Last days of Italy

07.04.09
The Fourth of July celebrations of independence passed by completely unrecognized this year, but it was definitely still one of the most exciting that I've had. We took a bus ride from Napoli through the neighboring towns to Mt. Vesuvius. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, destroying the towns of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabia around its base, and forming the present-day crater of Mt. Somma. Our bus took us up the slopes of Mt. Somma through dense forest and over Somma's ridgeline towards the cone of Vesuvius. We hiked the short way up to the edge of Vesuvius' crater in the warm morning sunshine admiring the view of the verdant green trees filling the Somma basin with their bright yellow flowers. The path sparkled under our running shoes when the sunshine hit the obsidian and crystals that were scattered on it from previous eruptions. Vesuvius has had four major eruptions in the past century, the last eruption being in 1944, and the crater is now about 9000 m deep in the center. We hiked along the ridge around the top of the volcanic crater, not being allowed inside because a drunk US marine fell in and died in the 80s; but we did get to go a little into it to feel the steam coming out of the vents and the warm black sand on the ground. There was no sign of wildlife on the volcano besides the faint chirping of birdsong from the forest below and little lizards that scampered among the volcanic rock. A lot of the girls on the trip were freaking out about falling into the crater, highly unlikely, but I thought that the gradual slopes of sand leading into the crater would have been perfect to sand board on...maybe next time :)

When we asked our tour guide about the best way to get from Vesuvius to spend the afternoon exploring the ruins of Pompeii he tried to tell us the quickest way to travel there and then ended up just offering us a ride there with him and his son after the tour ended. He was very kind, showing us a cafe where we could get gelato while waiting to leave, pointing out the train stations for us, and then taking us directly to the entrance of old Pompeii. It was like having one of our grandfathers with us; he never asked for any money and offered to buy us gelato with his tip money while we waited to leave. On the drive we got another tour of the region- just another testament of the goodness of the Italian people. Everyone was really jealous that we were getting a ride there and it was really nice not to have to be on the hot train both ways.

Pompeii was amazing. It was destroyed by a cloud of ash, poisonous gases, lapilli and white-hot stones by the eruption of 79, burying the city in 7 meters of debris. This terrible demise also preserved the city for excavation; 60 hectacres have already been excavated. The city walls are 3 km long, making this a city of ruins in which we had fun exploring, and of course we got lost. We had seen the Forum, the Basilica, the Temple of Apollo, Pansa's house, and the House of the Faun, and the amphitheatre by the time we found our way out again. The Forum was the centre of public life, serving political, commercial and religious functions. the large open rectangle was surrounded by the remains of columns and contained the remains of the Temple of Jupiter, that was eventually converted into the Capitolium. The Basilica was the stock eschange center and was lined with the stumps of columns that were about one meter in diameter. Everything else was just as impressive and it was interesting how there were molds of human bodies in certain parts of the ruins made by the archaelogical teams from the impressions the former residents of Pompeii left when they died. The inhabitants suffocated from the ash of the eruption, even those trying to take refuge in the innermost parts of buildings, which was extremely unfortunate but made for interesting archaelogical findings.

07.05.09
We spent our last day in Italy in Sorrento. This small oceanside town to the south of Napoli was exactly what I always imagined Italy would be like. The pastel houses and beautiful hotels hugging the sea cliffs were surrounded by a lush forest. Palms and tangerine trees lined the calm streets that were filled with al fresco restaraunts and gelaterias. I had bruschetta caprese for lunch- fresh mozzarella, sweet tomatoes, and Italian olive oil...delicious! We passed many pastelerias filled with fresh fruit pasteries and cream topped cakes that we wanted to go into just to admire the edible creations. From the main street you could see the ocean in one direction and villas in the tree-covered hills above the city in the other. We could see Vesuvius across the harbor and the cliffs leading up the shoreline with the houses perched on top looked like they had been there for centuries and just built at the same time. The warm sunshine was just enough to counter the fresh breeze coming off the harbor. The harbor was alive with sail boats and jet skiis, be it didn't detract from the calm motion of the waves curling into the bay of Sorrento.