Pompeii

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Nov 12, Today was another big one! Plan was to go frm sorrento to pompeii by train which is only a half hour trip, but alas when we got to train stn part of the track had been closed & we had to catch a train, then a bus, then walk (& drag our bags) up a hill & catch another train to pompeii. This all took ages but we got there! Able to leave our bags at train stn for small fee & walk down hill to pompeii site. Lots of tour guides hassle you but we had our book so went it alone. Weather good & not many people. Pompeii is amazing in that u still walk down the streets and get the feeling of the town, but both max and I disappointed with what little remained of the buildings frm what we expected. We spent bout 4 hrs here & decided to go bout half hour further by train to ruins of Herculaneum. Morg had studied herculaneum for ancient history & we had read that as it was closer to the eruption than pompeii, it was covered in mud not ash and therefore the ruins better preserved. This proved correct & we were sorry we didn't have longer to spend here as it was really good. The complete outside & roof of many 2 storey dwellings remained & good sections of mosaicced floors & some of the paintings that decorated the walls. But we had to leave at 5 cause we had to catch train to Naples and then to Rome where we r to spend our last 2 nts in Italy. Needless to say, we were again very happy to reach our hotel that nt!

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