Naples - Pompeii - Amalfi Coast

We visited Naples (or Napoli) during a long weekend in June.  It's probably not a city that you would visit for the city itself, but when you put it right by Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast it's a great holiday destination.  Guidance that we received from tour books and friends -- don't drive in Naples, keep close tabs on your wallet, be prepared for dirt and grime -- was helpful (especially the not driving part), but actually in the right doses it was a very interesting city.

Naples was full of old, unique buildings.........

........and narrow streets. 

Naples traffic was very chaotic.  Here Grant tries to gather his courage to cross the street.  He's got the right of way in the cross-walk; the question is whether  the cars and buses will obey the rules.  

Naples is famous for its pizza.  The dough is fried, then toppings added and the pizza is heated just enough to melt the cheese.  Two things surprised us: everyone eats an entire pizza by themselves.  And the pizza is amazingly cheap.  Grant was in heaven. 

The National Museum of Archaeology houses some of the best finds from Pompeii and Herculaneum.  The guide books says that "it's famous for its unrivaled collections but also for its off-limits rooms, missing identification labels, poor lighting, billows of dust, suffocating heat in summer and indifferent personnel."  I can vouch for some of those comments; we went twice and the same rooms were not open each day.  Probably due to people not showing up for work.

The National Museum of Archaeology

Pompeii was a town of 10 - 20,000 people before it was buried by 4-6 meters of ash from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in August 79 AD.  People died from heat and toxic gas, not suffocation. Once covered the city was forgotten for over 1500 years until it was rediscovered in 1748.  Everything was extremely well preserved since it was not exposed to air or moisture.  The colors on the fresco wall paintings are still bright and the pottery is in great condition.

A scale model of Pompeii at the Museum.  It was open one day, but closed the next.  

Well preserved frescos removed from Pompeii to display at the Museum.   The Museum is filled with high quality pieces like this one.  

The theater held 5000 people.  Center stage was build on a hollow stone to improve the acoustics.   It really worked.  

The remains of homes that lined the street. 

A room of a wealthy merchant at Pompeii. 

She's got a rather surprised look on her face. 

In case you're wondering, Mount Vesuvius is still classified as an active volcano.  Our tour guide told us that there is an evacuation plan for the area around Naples.  She also said that she's lived there all her life and has no idea what the evacuation plans says she should do.  

Mount Vesuvius looming over Pompeii

The pot collecting spot.  The "body" in the back is really a plaster cast made when voids were discovered in the ash where bodies had been.  

More pots

Gladiator dormitory

Can you believe this lady's hair color?  Right out of Dr. Seuss.  

Stepping stones were used to cross the street since streets also served as open sewers.  

The Amalfi Coast lies south of Pompeii and is a series of rocky cliffs, small towns (that explode during tourist season) and beautiful views of the blue Gulf of Salerno.  It is best seen onboard a huge luxury yacht that motors from town to town.  Since that option wasn't available to us, we hired a driver who took us down the winding roads and through the maze of alleys in the villages.

The Gulf of Naples with Mount Vesuvius in the background

This portable fruit stand had a hard time making it up the hills.  

Beautiful flower arrangement outside the church

The lemons were big like the ones from Ft. Myers.

My camera has a panoramic function that is fun, but I probably need a bit more practice.  

Grant was having problems with shutting his eyes for photos.  This picture is a result of telling him to keep his eyes shut until I counted to three and took the picture.  His eyes are certainly open. 

The view of the coast from our table at lunch

Another view from our lunch table

Old fort tower along the coast. 

The Amalfi Duomo

In the crypt are St. Andrew's bones, brought here from Constantinople in the 1200's.  

The bones are kept locked up in here.  

We had beautiful weather for our drive....until the very end of the day.  It didn't bother us, we just found a cafe and had a glass of wine.  This bride wasn't so fortunate.