June 11th Tuesday

Sorrento to Pompeii to Rome. Step count: 9690

Another 6am wake up today. Although the girls and I were all awake by 5:30 am today. We packed up our luggage and left it inside the door in our room as we headed down to breakfast at 7:45 am. The porter came and gathered our luggage and took it to the bus for us. A very nice touch. We had a fantastic buffet breakfast again at the hotel and then headed out to meet the group for a quick transfer to our coach for the day. Today we drove from Sorrento to Pompeii for a guided tour. Pompeii was actually build in the 7th century AD and then was taken over by the Romans when they conquered it. In 79 AD, when Mount Vesuvius erupted, it created a 34km cloud of ash and poisonous gases. The town was covered in ash and the roofs of the homes could not support the weight so the roofs collapsed and crushed people under the weight. The other people who were killed here, died from breathing in the noxious gas. Many of the castings discovered have the their hands over their mouths as they were trying to keep from breathing in the poison. In 1748 a farmer was digging to look for rocks to build with and the beginning of the unearthing of Pompeii began. At first they were just looking for valuables and treasures and later archeologist searched for things from a more historical perspective.. Currently about 3/5 of the town has been discovered and 2/5 is still being excavated. We actually saw archeologist digging and sifting through a part of the site looking for new relics. Everything we saw was original. Nothing has been reproduced. Mount Vesuvius last erupted in 1944. It is said that it erupts about every 50 years, it has now been 80. The locals don’t like to talk about the volcano as it considered bad luck. Pompeii is one of the top three tourist attractions in Italy. By the time we left, there was a much larger number of people than when we had arrived. We had a few moments to grab our souvenir magnet and then meet the group to take the bus to lunch. We ate lunch at the Tiberius restaurant and had a great meal. We were then back on the bus for the approximately 3 hour drive from Pompeii to Rome. This was an opportunity for many to take a siesta. It was also the opportunity for me to finally get all caught up on my blog. The pace of the tour is definitely regimented. We have some free afternoons coming up and we look forward to venturing out on our own. I will also take a few minutes here to let you know I tore my plantar fascia tendon exactly one week before we left for this trip. I am currently in a walking cast and a, hobbling my way around Italy. It has definitely been an additional challenge I was not expecting, but I am keeping up and rallying through. We arrived at our hotel in Rome around. 4:30p. We are staying at the Hotel W a Marriot Bonvoy property. They were extremely efficient on getting us all checking into our rooms and getting us our luggage. Valerie opted to take a long shower and Megan and I went to enjoy about an hour at the rooftop pool. Then we popped back down to our room to get ready for our 6:45pm dinner reservation. We had to walk just a couple blocks to the Aurora resteraunt. This evening we were handed their dining menu and were told we could pick any three items off the menu. There were about 100 items to choose from, appetizers, pasta dishes, fish dishes, meat dishes, pizzas and dessert. We had quite a variety of dishes and we all got to sample from each others. We had the pleasure of enjoying the company of our new friends, the other two teenagers, their grandmother and our soon to be neighbor from Santa Cruz. It was a wonderful evening and we just got back to the hotel. It’s 9:30pm and we are winding down. We don’t have to meet the tour group until 8:45am tomorrow. Breakfast starts at 7:00am so we can sleep in a little. We are looking forward to it. Can’t wait to share tomorrows travels with you then.