We climbed Mount Vesuvius and saw fire! But wait I'm getting a head of myself...
The day started early, i'm seeing a pattern here, and we found Jess' sock! It was inside my t-shirt so now she can quit worrying about having to wear only one or odd ones.
We left the motel at 6:30am and headed towards what we thought was Piazza del Popolo. unfortunately the streets in Rome were rebuilt quickly after the many wars and so the streets aren't so obvious and definitely not uniform like ours. We finally realized we had completely turned ourselves around and instead of heading north we were going south! Turning the map in the direction we were heading (at Jess' request) we started backtracking and finally made our way to the Piazza just in time to meet our tour group. Onto the bus and ready for a 3 hour drive to Pompeii.
Naples and Pompeii are beautiful. Surrounded by mountains, Mount Vesuvious mainly, and the bay on the other side we learnt some history about the conquering and fighting that took place some 2000 years ago between the Romans, the Greeks and the Samites and everything in between.
Our tour guide also said we were having Napolian Pizza. Apparently very different from Roman Pizza. Romans like theirs thin with burnt edges and the Napoli people like there's with crust and not so burnt.
The word pizza in Latin meant flat bread. Used to test if your oven was too hot or not hot enough. Then they thought, we don't like wastage, so started adding toppings.
The Margherita pizza was invented in Naples in 997 AD when the king and queen were travelling through their land. The queen had heard about pizza that the locals were eating. She hired a Naples chef to make her this pizza and he was so nervous that pizza was so basic and a poor mans food that he decided to make it patriotic like their flag - base, red tomato sauce, white mozzarella cheese and green basil leaves. The queen loved it so much that they named it after her.
We met our Pompeii tour guide outside the city walls and he began to tell us about the city and the people that inhabited it. Pompeii used to be on the coast and the river and it also had rich lands because of the volcanic soil making it desirable to all (Romans, Greeks, Samites). When Mount Vesuvious errupted in 74AD the city was blanketed in volcanic ash which soffocated and encased most of the inhabitants. Others died from sulphur monoxide positioning. The eruption of Mt Vesuvious lasted 2 days and 2 nights. The massive cloud of ash hung in the air for 3 days and blocked out the sun. The town of Naples was only saved from the destruction because of the wind direction blowing most of the ash cloud over Pompeii. After the explosion and the city was covered Pompeii lay hidden for another 1700 years because not one could find it.
Before the the eruption Mount Vesuvious was twice as high as it currently is and 10 times as wide and sure the Romans had maps of where Pompeii was that was before Mount Vesuvious decided to scatter half of itself over the countryside and ultimately create more land in the ocean making Pompeii no longer next to the ocean or the river. It really was a great experience to walk along streets and see remains of buildings over 2000 years old!
Back into the bus and off to lunch. Of course Pizza! We met a lovely Canadian couple who were near the end of their trip through Europe. They gave us some good tips and we told them all about Australia. They have been to Australia before but we had fun telling them about kangaroo in our backyard. We couldn't resist :)
Full and ready to go we headed for Vesuvious. A scary mountain road awaited us though our bus driver was very skilled and managed to even reverse at one stage allowing another bus to pass us. At the middle of the mountain we began our trek, we started off quick and then it quickly became apparent that we aren't as fit as we thought (pizza and beer for lunch didn't help) and had to take it slower. The climb was 25 mins at an angle of 14 degrees. A good cardio work out. With the end in sight, our pace quickened with the excitement of seeing the crater.
We saw fire!! Not in the crater but burning on the side of the mountain. The volcano has no lava or smoking rocks visible from the top. The lava is buried under 7km of rock as the last eruption basically collapsed into itself as well as exploded all over the countryside. Our tour guide mentioned that the next major eruption is due in the next few decades as Vesuvius eruptes every 2000 years. There was a small eruption in the 1940's but little damage was done. In 1995 the area surrounding Vesuvius was declared a national park to stop people building too close to the volcano. There are some shops and homes built in the 'red zone' but that is at their own risk prior to 1995. From the top gives a beautiful view of Naples, the bay and other mountains in the area.
On the way back down we dropped off our walking sticks (ha ha not like old people, mountain walking sticks) and Jess received a piece of lava rock for me making a donation for the use of the sticks. Pretty good seeing we were going to buy a piece anyway.
Covered in a thin layer of dust from the mountain, we climbed on to the bus again and a 3 hour drive to the hotel.
On the way down the mountain we were stopped because of the bush fire we saw from the top as it was close to the road. There were a few firies trying to put it out and it was funny listening to the Americans on the bus saying how the flames were on the road! Mind you it was an ankle height flame, obviously haven't seen a real bush fire before.
On the motorway on the way back to Rome I spotted a blue Lamborghini police car. I would've taken a picture but it was going too fast. Good luck to those crims....
Back to our hotel, showered and time to do some people watching from our hotel room overlooking the Piazza and Pantheon. Last night they had performers in the street until late playing music and doing mime acts. There was one poor excuse for a flash mob who all turned up together and it was just sad.
Buena notte for tomorrow we explore Rome.