View of Naples with Vesuvius in the Background
How lucky could I get when we sailed into Naples! I had awakened early so decided to go out on deck and watch us dock and get some sunrise photos. Well, not only did I get sunrise photos, but it turned out there was a full moon and it hadn’t set yet, so I got a sunrise and a moonset! Both turned out really well.
Sunrise on the Port side
Moonset on the Starboard Side
In Naples, we contracted with another private driver and for this one we also got a guide for the part of the tour at Pompeii. The guide was Salvatore and the driver was Gennaro. The only problem we had was that Charlie was supposed to get enough money from the ATM to cover the tour but he got dollars instead of euros, and that was going to be a problem. We let them know right away that we would need an ATM, so I think they were somewhat worried about us!
The tour of Pompeii was excellent. This is the town that was destroyed in 79 AD when Vesuvius erupted. I didn’t realize how much of the town has been excavated. The large land area that we covered was amazing. It was a town of approximately 15,000, about the same as Cocoa Beach, but a lot larger in the number of buildings and facilities. There were a lot of shops, residential housing, two theaters, a gymnasium, spas for men and women, several temples to different gods, and more buildings than I can mention. I’ll have trouble deciding what photos of the place to put in my book. Salvatore was quite knowledgeable about all of it, and we only saw about half of it. He would have kept going but Charlie was wearing down–it was a lot of walking and he was trying to be a good sport, but I can usually tell when it’s getting to be a little much for him. The state has stopped all excavations because they can’t afford it any longer; and, we were told, the maintenance is quite expensive. It could be even a lot larger, we were told.
Temple of Apollo with Vesuvius in Background
After the Pompeii tour, luckily we had enough euros to pay the guide; but it became imperative that we find an ATM that would take Charlie’s card. I think Gennaro was as anxious as we were to find one. The rest of the tour was for him to take us to some photographic sites around the city, so we would stop when we saw a bank and try the card. It finally worked and it made all three of us happy. LOL.
Naples is a large city, and we certainly needed a second day to actually see any of the sights. I did take photos of the duomo, and the galleria, and the Castel Nuovo, but didn’t get to explore any of them. Got a nice panoramic photo from the top of the hill. Would have liked to have visited the fortress that we can see from our ship–supposely, a nice little village at the foot of it. Our last stop of our tour was to a “family” restaurant so we could try the pizza. Naples is supposed to have great pizza, but I would beg to differ. We had better when we were in Florence. Certainly if I were going to be in Italy again, I would like to see more of Naples. Lots of churches with paintings and scupture and museums. Our kind of sightseeing. We had heard some “not so good” things about Naples, so we were pleasantly surprised. If we hadn’t wanted to see Pompeii, I would have planned to explore more of Naples than we had time for.
Lastly, I’m going to include our going home adventures in this last entry in my blog for this trip. For those of you who have been on cruises before, you know that we had to have our luggage sitting outside our door by 11:00 p.m. and keep the essentials for the next day in our carry-ons. That’s so they can have them out an waiting for us when we disembark. Since we were getting an early flight out, we were one of the first off the ship, where we got on a bus to take us to the airport, an hour and 15 minutes away from the port.
The airport we went to was evidently Rome’s “small” airport because almost everything was inconvenient. It didn’t look familar from our last visit to Rome. Got off the bus, got in line for a security check. Left that line to get into line to check our luggage and get boarding passes. Left that line to get in line for a TSA check (or the Italian version.) On to the Gate where we waited for 2 hours in an area that only had about 50 chairs. When they called our flight, we got in line to show our boarding pass, went down 3 flights of stairs to the tarmac, got on a shuttle bus which took us out to get onto the plane by going up a lot of stairs with our carry-ons. Finally, got on for our 10 hour flight to Chicago!!!
The flight was good, they fed us well and gave us free drinks! Couldn’t believe that! When we landed in Chicago, got in line for the kiosks where they took our pictures, then we gave the customs people that receipt along with our passports. Had to claim our luggage and take it to a place where they would recheck our luggage. By this time, Charlie decided he could do with a wheelchair, so we waited for the wheelchair and then the attendant took us to our gate. But to get to our gate we had to go through the TSA line in Chicago. This is the first time we’ve been to Europe in a long time, and the other times we had nonstop flights so didn’t have to do all of the above for a layover, so it was a surprise to us! Then discovered we had a 5 hour layover (originally was supposed to be a 3 hour layover.) A 20 hour trip. But it was all worth it. I just learned never to let a cruise line book your airline tickets for you! LOL
Hope you enjoyed my blog. I liked sharing it with you and now all I have to do is rest up so I can get ready for my next trip to Yosemite. Glad the shutdowns have ended.
Never2Old2Go 