Naples, Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast and crashing a rental car...

Greetings, our journey has taken us further south to see something that I (Bill) have heard about since I was a child: the ruins left behind by the volcanic destruction of Mt. Vesuvius. What was a great loss of life in 79 AD led to the best place to get a first hand glimpse into how the Romans lived 2000 years ago.

Naples was our home base for checking out Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Mt. Vesuvius. Naples is a 1-3 hr train ride Rome depending on how much you want to pay... I'll let you guess what we did.

For some reason the train station in Naples has these giant snails, seems apropos 

Narrow streets in Naples make for interesting parking

Awesome Castle just up the street from our place in Naples

Some pretty fantastic coffee, and I don't even drink coffee!

Anyway, Naples is pretty much perfect for getting around to see the Vesuvius related sites. There are regular and inexpensive trains that get you to all the sites.

First up was Herculaneum, which was a wealthier community that had many large houses and for the most part was able to evacuate. Its the better preserved site because it was covered under so much more ash, around 60 feet! This additional ash curtailed early excavation attempts and allowed for more modern techniques to be used, yielding better preservation of the sites.

One of the straight roads, with sidewalks, for which the Romans are legendary 

Smaller streets, and higher sidewalks than we're used to... pretty much a product of their mode of transport, narrower streets work with the carriages and mules of the day and then you need higher sidewalks to keep the byproducts of the animals contained. While they claim that the streets were washed out daily one can only imagine how disgusting living in a town like that was. This is just one of many reasons I think we are fortunate to live in the age we do!

Kenzi pointing at the charred wood from 2000 years ago.

There is even charred wood in many places, that is wood from 2000 years ago! You have to walk down several long ramps to enter the site which offers a spectacular overview of what the town looked like.

Gratuitous selfie with the excavated town in the background, the new town behind it, and Mt. Vesuvius in the distance. Our apologies to the departed

Well preserved frescoes from 2000 years ago in Herculaneum

And the plaster cast of a child that didn't make it out of Pompeii

We also checked out Pompeii, the more famous and extensively excavated site. The size is impressive, so much area and volume to dig out.

In order to keep your boots out of the muck they have stepping stones to cross the street, but still allow the wagon wheels to pass through

In both of these towns the vast majority of people took heed to the days of rumblings leading up to the eruption and left. Around 2000 of the 20,000 people of Pompeii perished and around 300 skeletons were found in Herculaneum in what amounted to boathouses that were once right next to the ocean.

What is left of the ones who weren't so lucky at Herculaneum

After seeing the destruction we had to go pay homage to that which wrought the destruction: Mt. Vesuvius. This involves a bus ride up a winding mountain road, then a short hike on loose volcanic gravel. Easy going for such a spectacular view.

Vesuvius's crater, looking into the belly of the beast!

Spectacular view from Vesuvius looking out on the Gulf of Naples

After taking in Vesuvius and it's legacy we rented a car and headed further south to the Sorrento Peninsula, a rugged bit of land jutting out to divide the Gulf of Naples and the Gulf of Salerno. Driving in Italy is a bit legendary to me, in the past when I've rented cars in Europe they usually let you know you can drive anywhere you want... except for Italy... More on that later... but for now, here is a taste of what driving there looks like:

We scored an excellent AirBnB on a farm overlooking the Mediterranean:

And as if that wasn't amazing enough, the nice lady hosting us picked tomatoes and basil from her garden and our dinner the first night was a caprese salad:

Caprese courtesy of our host

She also threw in three lemons and a bottle of limoncello she made from her own lemons. These people are legit!

The goal in heading south was to go on a hike called the Sentiero degli Dei or the Path of the Gods. Its between two very small towns and was at one time was the means of getting between those town by mule. It offers unbelievable views and pretty easy going. We parked at one end and hiked it both ways.

Walking along the path of the gods

Fun pano shot on the path

So a mere 100 feet from our rental return location I manged to nearly kill a motorcyclist. He was well enough to leave and we were both fine. Backed up in traffic, had to make a left... The motorcyclist passed me on the left and hit me just after I started the turn. He said I didn't signal and then later admitted that I did signal, he probably shouldn't have been passing me as fast as he did. Thankfully he wasn't hurt, the car was a bit damaged and he left shortly after it happened. Hertz appears to force you to accept the collision damage insurance in Italy so I'm not liable for much and then credit card insurance should pick up the rest. A substantial reminder to me that I need to be careful when driving abroad.

Crinkled car, intact bodies, that's what insurance is for