Pompeii & The Amalfi Coast Drive

---

Up for breakfast at the hotel and a taxi ride to the train station where we caught our train to Naples. We met our driver in Naples as planned. Funny story here...our driver was talking to another driver while holding the sign with our name on it. In true Italian form, the driver was "talking with his hands" so expressively, that we weren't sure if it was our name or not because it was flying all around. A good laugh and introductions then off to the Mercedes Benz van to Pompeii to hook up with Stefano, our guide for the Pompeii archilogical site.

As you may know, Mt. Vesuvius (a pyroclastic gas volcano, not lava - the most dangerous type) exploded in AD79 erupting for 3 days and killing the inhabitants of Pompeii. Pompeii was not an especially important village; however, it was very typical of a Roman village at the time of it's instant death. The site was rediscovered in the 1700s and approximately one third has been excavated...completely buried by ash that turned to rock over the centuries. It is the instant death of Pompeii that has yielded a 2,000 year old snapshot in time.

Bodies were covered in ash and had turned to stone with the bodies decomposing within. Archilogists made openings in the ash stone and poured in plaster. Skeletons remained inside the ash stone and the plaster encased the skeletons. Then the ash stone was carefully broken away and removed leaving the human forms behind. Most are in a museum in Naples that we were unable to visit due to time, but we got pictures of a few.

The primary cause of death was asphyixation. One of the molds shows a person with their hands over their mouth as they sufficated.

We said goodbye to Stefano and Pompeii and on with "Jack the Driver" to the Amalfi Coast, not quite sure what to expect there.

We traveled through the town of Sorento and through a series of tunnels to the mountainous coastline. Our first glimpse of the Amalfi Coast was breathtaking. Basically, it is a rugged coastline with cliffs diving down sharply 1,000 meters to plunge into the ocean. There are anywere from 10 to 25 "terraces" where homes and roads have been built. The original road was built in 1840 for horses and wagons - it is a great engineering feat. Best we can equate it to is if you merged Pacific Coast Highway with the Going To The Sun Road in Glacier National Park you would have the Amalfi Coast Drive.

---