt Vesuvius and Pompeii. When Vesuvius had its catastrophic eruption in 79 AD, it buried the surrounding area in volcanic ash many many feet deep. Preserving the tragedy and the city in that moment. So it is a phenomenal example of a very intact 1st century Roman city of the sort that Paul visited all over the Roman world during his missionary journeys.
Our first stop was the mountain itself. The bus takes you up as far as possible and then there is a 30 - 40 minute hike straight up hill. The boys Apple Watches claim that all told we did 81 “flights” and 532 feet of elevation change. It was worth the view and worth seeing the geology… but once in my lifetime is enough. On the bus ride down the mountain we stopped at a shop, farmer owned, to sample his lemon products. Huge lemons that taste very sweet, wonderful lemoncello, lemon mozzarella cello ( sounds weird but it was awesome!) and a lemon baileys type brew. We were impervious to the hard sell because there is no room in the carry on luggage!
It was a gorgeous day the Pompeii archeological site; sunny, cool, not to many people. We were able to see lots of frescos and mosaics, typical Roman city streets, the temple and forum district. Very much like Ostia Antica, but wealthier. Huge estates with multiple floors, courtyards, pools, etc.
Praying that we can convince a cab to come and get us tomorrow for the short trip to the Pozzuoli train station 🙏🙏🙏. It’s only a mile, but all up hill and many stairs and we have 3 roller bags and 3 big backpacks 😱. We’ll let you know how that goes.
God bless, PB, Margery and Jacob
Standing on a street in Pompeii looking up at Mnt Vesuvius
