Our Week in Italy (Part Two)

I took this photo at Pompeii. See that mountain way in the background on the right hand side? That's Mount Vesuvius. On August 24, in the year 79 A.D., Vesuvius erupted and the city of Pompeii was destroyed.

On our second day in Italy, we took the train from Sorrento to Pompeii, which was about a 30 minute ride. The ruins of the ancient city are near the modern city of Pompeii, and the area is surrounded by mountains.


This is part of our group, as we found our way around the ruins of Pompeii. Two of our men wore red baseball caps, which helped us find them when they got lost in a crowd!




The ancient city of Pompeii was surrounded by walls. There were public areas, including large forums and a central market. It included temples, theaters, shops and cafes. There was an amphitheater and a palestra where sporting events were held. The residential areas contained the homes of wealthy citizens who owned grand villas with elaborate mosaics and beautiful gardens, as well as more modest homes of ordinary citizens.


These photos show the remains of the central Forum, which covered 58,000 square feet.


On one side of the Forum was the Temple of Jupiter.



Some of the details that remain today:







The photo below is a mosaic in the entryway of one of the homes of the wealthy. It says "Beware the Dog".


This mosaic is on the floor of the center court of another home:


The courtyard of a wealthy persons home (the statue is a reproduction).


Mosaics on part of another villa:


Elaborate gardens on the grounds of a grand villa... a very wealthy owner!



Detail on a public water trough:


As we were standing in Pompeii, I had this view of a church steeple in the neighboring town. For some reason, this intrigued me:


We didn't have the time or the energy to see the entire city. And more is being excavated today! It was a fascinating look into history.

More posts to come: Driving the Amalfi Coast, Positanto, and Capri

Our Week in Italy (Part One)

Here we are, with our traveling companions, having a glass of wine, last week in Sorrento. You can see that the sun was bright and the sky was blue. (That's me on the right, shading my eyes.) Sorrento is in Southern Italy, on the Gulf of Naples. Everywhere you look there are sea views:




And motorcycles:


And lemon trees:


And buildings perched on hills:




We traveled with two couples, friends from Philadelphia. Every night we tried the local food in a different restaurant. Here are we, the three women in the group (that's me in the purple).



And here are our husbands... watching a soccer game (romantic devils!).


Fruit vendors with their carts, selling lemons, oranges, and artichokes. Some of the lemons are as big as footballs!


And little Tweetie vendors, too:


Everything is on a hill. I took this photo while I was standing on one street, looking down on another street. All the sidewalks are very narrow, so that we had to walk in a single file most of the time, with little cars and motor cycles whizzing past us, inches away. Wow! That took some getting used to!


Every night, when we returned to our hotel, we toasted ourselves at this little bar for surviving the streets and the hills.


Our hotel is owned and run by a family with an Italian husband and a French wife, their adult children, brothers, sisters, and uncles. Every worker in the hotel is a family member, and they made us feel like family too. They were gracious, charming and helpful. At breakfast our first morning, I broke a front tooth. The hotel owner called their dentist and made me an appointment. They drove me there, waited while the tooth was fixed, then brought me back to the hotel.

This post is about our visit in Sorrento. During the week, we also visited Pompeii, and drove the Amalfi Coast to Positano, and took a ferry to the island of Capri. More about those in posts to come!

Ciao!

We had a wonderful week in Italy! We just got home. I have many stories to tell and many photos to share. That will have to wait a day or too, though. I really need to put my feet up and relax right now. Flying across the Atlantic wears me out! But, believe me, it was well worth it.

Italy

Well, They Got Me Again!

Last week, after I watched "Lost" I was turned off. It was dark. Some of the characters were "undead" and looked like zombies. That's not my cup of tea. I had always loved the show because of the characters. The way they were written; they way they were developed. There wasn't much of that evident in last week's episode.


This week was just the opposite. It was totally character-driven, and it was even heart-warming. It revolved around Ben. Ben is played brilliantly by Michael Emerson, who won an Emmy for the role.


Ben has always been a character that we loved to hate. He claimed to be "one of the good guys", but he was consistently manipulative, deceptive, and double-crossing. He was an enigma from the very beginning, when he first appeared claiming a false identity.


Last night showed a hint of Ben's redemption. He forgave and was forgiven, and the acting was just amazing. I have no idea what the future brings for the character of Benjamin Linus. But I am watching again. As long as Michael Emerson is on the screen, I will be watching.

Things I Can't Say

I will come back. Right now I am processing how to mentally handle a situation that I have no power to change. Remember the Serenity Prayer? It says, "God grant me serenity to accept the things I can not change; courage to change the things I can; the wisdom to know the difference". Right now I am struggling with the first part... trying to accept things I have no power to change.


It involves money, and someone who seems to think that money grows on trees. This is weighing heavily on my mind. I am trying to deal with it gracefully. But I worry about retirement. At the time we should be preparing for it, I see it slipping away...

I Feel Like This

I love this photo. It expresses how I feel. My last three posts and not one comment. I guess no one is reading here any more. I will stay away for a while.