6/5 Naples Pompei and Herculaneum

We made it to stretch at 7 and stayed on for the body condition session. A restrained breakfast including their idea of a benedict consisting of ham and poached egg on  muffin with Hollandaise sauce.  Will have to assemble my own. We got ashore easily enough and walked to the station. We bought return tickets which, together with combined entrance and an audio guide (not very good) cost us about $25 each instead of $95 for the Celebrity tour. We took our time in both cities and made it back to the boat in time for sushi just after 5.30. Im sure J will flesh out the bits when she puts the pics in.

Dinner was very good and between us we ate frogs’ legs, salmon cooked and served on blackened cedar (“the best fish I ever ate”) and Tournedos  Rossini with mushroom and truffle. There was an embarrassment of choice for dessert but we settled for tart tartin with caramel sauce and a tulip of philo pastry stuffed with cream (ouch) and fresh fruit. J has besotted Omar Shariff at the adjoining table, who spends the meal engrossed in DNM with her oblivious to me and his wife - perhaps we should strike up?

We then took in the a capella act, popped into the ice cream (blush) shop for a sorbet and then caught the production show, which rated a “good”, without coming within range of MSC. Finally, we donned our dressing gowns and made for the sunroom, where we had a long healing soak in the spa and then flopped out in one of the enclosed cushion-scattered giant papasan chairs for 2. Very decadent.

Our cabin steward is a Nyoman (yes Balinese - means 3rd child of either gender) and was most perturbed that we left the DoNotDisturb sign up all day. We usually ony want the room done every second day (it wastes our time clearing and tidying before we let them in.)

Pompeii:  What a delight to finally see this treasure of a city.  It was so much larger than I expected and still is only about 60% uncovered.  As you always hear it is amazingly well preserved and even though a lot of the statues, mosaics and wall frescos are in museums, you really do get the feeling of the city with the houses, streets, bath houses, amphitheatre etc.  I won’t bore you with too many photos, just a select few.

This is carved in the road paving - I guess you can see what it is, pointing to the brothel

Stones to cross the road, carriage wheels ran between

Fast food shop

Ancient pot holes

Treasures

Herculaneum:  While Pompeii was covered by ash from the volcano, Herculaneum was smothered by mud and lava.  This is a much smaller site than Pompeii and the point of difference is that there is still a reasonable quantity of woodwork still in situ in the buildings.  The multilevel bathhouse is supposed to be the best found but unfortunately was locked up. Some buildings are 3 stories and there are some very good mosaics and frescos still in place.  Much of this city is still buried and restoration of the site is ongoing.  Modern Naples sits high above this old city on the layers of mud that encased this time capsule.

Looking down into Herculaneum from the current city level - below shows the coastline prior to the eruption

Another view from the current land level - with Vesuvius in the background

Some of the frescoes

Wood storage - racks with wine containers

PS -  Deep N Meaningful