Noon Report:

• Location: N 40° 50.22′, E 014° 15.63′
• Speed: Docked
• Course: Docked
• Weather: Partly Cloudy
• Temperature: 15º C; 59º F
• Wind: N 10 knots; 11.5 mph

After breakfast I got ready to head out on the morning excursion while Cheryl got ready to head back to bed. She’s caught my cold and is trying to keep it from spreading into her chest. I reminded her that the last time we were in Naples she was battling Bronchitis. I think this is a sign.

The morning tour (the Viking Included excursion) was a bus tour thru the city. I saw buildings:

and scenery:

and traffic.

The traffic was so bad that we weren’t able to get to the drop-off place for the “1 hour of self-exploring (shopping).” So the bus dropped us off close to the drop-off point – leaving just 1/2 hour of free/shopping time – half of us took the opportunity to walk back to the ship.
Arriving back at the ship about noon I grabbed a rejuvenated Cheryl and we had lunch before returning to the stateroom to prepare for our afternoon excursion: Pompeii.

It was a 45 minute bus ride from the ship to Pompeii. Our guide Vincenzo (“Call me Vinny”) gave us background and then led us thru the site noting the interesting spots.

We visited a bath (men and women had separate bathing rooms):

And the red light district:

And several public spaces:

2 1/2 hours later we had seen lots, photographed lots, learned some new stuff, and were footsore but happy. Vinny gave us a half-hour to adjust fluid levels and shop (we bought a magnet and a metallic shard from the Vesuvius eruption). Then it was back on the bus and back to the ship where we did a bit of blogging before dinner.

BBB tonight was a ‘worst yet’ venture (9/21) but we managed to crack Bruce up with our reaction to the fact that we knew that the Pillsbury Doughboy’s name is “Poppin’ Fresh” – so there’s some justice.

Then it was back to the room to finish up one day, add a video to WC123 (4/24/23) (It’s our quartet at the talent show.)

Tomorrow is Rome and our excursion starts at 7:45 so, time for bed.
Later,
R

Cheryl’s Factoids:

• Pompeii had running water for private and public toilets but no sewage system. The sidewalks, just like the pedestrian crossings, were elevated to ease the loading and unloading of carts and they were useful for not walking on the road, often dirty because of the garbage and animal excrement. Every so often large square stones were erected between the sides of a street so people could cross – but wagons also had to use the street so the stones were placed just far enough apart that the axle of the wagons could pass between the stones. An aqueduct was built to provide water into the city (using clay containers that dovetailed into each other to make a long clay pipe which was then laid into an enclosed “tunnel” area on the top arches) but once the water got into the city, they used lead pipes to bring the water to the various fountains and private homes. The lead pipes were slowly poisoning the people, but luckily the limestone-permeated water calcified onto the inner walls of the lead pipes. This lining kept the lead from contaminating the water.
• Mount Vesuvius erupted on August 24, 79 AD – Herculaneum and Pompeii vanished under a large blankets of rock and ash. The severe earthquake that accompanied the eruption caused a tsunami that destroyed even more of the city. It wasn’t rediscovered until 1938 and is now a UNESCO site. Mt. Vesuvius, unlike Mt. Etna, is considered an active “explosive type” volcano that sits on top of an extremely deep layer of magma—154 miles into the earth.