We had had a wonderful week in Amalfi, and were sad to leave, so we choose to leave with dignity by boat. which was a means of transportation we hadn't done yet. The trip took 35 minutes to Salerno, and it was 3 times as expensive as the 1.5 hour by bus, but it was a beautiful trip along the Amalfi coast.

The train station was a short walk from the marina, and the train to Pompei took just under an hour, so a short and easy day of transportation for a change.

We were staying at B&B Galleria, 10 minutes walk from the train station, next to the main square and 200 metres walk from the ruins of Old Pompei, so great central location.

On our way to the ruins we ran into a couple around our age from New Zealand, who were half way through their 3 month trip through Europe, and they loved it. They had expected to be homesick by now, but not the case - we are not home sick either!

The ruins of Old Pompei is located 8 km from Vesuvio (the mountain in the background) and covers an area of 163 acres. All of it still hasn't been excavated.  

On the morning of 24 August 79 AD a sudden tremor abruptly disrupted the daily routine of the 20,000 inhabitants of Pompei. This was followed shortly after by a tremendous blast signalling the violent eruption with a column of small stone rising over 20 km into the sky from the volcano Vesuvio. Carried by the wind, the cloud of small stones hailed down upon Pompei, submerging the city in just a few hours in more than three meters of materials. The roofs of the houses caved in killing everybody inside. But the worst was yet to come. At dawn the following day, the first flow of hot gas and fine ash hit Pompei and sealed the fate of every person and animal it encountered.

The hot ash clogged the lungs and caused death by suffocation. During the excavation, plaster was used to fill in the voids between the ash layers that once held human bodies. This allowed one to see the exact position the person was in when he or she died.

In the end, Pompei was left buried under 5-6 meters of ash and small stones in a desolate grey landscape whose only features were a few protruding walls.

Some houses are more well-preserved than others.

The big stones were pedestrian crossings, as the middle of the road was the gutter flowing with unmentionable things. The wagon wheels could easily pass between the stones.

It was fascinating and sad walking around imagining the lives of the people living and dying here 2,000 years ago.

The dust and the heat was washed away by a Campari on the town square.

We also made a trip to Vesivio, now that we had seen the damage it could do. We took a public bus from Piazza Amfiteatro, just outside the entrance to the ruins, and the trip took about one hour to the parking lot at 1,000 meters up the volcano. Then we had to hike up a gravel road the 1,000 meters to the crater.

Vesuvio lies 1,281 meters above sea level, and the last eruption was in 1944. The crater has a diameter of about 500 meters, and a depth of about 250 meters. 

Sign on the way down Vesuvio - Italians sure know how to make a point!

We can definitely recommend staying in Pompeii, as it is lively, quaint and the food is great.

All roads lead to Rome .........