I was going to go straight to blogging about Rome but then I had all these photo’s from our visit to Naples and Pompeii so I’ve had to split it into another blog. :/ I try to keep the photo’s to a minimum, honest!!

So when we got to Rome we did a day trip to Naples and first stop was a castle made from lava rock with a massive marble entry. (It once sat surrounded by sea.)

Then a walk through the city and a big mall type building set out like a cross with amazing marble and mossaic floors. Yes, I took lots of photo’s of the mosaics too. I was going to share them but I have heaps from the Vatican. :/ Okay, maybe just one.

And people were just walking all over it!! If I had busted my butt making this I would have it roped off lol.

This (Piazza Plebiscito) was just around the corner and some guy had just recently sang there. I think his name was Bruce Springsteen. Damn, if only we’d been a week earlier!!!

Next we were on our way to the other side of this big mountain. Which was actually Vesuvius, the only active volcano in mainland Europe, and has produced some of the continent’s largest volcanic eruptions. Vesuvius is most famous for the 79 AD eruption which destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Though the volcano’s last eruption was in 1944, it still represents a great danger. It didn’t help that the clouds sat on top of it like smoke rising up before an eruption. It made us look twice! You can see it in this photo, a little way from the ruins.

It’s hard to believe this city was covered by so much ashfall. I loved the large lava rocks that made the roads and the big stepping stones in the middle so you could cross. In some places you could see track marks from the carts. The deepest marks were on the road to the …um…red light area! And it was at one of these houses that some original paintings were still visible on the wall. I won’t post them ones, they were a bit naughty. :0

Here is where a baker worked. They even found bread still insided the ovens. Burnt of course. And the wine bars with their marble bench tops survived really well. There were tracks in one spot which was for the sliding door! Clever. They also had running water through pipes, lead pipes mind you so a few died from poisoning.

Must be a tad bit scary living by one of these volcanoes. :/ But the tomatoes here were just divine! And wine too, so they tell me. 😉

Pompeii is famous for the casts the hot ash formed around victims of the eruptions. The unfortunate people suffocated on ash in the air, which then covered them and preserved amazing details of their clothing and faces. Not that we saw many, just three stored in this room. Here is a cast of one found.

We stopped by a rich guy’s house where many of his mosaics were still okay. Just trying to imagine how his home would have looked in its prime is hard but I bet it was stunning.

The detail in the mosaic floors was amazing.

So it was a big day trip for us but one worth doing. Next up will be Rome and then that’s all! But I just checked out my pictures….I’m warning you it might be a long one! :/

Then I must get back into writing The Promised Land. Funny how books don’t write themselves. :/ Till then, ciao!