Reflecting on Pompeii and Sorrento

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For dinner the night before our return to the Italian mainland, Sharon had booked us reservations at the popular Tamarind; but, John was overwhelmed by too many Asian delights. Starting with the dumpling soup, John continued with 2 appetizers featuring lobster and shrimp, a scallop entrée, and topping it off with chocolate ginger mousse in dark chocolate cup. Sharon had the wasabi encrusted filet and of course the chocolate ginger mousse as well. The food was outstanding, and clearly, this venue is worth trying, even for those not fully enthusiastic about Asian fare.
After dinner, we stopped in the showroom and sampled the Benny Goodwin band… and afterwards tried luck at casino. Sharon found her two machines, and had modest luck; while, John should have skipped the casino today. Silly songs were featured in the piano bar… we still haven’t found our mojo in these trivia contests. It was now time to go bed with the start of our big days on the mainland.
Morning began in the Lido with a couple of Belgian waffles. Then off to the Showroom to meet the tours. We knew instantly that we had a great guide and he made the day’s tour truly great. He apologized for not being a native from Naples… he’s Sicilian. He said in Naples they have a saying, if you come across a wolf and a Sicilian, shoot the Sicilian first.
We drove up coast to Sorrento passing by the busy port and industrial area of Naples, the second busiest in Italy after Genoa. To the East we passed by Mt Vesuvius on the left side (inland) of the bus as we crove South from Naples and saw Capri Island to the West. We continued on past some scenic beaches, including “Famous Beach” and “Bikini Beach”, black sand beaches from the volcanoes. Our guide informed us that only Mt. Vesuvius is active with a regular cycle of eruptions every 66 years. The last eruption was in 1944. He told us to do the math. Pompeii was not destroyed by lava, as was Herculium, but by gas and ash/rock fall. Ash covered the city up to 65 feet in places. But because lava didn’t destroy Pompeii, it was perfectly preserved for archeologists many years later. Only the roofs of the buildings were collapsed due to the weight of the ash.
Our guide told us of a famous author from the area who specialized in the short story. When addressing a class as a guest speaker, the professor at the local college asked, what are the key ingredients that he likes to use to make up a short story? His response: A little religion, a little royalty, a little sex and a little mystery. After the guest left, the professor assigned students the task of writing a short story following this advice, and was surprised when one student finished in just over one minute. Suspicious that the student could really be done, the professor accepted the assignment that read as follows: Oh my God, said the duchess. I’m pregnant. Who can the father be?
Coming into Sorrento we passed thru several tunnels (more on those later), and drove near the edge of the road with spectacular ocean view, over steep cliffs, and an impressive (straight down) vertical view to the sea.
The busy streets in Sorrento were bustling with workday activity, as we travelled down one-way streets with cars parking on both sides and barely enough passage for our bus. We were dropped off by the 2 arches near main tourist district. We stopped in to visit and hear a presentation at the inlaid wood store offering many handmade mementoes. We had about an hour of shopping, which for us of course meant more ice cream. The know how to make delicious ice cream around the Mediterranean… you won’t be disappointed. We met back at meeting spot and then it was off to lunch, a typical Italian meal of cannelloni (with ricotta and spinach, marinara sauce but no mozzarella (without meat I think I’d call this manicotti), then lightly herbed sole with lightly fried (in olive oil) and seasoned potato slices and lemon chiffon cake to top off our noon-time meal. Sharon passed on the pasta (too much cheese and red sauce), but enjoyed the sole and especially the potatoes… too bad we only got three slices. Even John enjoyed the cake, despite the lemon flavor, because it was very mild and not overdone.
Our return trip from Sorrento had to go up into the hills, by olive trees with nets to catch the harvest using back roads to bypass construction, and we then proceeded back thru those tunnels. Did I mention that we were sitting near the back of the bus with no one behind us, and that the longest tunnel took 2 minutes to traverse? I’m not saying that the tunnel was the best part of this tour… I’m just saying…
We were concerned that the weather at Pompeii would be blistering, but as we started walking the temperature was pleasant, and October may be a good time to visit here. And the walking was not too bad either on this cool day, with an occasional breeze, overcast conditions… still, there is not a lot of places to find shade out in the ruins (there are some) and there are fewer places to sit down. Even this time of year, there were large crowds, but I imagine summer would be worse. Remember, the cruise ships coming here are already winding down. The ruins are impressive, with many homes of patricians (the upper classes of Rome including military heroes). Some of the buildings were bakeries, wine shops, and temples. The largest patrician home we saw, belonging to a famous general was over 5,000 square feet. These homes all have a winter part neighboring the vestibule, a court with mini-tiled-pond to collect rain water into a cistern for washing, and then a summer part of the home including a central garden area. The individual rooms about the perimeter of each summer/winter part are small with tall ceilings and thick walls to retain heat in winter and keep cool during the summer. Walls are often frescoed with colorful outdoor scenes, though the years and ash have dulled their beauty. One import from British Isles used extensively in plumbing was lead (one of the few architectural mistakes of the Romans). Many engineering designs have endured the test of time… arches in building tall structures, water filtration systems using charcoal. Sharon seemed to enjoy her visit to the red light district, which our guide said could be identified by a unique symbol above the doorway (and no, that wouldn’t be a eunuch symbol).
We return to ship and got dressed for dinner: Sharon had the Leg of Lamb; while, John tried the delicious 4-onion cream soup, better than the walk-about soup at Outback that our local franchise in Valencia no longer serves) and had filet mignon with mushrooms. We both had the Opera cake (white cake with chocolate and almonds). The cake was quite tasty, just too many almonds for Sharon and not enough for John. It’s hard to please everyone.
The showroom featured Night at the Avalon ballroom, and was pretty good. In casino action Sharon continued her winning ways, and John finally had a really good session and more than recovered yesterday’s deposits. At the piano bar country music on the agenda, Sharon with high hopes of three-peating her victories on the previous cruises was amazingly stumped by such esoteric and seldom heard tunes such as Folsom Prison Blues and Oakie from Muscogee… Okay, John wasn’t much help either. They played a few notes, and this contest was name that tune.

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