Sorrento and Pompei

From Florence, we headed south-west back to the coast. We drove through country side Tuscany as we headed towards Naples (an allegedly big and not very nice town, that we wanted to avoid), with the idea of seeing Pompei and the Amalfi coast. The first town we hit which was close to Pompei was Sorrento, which is a big holiday spot for the Italians.


A view of bay in Sorrento


We found a good camp ground, and pitched our tents. The campground was really well equipped (camping is big in Italy), and had a good restaurant with really cheap food. I had the specialty of the region on the first night - gniocchi alla Sorrentina (gniocchi, tomato, mozzarella and basil) - which did not disappoint.

Dinner at campsite restaurant (taken by New Zealand hippie with shaky hands)


On our first day in Sorrento, we headed out to Pompei, the ancient city that was buried under lava and ash from the eruption in Mt Vesuvius in AD79. The ruins were preserved under 6m of ash, and you can still see the remains of houses, temples, apartments, shops etc, as well as walk down the original roads. It really was amazing. They also had plaster casts of people (and one dog) who were trapped and burned to death in the ash - pretty eerie. My favourite thing there was the preserved paving "HAVE", latin for "welcome", in the path outside the front door of a ruined house.


Ruins in the main square (you can see Vesuvius in the background)


The paved road, and facades of fast food shops (some of the counters in the shops were still intact)


On this building, you can just make out red graffiti, in Latin, on the top half of the walls, which is partially preserved - amazing to think it is about 2000 years old. It's the earliest graffiti ever recorded. There was a few spots with graffiti, then funniest being translated as "Chie, I hope your haemarrhoids rub together so much that they hurt worse than they ever have before", and "Celadus, the Thracian gladiator is the delight of all the girls"...


Another shot of the ruins, with Vesuvius in the background.


Ruins from inside a temple.

The area of damage from that early eruption was absolutely huge, ruining this whole, massive city. People, mainly farmers, still live in the area surrounding Vesuvius, despite the Italian government offering compensation to anyone who moves outside of firing range.

On our second day in Sorrento, we headed to a local beach surrounded by national park. We parked the car in the care of a local merchant who owned a 'milk bar', and sold his wife's home-made limoncello. We had a bit of a hike to get to the beach, but it was worth it... Secluded little stone beach, where we stayed all day and swam and sun-baked. Matt went on a huge swimming adventure - nice views and some hidden ruins to climb in.


View as we walked down. We were heading to left of picture.


Walking down


Heading down to our little cove


Bird's eye view of our beach

On the beach
Tired after the adventure

We tried the local's limoncello after the massive hike back to the car at the end of the day. It was a shot of really strong alcohol, flavoured with lemons and sugar... Bit hard to get down, but a local delicacy that had to be tried!