05/03/2025 – Thar she blows!
Morning came soon enough. Kathy, who had caught a cold, was a tad bit befuddled in the morning after some doses of cold medicine and had tea instead of coffee. The day didn’t get better. She was tasked with helping to navigate the roads to arrive at the parking lot recommended by the tour company; needless to say it didn’t go well. The first hour of the drive was along the winding mountain roads and Dave was actually having fun downshifting and accelerating into each hairpin curve in the 6-speed Fiat. But when we got to the City of Pompeii, chalk up another case of Google Maps failure. After missing turns and ending up on toll roads 3 TIMES, we decided to park the car in any old parking lot and just walk to the meeting point for our tour of Pompeii. Maybe that would clear out a few cobwebs. Google Maps once again blew its stack. We had left with plenty of time to spare before our tour was to start at 9:45 am. However, the multiple missed turns and “rerouting” from Google Maps left us closing in on the time we needed to be there. While walking in the direction of the rendezvous point, Dave put the location in Google Maps. Google Maps advised Dave that there was no way to get to that location! WHAT?? Dave tried several ways to get the place into his phone GPS, and nothing worked. It was time for good, old fashioned “look for signs, follow the crowd, and ask for directions” techniques. We arrived with about 5 minutes to spare. Phew!
The Ruins of Pompeii covered a much larger area than we realized. Our tour guide, leading about 16 of us through the jam-packed city ruins, spewed information out much like we are sure Mount Vesuvius spewed volcanic ash, pumice and toxic gases almost 2,000 years ago. We learned a lot, but we missed even more. Still, it was amazing to see and learn about how people lived, and died, in the year 79 AD. Pompeii, and the 4 other nearby towns covered by the contents of Vesuvius, is mostly intact just the way they were on August 14th, the day before the eruption. We can’t imagine what the people were thinking at the time, not having volcanologists to advise them. They had no idea they lived so close to an active volcano, that it would erupt, or how long and how deep the devastation would be. They were buried under 9-10 feet of ash and pumice stone over a 12-hour period. May they rest in peace.
We ate (a lousy) lunch just outside the archeological site and then made our way back to the lodging. We were both beat by the time we arrived, having endured heat, thousands of steps, and an insufficient meal. Dave napped while Kathy rested. We walked back to the restaurant we supped at yesterday and ate there again. Again, the meal was molto buono.
A quick jaunt back to our lodging and getting ready for our drive to Salerno tomorrow rounded out our evening. Buonasera!
