Naples, Italy--Herculaneam, Sorrento

We had hardly rested up from our day in Valleta when we were in Italy. Our first stop was Naples. First of all, can I say that the drivers in Naples are insane? We saw a mother driving down the street on a scooter with her toddler in front of her, both without helmets. When someone in our van commented on it to the taxi driver, he said, "That is nothing. Wait until you see a mother, father, and two or three kids on a scooter." We also saw a scooter and car accident. Both seemed to come out okay. Thank goodness most of the cars are tiny like this Fiat.



By the way, Dean is now on the lookout for an old Fiat. If you know of one, let him know.

Nearby Naples is Pompeii, the city buried in ash in 79 AD by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. On the other side, closer to Naples, is Herculaneum (Ercolano in Italian) that was buried by lava in that same eruption. Herculaneum was actually discovered first and the archeologists thought it was Pompeii. It was later they discovered the true Pompeii. Pompeii is huge. Herculaneum is not so huge, only because several apartment buildings were built around it and it is not possible for them to excavate further without tearing down the buildings. Herculaneum was a resort town. We decided to visit this one because of the time factor. It was pretty amazing. You could see mosaics, paintings, tile work that was preserved. We were only supposed to spend two hours here but were all so fascinated that we ended up staying there for three.



The only downside to three hours in Herculaneum were that we didn't have time to drive all the way down the Coast of Amalfi as planned. However, we did make it to Sorrento which was beautiful. Here are the bunch of us on the way to Sorrento.




At this overlook, we found all sorts of locks. I guess this is how you declare your undying love. You drive up on the coast, put your names and date on a lock, lock it to something and throw the key in the ocean. All is great as long as you don't break up (grin).



In Sorrento, we ate pizza. Since pizza was founded in Naples, we figured we should have it here. Very different from American pizza but also very good.



In Sorrento, we happened upon this little wood makers shop. He makes wood inlaid boxes. We bought Sidney and Kristina music boxes here. This man has been making these for 20 years, his father for 60.



Sorrento had some amazing wood work. I found a nativity that I would have loved. But everything is very expensive here, cheaper than Rome, but still very expensive. Not quite sure how these people afford to live.

Once again, Dean and I are going to have to come back here. We didn't make it to Capri or Positano which we would have loved to have seen. This is the downside to a cruise because the time is so limited. But hey, it's still amazing to have been here.