Pompeii and Mt Vesuvius

Many of you may know this but for a brief history lesson, Pompeii was a thriving 
commercial port city half way between Naples and Sorrento. Then on August 24th, 
A.D. 79, everything changed. Vesuvius erupted and buried the city under 30 feet 
of hot volcanic ash. Centuries later, archaeologists excavated it and are still 
working on it to this day. That's what I toured for the first part of my day. I 
included one picture of the forum area which was the commercial, religious and 
political center of the city. Note how clear Mount Vesuvius is in the 
background, more on that later. The ruins are huge. It would take all day if you 
walked the entire site and stopped at every site. I took about 4 hours to follow 
along with the Rick audio guide and got to see all the major sites. I also 
included a picture of the Amphitheater. 
 
So after that, I went to Vesuvius. You know me, if there's a volcano near by, 
I'm going to find it and climb it! Without having a car, the only way you can 
get there is by some type of bus. There were two different type buses but I 
opted for the one that had the monster truck looking vehicle that took you up a 
very bumpy back road of the National Park. I included a picture of the monster 
truck... cool! 🙂   After the bus ride, there was still about a 30 minute hike 
that was pretty steep but it wasn't too bad. As I mentioned earlier, all morning 
as I'm walking around Pompeii, Vesuvius is in the background just as clear as a 
bell with no clouds around it. And I should have learned from all my Hawaii 
travel that in the afternoon, clouds tend to gather at the tops of the 
volcanoes. So what do you think happened? Yep, right when I got to the top, a 
big 'ol puffy cloud engulfed the summit and I wasn't able to see the gorgeous 
view down to the Bay of Naples. Oh well... I did get to see the crater at the 
summit and included a picture. No, that's not steam from the volcano (Vesuvius 
has been quiet for about 70 years), but part of the cloud moving in. 
 
After that, I came back to Sorrento and had dinner (found this awesome pizza 
place) and walked around town and caught the beginning of a cool sunset over the 
town and included it here. That's all for now. Ciao!