Chapter 4 - DAY 22 - Sorrento to Rome

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Today we left Sorrento and headed for Rome, the eternal city – very exciting.
On the way we stopped at the buried city of Pompeii, we had a guide to take us through this amazing sight.

POMPEII
Not far out of Napoli we stopped at Pompeii. Pompeii was a thriving Roman city until it was buried under 6 mitres of ash and pumice when Mt Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. It was accidentally rediscovered in 1749 and has since been painstakingly excavated. The result is an extraordinary insight into Roman life 2000 years ago, and one of the world’s great tourist attractions – over 2,500,000 people visit the site each year. And there we were!

Again we had the services of a professional guide to take us through and explain what we were looking at; this has been a real asset throughout our tour. Even though we went early to avoid the worst of the crowds and had priority entrance to speed things up, the place was packed. Our Guide did and expert job of keeping us all together and making sure we saw all the most important sights.

Roman society at that time was incredibly advanced, they had running water in houses (unfortunately through lead pipes, which caused more than a few health issues), a sewage system, shops, parks, pretty much everything you would expect in a modern city – but remember this was 2000 years ago! Amongst other things we saw the bodies of people killed in the eruption and preserved, the expressions of terror on their faces were clear to see.

The overriding impression from our visit to Pompeii was just how advanced Roman society was. At the end of the tour we had some time for souvenir shopping and toilets for those who needed them.

ROMA
From there we continued north towards Rome, we had a lunch stop at Auto Grill – a chain of good quality roadside cafes – and reached our Hotel, the Anglo Americano mid afternoon. The Hotel is very close to the centre of Rome and of a good standard, if quite small. We are happy to have a small room to be this close to the middle of the city.

For dinner we headed to a local restaurant where we had an upstairs room to ourselves. It was a set menu starting with ante pesto then pasta, ravioli and a choice of mains fish/chicken or beef cooked in an Italian way. The food was absolutely beautiful and a great introduction to Italian dining. Speaking of food a huge ‘shout out’ for Italian tomatoes, we’ve had them a few times and they have soo much taste its incredible- it’s hard to believe they are the same vegetable as we get at home. Anyway back to our Italian dinner, all of the ladies got a red rose and a kiss on both cheeks from the waiter and a duo with a guitar and flute played a mixture of romantic and sing along songs – it was all very Italian and a great night was had by all.

We would gladly have stayed at the restaurant for the whole evening, but a Rome by night tour had been organised. The tour took us around all the major tourist hot spots so we could see them in a different light (night!). Because of the economic crisis not all the buildings we drove past were lit up, but the tour was worth it just to see St Peters Basilica and the Coliseum.

Tomorrow we do the city tour by coach/foot which will give us a more extensive experience. Brendan is determined for us to see all the big attractions of Rome so we will see how we go.

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Photos

The buried bodies of Pompeii
We could even se the expressions on their faces

The ampitheatre
Just an amazing arena, it's not hard to imagine it full of spectators drinking shouting and watching the entertainment below.

Italian Dining Experience
Great food, music and laughter on our first night in Rome

St Peter's Basilica By Night
what a spectacular sight