garyandpearl

Did you know that Europe has their daylight savings time change at a different time than we do? We got an extra hour of sleep last night!!Despite the threat of rain for today, we signed up for a tour to Pompeii and Ercolano. We were picked up shortly before 8 and Giuseppe and Andrea guided us to Pompeii to view the ancient ruins. Giuseppe was quick to teach us that when Mount Vesuvius blew its top in 79 AD, Pompeii was not covered with lava but with pyroclastic flow. Wikipedia says “a pyroclastic flow is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter that moves away from a volcano about 100 km/h on average but is capable of reaching speeds up to 700 km/h”. We managed to view a good portion of the site before it started to pour. Here are a few photos from the morning.

After a break for lunch, we headed to Ercolano (Herculaneum). This was a fishing village not far from Pompeii that was also destroyed at that time. It was a much smaller community that used to be a vacation spot for wealthy Romans. This location is much more intact than Pompeii, and we enjoyed learning about Roman life in the first century.

Here we are standing on the hardened pyroclastic flow and look down into the excavated village.

Mount Vesuvius

We were grateful to see as much as we did on a rainy day.

On our way back to Amalfi, I was reminded of our time in Peru when our bus met another bus and we had to back up the mountain to make room to pass!

We enjoyed some delicious Italian food again tonight!

Gnocchi

Lasagne

Scallopini

Sfogliatelle (Riccia) 

Phyllo pastry with ricotta, sugar, citrus flavour, and cinnamon. It was delicious!

Buonanotte (Good night)