Sicily, the Amalfi Coast and Rome

Mike and Judy Henderson
September 18 - 28, 2018

I'm going to leave the map on each web page so you can see where we are.

9/20/2018 (Thursday) We leave Rome today.  We had our baggage out by 7:30am and met the bus at 9.  We drive to Naples and Herculaneum. 

Along the way, we passed the Monte Cassino monastery, which is known because of its destruction in World War II.  It's obviously been rebuilt since the war.

We stopped at a restaurant close to Naples and had a very nice Italian lunch.  Then we continued to Herculaneum.

Herculaneum was destroyed by pyroclastic flows from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD which buried the entire city.  Looking at the ruins, I'd guess that it was buried under more than 20 meters of ash.  Pompeii, perhaps more familiar than Herculaneum, was destroyed in the same eruption.

Very little of Herculaneum has been excavated, probably because a new city was built on top of it and excavating will require demolishing existing homes.  Here's a panoramic view of the existing excavation.

I visited Pompeii almost twenty years ago and I found Pompeii more interesting and informative than Herculaneum.  The area of excavation at Pompeii is much larger, and it showed a lot about how life was back in 79AD when the inhabitants were frozen in time by the ash fall.  The residents of Herculaneum had a bit of time to attempt to flee, but were trapped by the lava flow, making the remains somewhat different.  One difficulty we had was understanding the strong accent of our local guide, so it was hard to follow the narrative.

As a side note, erotic art was found at both Pompeii and Herculaneum, proving that the present generation did not invent sex.  Follow the link or do your own searches if you'd like to know more. 

Here's Mount Vesuvius looming over Herculaneum.  There's no indication that it's going to erupt anytime soon.

When we left Herculaneum we headed directly to the port area to board the ship, Le Ponant.  The way the ship was docked I couldn't get a picture, so here's one I took later.

On arrival at the port we had to clear security.  However, they weren't too worried about a bunch of old people and we passed through quickly.

The captain was there to greet us.

Our cabin is small but very comfortable.  We have the second largest cabin on the ship, 145 sq. feet.  It had a bed for a third person but the three people would have to be very good friends to coexist in the cabin.

And looking toward the door.

As on every ship, the first thing was the safety drill.

Judy modeling the latest in floatwear.

Then we headed out to sea.  The pilot boat came along side to take off the pilot.

Easy transfer - the pilot just stepped off our ship to the pilot boat in calm seas.

After we got settled we had a welcome meeting with the crew and the tour guides in the main meeting room.  Then it was time for dinner on the rear deck of the ship

Our adventure continues here