Sorrento and Pompeii, Italy, August 5

One word to say about Sorrento is lovely. It is a small little town that reminded us of some of the towns we have visited on river cruises. It is very tourist friendly while not being trashy. It is built into a cliff (pic). It is certainly possible to walk (Chris and I did), but the cruise provided a shuttle. This would be a nice part of Italy to rent a house for a week or so and do days trips to many of the places near by (Pompeii, Positano, Capri, the beach etc.)

Our tour for the day was to Pompeii the site of a volcano eruption (79AD) that basically preserved an entire city under ash. Apparently the people died form asphyxiation due to gasses from the volcano, rather than being covered with lava or ash. I took a photo of one of the victims who died and was preserved with her hands over mouth and nose to help avoid the gasses (pic) – a bit creepy. The whole place is very well preserved considering. Pompeii was one of the best tours we have taken.

Getting to Pompeii was a whole other story. We started off as usual on a coach today with only 18 people which was very nice number for the group. Usually the group is around 30-35 and that gets a bit big. Anyway…the coach broke down and we had to get on the public transportation train. Luckily we broke down right outside of the train station (pic) so it was pretty easy. A cool experience with wouldn’t have had if all went according to plan.

After the tour we wandered the town and I bought a pair of shoes from a shoe shop (pic)where all of the shoes were being made right there by the woman we bought them from.

Then we has a pizza (very near the birthplace of the pizza), a caprese salad (looking at the island of Capri) and sampled limoncello (Italian lemon liquor.) There are lemon trees everywhere here with the HUGEST lemons I’ve ever seen - probably twice as big as regular lemons.

The evening was the same as every other night on the ship – a drink on the deck, another in the lounge, dinner, a bit of the show and the casino to end the night. The only thing different about tonight was what was in Chris’ hands at the end of the night. Take a look at the photo – it’s important to note that he started with much less than that.